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Sunday, September 5, 2010

The A.J. Green situation

So what’s going on with A.J. Green? What’s really going on? And how soon will he return to the field?

Short answer to all three questions: We don’t know.

Green could have just been held out as a precautionary measure by Georgia, and this is all nothing to worry about.

Or he could have been held out by Georgia after consulting with the NCAA, and this is a bigger worry than was earlier anticipated.

Georgia acted all August as if it was no big deal: Green said he expected to play, and head coach Mark Richt said at one point early in camp that he didn’t expect any players to have to miss time because of the inquiry.

And then, on Saturday morning, poof, Green isn’t playing.

Could this be more serious than previously thought? There was a key quote from Michael Adams, when I spoke to him just before kickoff on Saturday. Adams said he wasn’t overly concerned, but added:

“What I might think and what the NCAA might think might be two different things.”

And there’s the rub.

I’ve heard four or five different theories on what the NCAA is really looking into with Green. If one of them checks out, I’ll report it. The original agent probe, which ensnared players at Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina, could still be the focus. Green may just be a material witness. But if that was the case, why did Georgia not get a ruling by game time?

One possibility is there’s a huge amount of red tape at the NCAA, which has been busy with a ton of matters: Jeremiah Masoli, the issues at the aforementioned schools, the transition to a new NCAA president.

And it also might not have helped Georgia that until last Monday it didn’t have a full-time athletics director. That could have helped Alabama, with Mal Moore in charge, get its ruling first.

I did speak to one industry source on Saturday who felt Georgia was just playing it safe. The other outward signs point to nothing illicit on the horizon: Green was allowed to hang around the team and be in uniform on Saturday – unlike North Carolina, where Marvin Austin literally had to buy a ticket to attend the game in Atlanta.

Adams said on Saturday that UGA “lawyers are handling it.” And as we know, whenever lawyers get involved, things tend to get strung out.

But Georgia needs to know something soon. It has a fairly big game this week.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seth, Did you see David Pollack's tweet yesterday? He said there were other issues being looked into other than the agent situation in Miami. Can you shed any light on what he's talking about?

Redcoat98 said...

Pollack also said that Smart was coming home. His tweets haven't aways been the most reliable source of information.

Anonymous said...

Amen to that Redcoat98.

Mike said...

"Short answer...," "poof," "there's the rub..."

Ugh. Unfollow.

D^3 said...

I miss David Hale.

Dog44 said...

Seth - good work here. You're asking the questions we are all asking and the reality is there aren't answers for them right now.

I found your post to be a helpful summary of the situation based on what you can share with journalistic integrity.

Thanks for staying on this.

Dog44 said...

Seth - good work here. You're asking the questions we are all asking and the reality is there aren't answers for them right now.

I found your post to be a helpful summary of the situation based on what you can share with journalistic integrity.

Thanks for staying on this.

Anonymous said...

The "other stuff" about AJ Green is not really a mystery as it has floated around on some message boards and insiders around UGA.

Rick said...

@aious

Care to shed some light on that well known info you speak of?

Or are you deliberately being a pain in the ass?

Anonymous said...

EBAY

Anonymous said...

There are equipment folks at Georgia who will take jerseys, fake an autograph and try to sell it as a game-worn authentic jersey.

If one of those clowns got AJ into trouble, then it's Georgia's fault. They know this goes on.

Prince_Lightfoot said...

If the NCAA is so busy, how do they have time to rule on Masoli's appeal in less than a week? (and what could possibly have changed about his situation in those few days that led them to reverse their decision?)