Friday, October 26, 2018

Booster #14 is............

Allen Smith, Jr.  Thank you, NCAA.  One not-so secret secret in the Ole Miss football scandal has been the identity of booster #14 who was mentioned in the NCAA's notice of allegations against the Ole Miss football program. The NCAA placed Ole Miss on probation through 2020.  The NCAA claimed Rebel Rags gave free merchandise to recruits.  Rebel Rags sued the NCAA, Dan Mullen, and the recruits identified in the allegations for defamation in an effort to clear its name.

The NCAA filed a motion for judgement on October 16.  There was a little exhibit attached to the motion that  just happened to be the complete unredacted  NCAA Notice of Allegations that contained the unredacted names of all boosters, including one Allen Smith, Jr.  Junior is an attorney in Ridgeland.  The NCAA accused Junior of giving thousands of dollars in cash payments to Ole Miss recruits.

Ole Miss released the notice in July but redacted Smith's name.  JJ reported in July:

Allegation #16 states that B14 illegally contacted one recruit and gave him "$13,000 and $15,600" in cash payments.  B12 apparently worked for B14 and also delivered cash payments to the recruit.  The notices accuses Farrar of knowing these boosters were making payments to the recruit. Ouch. The alleged payments took place in 2014 and 2015.   Allegation #17 charges Farrar with lying to investigators and engaging in a cover-up of his wrongdoing.
Allegation #17 charges Farrar with lying to investigators and engaging in a cover-up of his wrongdoing. The NCAA's unredacted version of allegation #16 states:

It is alleged that between April 2014 and February 3, 2015, Allen Smith (Smith), a representative of the institution's athletics interests, assisted the institution in its recruitment of then football prospective student-athlete Leo Lewis (Lewis) by engaging in recruiting activities that promoted the institution's football program. Smith's activities included engaging in impermissible recruiting contact and communication with Lewis and providing him with between $13,000 and $15,600 in impermissible cash payments. In addition to his recruiting activities, Smith arranged for Phyllis Cole (Cole), Smith's employee and a representative of the institution's athletics interests, to make recruiting contact with Lewis and deliver multiple cash payments. Further, Barney Farrar (Farrar), then assistant athletic director for high school and junior college relations for football, initiated and facilitated Cole and Smith's recruiting contact and communication with Lewis, and knew at the time that Cole and Smith provided Lewis with cash payments. Specifically:

a. Between April 2014 and February 3, 2015, Cole and Smith engaged in impermissible in-person recruiting contact and telephone communication with Lewis. Additionally, Farrar initiated and facilitated the impermissible contact and communication. [NCAA Bylaws 11.7.2.2 (2013-14); 13.1.2.1, 13.1.2.4-(a), 13.1.2.5 and 13.1.3.5.1 (2013-14 and

b.   On six or seven occasions between April 2014 and January 2015, Smith provided Lewis with  cash  payments  of  between  $500  and  $800  using  Cole  as  the  courier  for  the payments.  The combined  monetary  value  of the payments was  between  $3,000  and $5,600.  Additionally,  Farrar  knew  at  the  time  that  Cole  provided  Lewis  with  cash  payments. [NCAA Bylaws 13.2.1 and 13.2.1.1-(e) (2013-14 and/or 2014-15)]

c.   On February 3, 2015, Smith provided Lewis with $10,000 cash. Additionally, Farrar knew at the time that Smith provided Lewis with the cash payment. [NCAA Bylaws 13.2.1 and 13.2.1.1-(e)

 The NCAA states in Allegation #17 (p.31) that Farrar helped Junior further the scheme and lied to the NCAA about it.

Ole Miss released the findings in July but redacted Smith's name. This website has been fighting to obtain the identity of the booster in Hinds County Chancery Court.  Chancellor Dwayne Thomas ruled that Ole Miss must provide this website with a copy of the unredacted findings.  However, Junior appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.  A release of the unredacted findings was stayed pending resolution of the case.

It's quite obvious Junior was playing games with the whole process.  He even granted an interview to an Ole Miss-oriented publication in August.   Junior defended himself against the NCAA allegations:

I provided documentation to the NCAA before Leo's third interview that definitely proved I did not pay him $10k, as alleged. I provided the "sign in" sheet for motion day that has my name on it for Hinds County Court in downtown Jackson, Miss., for 10 a.m. that day. I was there until approximately noon whereby I provided a credit card receipt for a Chick-fil-A sandwich I bought for lunch near my office at approximately 1 p.m. I also provided a sworn affidavit from a lawyer who was co-counsel with me on the case that I was in court that morning stating we worked in my office on matters related to that case until approximately 4:30 p.m. This objective and direct evidence proves I did not pay Leo $10k in addition to the time frame issues Godfrey discussed in his article.

