Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi State players accused by Yahoo! of taking agent money

The NCAA declared Tennessee defensive tackle Mo Couch permanently ineligible on Tuesday, several weeks after the Vols originally declared him ineligible for their game against Oregon. Couch was one of five SEC players named in a Yahoo! Sports’ report who allegedly accepted illicit benefits:

After the news was announced, Couch was pretty upbeat, considering the circumstances:

What involvement Alabama should have? Well, we’ll see; that’s what the investigation’s for, after all. But still—that’s Alabama, the undisputed top program in the nation, embroiled in a potentially major improper benefits scandal.

There’s your Alabama problem.

The fallout from Yahoo’s investigation into alleged illicit benefits paid to former and current SEC players could be move past a possible NCAA investigation. The agents involved in the story could be subject to legal penalties under Alabama sports agent laws, via AL.com.

Alabama law requires sports agents to register with the Alabama Athlete Agents Commission in order to work in the state. Agents who intentionally do not register can be charged with a Class C felony and face between one to 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. If an unregistered agent contacts a collegiate athlete, that’s a misdemeanor, with a sentence of up to one year in prison and a possible $2,000 fine.

A day after defensive tackle Mo Couch was declared out against Oregon due to heat exhaustion, the Tennessee lineman’s health no longer appears to be an issue. During a radio appearance Thursday, Volunteers head coach Butch Jones said only that Couch was “declared ineligible for [Oregon].”

Jones gave no mention to the previous excuse of heat exhaustion.

John Phillips is one of the agents implicated in Yahoo! Sports’ report about agents funneling money to a handful of college football players. Via text message, Phillips told AL.com that the story is “libelously out of context,” but did not expand on that.

Before making his Twitter account private, Phillips tweeted that Charles Robinson -- who co-wrote the report -- didn’t return a phone call the day before the article was published. He also called Robinson a coward.

Update:

The Crimson Tide is looking into the allegations, and following the release of the investigative report by Yahoo!‘s Rand Getlin and Charles Robinson, the school released a statement Wednesday saying it had been aware of the potential NCAA violations before the story was published.

This would be just another run-of-the-mill personnel update if it weren’t for the fact that on Wednesday, Couch was one of five SEC players named in a Yahoo! Sports investigation for receiving improper benefits from agents and financial advisers. Couch, a senior, is the only one of the five who’s still playing college football; the rest, including former teammate QB Tyler Bray, have all exhausted their eligibility.

Now, it could very well be the case that Couch suffered heat exhaustion on Tuesday. He hasn’t tweeted since that morning. It was pretty hot in Knoxville that day. Also, he’s a big dude: 6’2” and 304 pounds, according to Tennessee.

The Alabama athletic department and head coach Nick Saban have responded to the Yahoo! report that alleged a former Tide player received money from agents to recruit players who were currently members of the Alabama football team.

Saban spoke to the media briefly after the team’s practice Wednesday, and remained confident in the school’s ability to handle such scenarios.

The agents told Yahoo! that while Davis was helping them recruit these players and while they gave Davis money, they were unaware of Davis’s actions with said money.

A text message uncovered by Yahoo! allegedly from Davis to Fluker said “He sent u 5k today” and the two proceeded to talk about how best to transfer money to Fluker’s account. Yahoo! also found an email about Fluker that included a note that said “Total: $33,755.” This spring, Fluker’s Twitter account tweeted “Yea I took $ n college so wat. I did wat i had to do. Agents was tryin to pimp me so I pimped them. Cast da 1st stone.” Fluker later said the account was hacked, and while that is a common excuse, it looked a bit more likely than usual.