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News Nuggets, 08.25.05
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Mayo's destination has well-worn path to ECU

While senior safety Jamar Flournoy was being relegated by East Carolina coach Skip Holtz to a season on the scout squad for disciplinary reasons, another promising player missing from the team's roster is expected to turn up at another school for a two-year stay before potentially returning to the Pirates.

Talented Griffin (GA) High School running back Ahmad Mayo did not receive NCAA academic clearance and is headed for Georgia Military Institute, where he will play for Coach Bert Williams.

Over the years, GMI has served as a sort of training ground for players who would eventually become factors for ECU. This season, highly-touted wide receiver Aundrae Allison transferred to the Pirates from GMI. Before him, stalwarts like Keith Stokes (1998), Derrick Collier (1999), Dexter Davis (1999), Ronald Pou (2000), and current corner Demetrius Hodges (2004), used GMI as a springboard to ECU.

The junior college route could allow for Mayo to re-sign with the Pirates in 2007, which would validate his skills at running around and through obstructions to reach a goal.

Mayo’s road to ECU has been one paved with plenty of hard times and obstacles, yet he arrived on campus and put together a productive pre-season camp with the Pirates while awaiting a green light from the NCAA that never came.

That persistence is seen by some observers as a sign that Mayo will continue to persevere at GMI, get his academic credentials in order and return to the Purple and Gold.

Once he meets the NCAA's mandated requirements, Mayo would also have the option of signing elsewhere.

Bonesville.net staff report

NCAA adds extra year to Gamecocks' probation

COLUMBIA — The NCAA added an extra year to South Carolina's self-imposed two years' probation, but did not impose sanctions on TV or postseason appearances for 10 violations that occurred during the tenure of retired football coach Lou Holtz.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions reviewed South Carolina's case earlier this month. Committee vice chairman Josephine Potuto wrote university president Andrew Sorensen on Aug. 16 that the group ``concurred that the university's investigation into the violations set forth in the report was thorough and complete.''

South Carolina had already placed itself on probation, taken away four scholarships from the football program over the next two years and reduced by 12 the number of paid on-campus visits by recruits.

The NCAA panel adopted those penalties and extended the probation.

NCAA will also require the school to forward the infractions report to its regional accrediting agency, and imposed a four-year show cause order should former South Carolina administrator Tom Perry try for employment at another athletic department.

Sorensen wrote to the NCAA committee accepting the additional penalties.

``We are satisfied with the results,'' South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said. ``We appreciate the NCAA basically agreeing with our proposal. For the next couple of years, we will only have 83 players on scholarship.''

In July, the university released a summary disposition report, prepared jointly with the NCAA, that outlined 10 violations — five of which South Carolina admitted were major. The NCAA said one violation that the school deemed secondary was a major infraction. The disagreement will be settled in the NCAA's final report to the school, university spokesman Russ McKinney said.

New South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman said the NCAA's decision ``brings closure to this situation.''

Perry, an ex-senior associate athletic director for academic support services, was at the center of the most serious violations. The report found Perry arranged for impermissible tutoring help during the summer of 2001 for two prospective players who were coming from two-year colleges. After the incident was self-reported, Perry declared the athletes ineligible and made the players make restitution for the tutoring.

The NCAA panel's letter appears to close a case that it first looked into more than three years ago.

Holtz told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday night that no money or job offers were given to athletes and no recruiting inducements made.

``The three year probation without restrictions says volumes,'' he said. ``USC will still appear on TV. It will still go to bowl games.''

Holtz said he hadn't commented much before on the matter because he hadn't seen the NCAA report before Wednesday.

``I am sorry that any rules were violated and I apologize for any embarrassment in my six years at USC,'' Holtz said. ``We tried to operate not only according to the letter of the law but the spirit of the law as well.''

After practice Wednesday, Spurrier said he and his staff didn't plan to break any NCAA rules.

``If we do accidentally, we'll report ourselves and go on from there,'' he said.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically based on material supplied by staff members; data published by ECU, Conference USA and its member schools; and reports from Associated Press and other sources. Copyright 2005 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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