Another thing that has really bothered me about this false allegation is that anyone who know me knows I am not so stupid as to give $10k to a 18-year-old kid who had changed his commitment two or three times without having a letter of intent with me for him to sign prior to paying him any money. Not that I am the smartest guy in the world, but if I was so inclined to do such a thing, which I wasn't, and coach (Barney) Farrar and I had this "grand scheme" going on, I sure as hell would have told coach to email a letter of intent before I paid him any money.
Kingfish note: It seems the NCAA doesn't care about Mississippi's good ole boyz.  Of course, the question remains to be seen whether Junior will keep playing games in the courts.



33 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are talking a few thousand dollars and that is all. At most big time programs the bidding starts about $50K and goes up. No wonder Ole Miss is doing so poorly; no players. The NCAA is a joke.

Anonymous said...

GTHOM!

Anonymous said...

I may be the only one who remembers this blog admin stating several times that the blog would publish the names of the boosters involved in all this crap. Good to see this one come out. Now....for the others.

Nobody should escape their due notoriety. Nooooobaddy.

Anonymous said...

Funny this comes out the day after Renardo Sydney says his Mom was paid for him to go to MS State. And two weeks after the federal basketball corruption trial says MS State participated in the pay for play scheme in that. MS State is an Adidas school.

Anonymous said...

MSU will get the death penalty for the adidas mess since it was on probation when it happened. They're toast

Louis LeFleur said...

9:39, there was an excellent story on NPR's FRESH AIR yesterday titled "Corruption, Scandal And The Multi-Billion Dollar Business Of College Basketball". It was an interview with Michael Sokolove, auther of "The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino". I was an eye opener for me, who is at best a novice at understanding how big college sports works. You can look up the story online.

Anonymous said...

No, 8:44, this is NOT 'a few thousand dollars'. Ten to fifteen thousand bucks is NOT chump change for a Mississippi-School-Recruit. We are what we are, here, and that's a chunk of change.

But, I'm sure you're in tight with the 'big time' programs.

Anonymous said...

So glad you finally caught your Moby Dick, Captain Ahab. That white whale must have done a lot more to you than chew off your leg.

Anonymous said...

Another thing that has really bothered me about this false allegation is that anyone who know me knows I am not so stupid as to give $10k to a 18-year-old kid who had changed his commitment two or three times without having a letter of intent with me for him to sign prior to paying him any money.

I know you, Allen.

And yes, you are that stupid.

Anonymous said...

I personally wish the in-state schools would stop ratting each other out. Let the player go to the highest bidder of his choosing. Our programs already have a tough enough time competing against the big boys. Let the Ole Miss and State bagmen bid as they please. If you lose, shake the winning bagman's hand and hope for better luck on the next prospect your school wants.

Anonymous said...

11:04,ding, ding, ding, we have a winner for post of the week.

I know Allen too, and with all due respect, he is that stupid. Allen's biggest problem is his oversized ego and arrogance. He wants so badly to be a "big dog", a "player", and someone "in the know" that I have no doubt he did this. His text messages on this deal were about as incriminating as they get, and his attempted explanations of those text messages to the NCAA were about as ridiculous as ridiculous gets. The attempted denials only make him look more guilty and more stupid.

Anonymous said...

These kids have got to be stopped. These selfish ass young thugs have corrupted our fine bastions of higher learning and are now casting their greedy spell over our most honest citizens, the members of the state bar. The NCAA and the courts of this country should do whatever necessary to root out these young con men in shoulder pads before they can take advantage of our most cherished of all...cheerleaders (young blondes especially).

Anonymous said...

Did he buy Timber leases?

Anonymous said...

Ole Miss is dirty to the core from the top down. Luke should have been nailed for all the under the table crap he was doing (first hand knowledge) but he slithered out. OM deserves this snake in the grass titty man as their head coach. The boosters are still handing out cash right and left today. When you mess with big time programs like Alabama, Clemson and Georgia and take their recruits, everyone knows something fishy is going on behind the scenes. I understand the ATM machine in one of the banks near Oxford was removed once the NCAA got a whiff of the debit cards being provided the Ole Miss players to use at this particular bank's ATM machine which was associated with a big time OM booster.

Anonymous said...

The cheating at OLe Miss paled in comparison to the big boys like BAMA, Georgia and Auburn. Lewis testified that State paid him $10,000. Redmond received a Mustang for signing with State. Now two basketball players have been identified as receiving big bucks. Loss of institutional control?

Anonymous said...

The cheating at OLe Miss paled in comparison to the big boys like BAMA, Georgia and Auburn. Lewis testified that State paid him $10,000. Redmond received a Mustang for signing with State. Now two basketball players have been identified as receiving big bucks. Loss of institutional control?

Anonymous said...

That’s some serious stuff there you know of 12:55 pm. You of course contacted the NCAA with your name, info, contact and evidence of all of this since they are incapable of finding it without you. Right?

Yeah. I didn’t think so.

Make up stories elsewhere and let the people who do facts do facts.

Anonymous said...

