Auburn could fire Bruce Pearl for failure to cooperate with internal investigation

Bruce Pearl could be fired as the head coach of Auburn’s men’s basketball if he continues to fail to cooperate with the program’s internal investigation following its involvement in the FBI’s sweeping corruption scandal, according to ESPN.

A source confirmed to SB Nation that Pearl’s job is in jeopardy.

Pearl wasn’t directly implicated in the FBI investigation, but his assistant Chuck Person was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes to steer players to work with Rashan Michel, owner of an Atlanta-based clothing store. Person also allegedly gave money to the families of two Auburn players.

Auburn has since suspended Person indefinitely, as well as star center Austin Wiley and starting forward Danjel Purifoy. Wiley and Purifoy were identified as “Player 1” and “Player 2” in the federal complaint against the Auburn assistant coach.

Pearl hired Person in 2014. The assistant was a key figure in the FBI’s initial list of charges:

Person allegedly agreed to take $50,000 in bribes from Rashan Michel to push prominent college athletes to work with him as the owner of an Atlanta-based clothing company. As a 13-year NBA veteran, Person is the most prominent name in this report. He has been arrested and suspended without pay. He has been released on $100K bond after appearing in court.

Pearl wasn’t named in the FBI’s complaints, but he has a long history with the NCAA. Most notably, Pearl was given a three-year show-cause penalty for lying to the NCAA about hosting recruit Aaron Craft at a BBQ in 2008. Pearl hired Person in 2014.

Pearl isn’t believed to have ties to the current FBI investigation, according to a person with knowledge who requested anonymity in order to speak frankly. Person’s suspension, paired with increased scrutiny within the entire Auburn athletic department due to ongoing scandals in multiple sports, has grated Pearl and led to a strained working relationship. One or both assistant coaches, which includes Pearl’s son Steven, could leave as well, the source said.

And as Auburn ran its internal investigation, reports leaked that Pearl’s job security was in jeopardy because he refused to cooperate.

Sources told ESPN that Pearl has refused to talk to attorneys conducting the university’s investigation, and they’ve been yet unable to determine if Pearl was involved in NCAA violations or other wrongdoing because FBI agents seized his computers and cell phones as part of their investigation.

Auburn officials haven’t given Pearl a deadline to cooperate, but sources told ESPN that a decision on his future will be made in the next week or two.

Pearl was hired as Auburn’s head coach in March of 2014, and he has a 44-54 record as the Tigers’ head coach. This was supposed to be the year Auburn could finally make the NCAA tournament thanks to Pearl’s impressive efforts on the recruiting trail.

Pearl’s last head coaching job was at Tennessee from 2005-11, where he had some questionable moments of integrity. In 2010, he admitted that he lied to the NCAA about a series of recruiting violations that centered around Aaron Craft, who eventually wound up at Ohio State. He was hit with a three-year show-cause penalty in 2011. That penalty ran out in August 2015.