“My guess is that your videos caused them some heartburn. They’re sending the investigator to determine what, if any, infractions have occurred. I’m actually catching a flight as soon as we hang up. I should be there when you talk to the NCAA.”
“Do you think this will affect my eligibility?” I asked.
“No, but that’s why I’ll be there. Some investigators can get a little overzealous.”
That wasn’t reassuring at all. Mr. Morris would know because he worked for the NCAA before going into private practice.
“Did you get them to agree that we would only be willing to assist them once on this?” I asked.
“We’re meeting with the investigator tonight. I’ll remind him of what we agreed to and get him to confirm it.”
“You’re sure I don’t have anything to worry about?” I asked.
“We’re helping them. They’re doing their job to discover how shoe companies are being used to help schools pay recruits. When I worked there, we always suspected universities had figured out how to funnel money to the players; we just didn’t know how they were doing it. It looks like it has gotten pretty sophisticated.”
“Okay, I’ll see you when you get out here,” I said and hung up.
My gut told me that this was more serious than Mr. Morris was letting on. I reflected on what happened to the teaching assistant at Missouri who’d reported improper assistance to scholarship football players. The school and NCAA had pinned it all on her. It was partially her fault because she looked mercenary when she tried to sell her information to help pay for school and books.
My gut also told me that the NCAA knew more about this than they were telling Mr. Morris. They would almost have to—or they were incompetent. I never got that impression of them, so I would bet on their having some idea.
My next task was to coordinate with Lexi, who’d been listening to my side of the phone conversation with Mr. Morris. We would have to talk about her eavesdropping after this was all over.
“Do I need to get you up to speed?” I asked.
“No. What do you want me to do?”
“When I get done with what Mr. Otsuki has planned for me, I want to have a meeting at the house with my dad, Frank Ingram, and Fritz. I want to fill them in on what’s going on. Dad should be there to make sure I’m not missing anything,” I explained.
“Do you want me there?”
“Yes. See if you can get me out of filming for later today and all of tomorrow. I can make up the scenes I miss on Saturday. From looking at the storyboard, I’m mostly on my own or talking to cute girls. They plan to use those sections as cutaway shots.”
“Will do,” she said and left me to my thoughts.
I was reasonably sure I was reading too much into this, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
◊◊◊
We worked through lunch to make up for my leaving early. There were some scenes where I was with the group while they said their lines. Those couldn’t be done on Saturday.
By the time we were let go, I was starved. I assumed Manaia was too, so when I got home, I made lunch for both of us and Lexi. We were just sitting down to eat when Frank Ingram arrived. About five minutes later, Dad and Fritz came in.
“Why is the NCAA sending an investigator?” Dad asked.
“I don’t really know. I expected we would meet with the coach from Southwest Central State and record it like we did with the shoe company guy. No idea what this guy wants.”
“I did a background check on both the investigator and the coach,” Frank said. “Stewart Chadwick has been an investigator for the NCAA for four years. His most recent assignment involved the Notre Dame violations by a student-trainer, which were just announced. They had to vacate victories from two seasons over a five-year period.
“The trainer wrote papers for two football players. That was, of course, a violation of NCAA rules. The trainer, the two players, and another player were found to have committed individual academic misconduct. Notre Dame ruled that the three players, plus six others, violated the school’s academic integrity policy as well. In the end, the school dismissed four student-athletes.”
That sounded an awful lot like the Missouri deal, but on a smaller scale. I wondered why it had been handled so differently.
“Tobias Foster was an assistant at another university before Southwest Central State. While he was there, he got suspended for unspecified reasons and decided to leave. He took a job at Southwest Central State this fall and has been instrumental in recruiting for them,” Frank said.
“Who did he coach for before?” I asked.
Frank told us; they were on the list that Gordon Parker, from Springbok, had given us of the schools they sponsored. That was suspicious. They must have moved him over when he drew too much attention at his last stop.