I mean every D1 school has rich alumni that I’m sure funnel money to recruits.

Ole miss messed up by having their own coaching staff tied up in it.

Anonymous said...

12:55 you are so full of crap, I assume Bulldog crap

Anonymous said...

Go ahead and argue among your backwoods selves. I will just be glad when the next football re-alignment arrives and the rest of us no longer have to make trips over to third-world Mississippi and its pathetic universities in support of our teams. There are no decent ways to get there, no decent places to stay, no decent places to eat, no decent places to go to the restroom. The Hondurans won’t even go there.

Anonymous said...

Your rival has some boosters who paid players, therefore they are evil. Your team is the epitome of amateurism and other Biblical values. “Thou shalt not pay employees for their labor.”- The Gospel of Rankin 3:16.

Anonymous said...

6:31- you must be from the most elite state in the south. ALABAMA, HOME OF THE TOOTHLESS! Home of the WIFE BEATING, DIP SPITTING, CIGARETTE SMOKING, KING OF ALL REDNECKS!

Wawr eagre!!!!?? or is it ROWW TIED!!!!??

Anonymous said...

Landshark triak lawyers are the WORST.

Anonymous said...

Allen sues the NCAA in 3, 2, 1...

He may not win but he'll sue.

Anonymous said...

This is all silly. Everybody does this stuff. I think we should go to a model of intercollegiate athletics where the only rule is at a certain age, say 25 for example, you no longer have eligibility. Other than that one rule, you can hold back, recruit using any methods necessary, pay anyone necessary, transfer at will with immediate eligibility, or do anything else within your institution’s means to assemble a winning team. It could be called the “MAIS model” of intercollegiate athletics.

Anonymous said...

The 'Everybody Does It' crowd is probably the same crowd over on the crime thread that mumble 'Crime is rampant everywhere'.

Anonymous said...

Leo testified in Kentucky at the hearing that he only got $10,000 from the Ole Miss booster, and $11,000 from the Mississippi State booster.

Anonymous said...

That's untrue, 10:35. The rules set for that hearing specifically stated that Lewis would NOT be questioned regarding any school other than Ole Miss since Ole Miss was the focus of the (tiring) investigation.

Anonymous said...

It is silly that our state hammers each other, limiting the success of both schools

But Smith is a total dbag wannabe, spoken from an ole miss alum that knows him. We have all
known it was him for a while, but maybe this will shut him up for a bit

Mahroom.. said...

There are quite a few on here claiming to be Ole Miss fans, regulars, experts, alumni and insiders. How about one or two of you go ahead and expose the names of all the rest of these bad-actor boosters since you claim (after the names are revealed) that you knew it all along. Challenge on BEARS!

"But, but...y'all do it down at Starkpatch too...in 3..2..1.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe someone is blaming "the kids".

Many of these "kids" come from poverty and adults are tempting them with not just trinkets but with money that would make a real difference in the financial circumstances of their family.

So, you are 17 or 18 and your single mother could pay off all her debts or fix a leaking roof or have a washing machine and dryer rather than having to pay the laundromat and you'd not be tempted?

I suspect you'd be tempted plenty simply by the trinkets of your own car or nice clothes.


And, yes, this has been going on in college basketball and football for a long, long time. It went on even in the days before professional athletes made so much many.

There are those , tragically even family members, who look at an athletically talented kid, and see dollar signs.

And, the dollar signs have more zeroes after them than every before.

In the beginning, the NCAA's investigating such practices aggressively was a means of keeping African American athletes from being recruited by colleges. And, even now, it's easier to recognize poor athletes by color than by their financial resources.

There are and always were poor white athletes and those from well to do families who were offered " enticements" and the sons of coaches were offered jobs.

The lucky athlete has coaches and family aware of the rules and who put the athlete's long term interests above any short term gains. And, that includes not having them speak out as the college fans of today, become the pro fans of tomorrow and big advertisers rather have an athlete everyone likes or their target market likes, doing their ads.

We live in a time where everyone sees the blemishes of others but can't bother looking in the mirror to see their own.





Anonymous said...


Allen is a plaintiff lawyer and not well thought of by other plaintiff lawyers. Think about that. Add in his doctor father spends most of his time as a "expert" advisor on medically related litigation matters. And brags about it endlessly. His father is an arrogant shark wonnabe as well. Allen jr get's his attitude naturally.

I was in the Mayflower one night when Allen Sr. got up and led a spontaneous shark cheer. Nobody joined in. Just embarrassed silence. Wine and arrogance are an entertaining mix. As an aside, supposedly local ins guy Morris pays the bus boys to wear shark baseball caps.

Anonymous said...

12:05, please cry me a river. Your false assumption is that every high school recruit is barefoot, has a twig of Johnson grass between his teeth and his shoulders are poking out from Over-Hauls while he longs for vegetables and a piece of pork salt.

Please put down your Tom Sawyer book and join us in reality.



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