Wednesday, November 7, 2007

NCAA Investigators meet source on Reggie Bush Affair. . .

. . .according to a report by Charles Robinson and Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports that is. Background here.

The co-founder of a failed sports marketing agency met with NCAA investigators for nearly six hours Tuesday afternoon, apparently following through on last week's vow to turn over materials tying former USC running back Reggie Bush and his family to a string of improper benefits taken while Bush played for the Trojans.

A source confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that Lloyd Lake, one of the financiers of now defunct New Era Sports & Entertainment, spent much of Tuesday afternoon with NCAA investigators in the Pasadena, Calif., office of Lake's attorney, Paul Wong. When reached Tuesday night, Wong declined comment.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that a meeting took place," Wong said. . . .

Lake's attorneys said last week that they were preparing to meet with NCAA investigators, a summit that was expected to include Lake submitting to a wide range of questions, as well as agreeing to turn over documents and possibly even recorded conversations between himself, Bush and Bush's stepfather LaMar Griffin. Four sources have confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that such taped conversations implicate Bush and his stepfather in a financial relationship with Lake.

At some point, Charles and Jason, we need to know who those anonymous, entirely unidentified sources are. Are they NCAA investigators? Members of Lake's legal team? USC administrators? Otherwise we are obliged to take your stories with a grain of salt. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times, which reported a non-denial denial from another of Lakes attorney's, notes that USC was excluded from the meeting:

Meanwhile, USC was not invited to attend the meeting Tuesday, a top administrator said.

"We have repeatedly requested to be included in all interviews and all aspects of the investigation," said Todd Dickey, USC senior vice president and general counsel. "We were not given the opportunity to participate."

The NCAA had previously declined to comment on the investigation.

It is the NCAA's comment which will, of course, ultimately matter.

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