A Sports Illustrated series last September detailing potential violations within Oklahoma State University's football program has led to an NCAA investigation, an OSU spokesman told
ESPN.
Oklahoma State launched its own investigation of charges brought by the Sport Illustrated series "The Dirty Game," which included charges of improper inducements for athletes and Cowboy recruits. ESPN said Monday that the school's investigation is coming to a conclusion.
"The inquiry continues and it is hoped that it will conclude within the next few months," a university spokesman told ESPN. "The university anticipates releasing a report after the NCAA concludes its process. Since it is an ongoing inquiry conducted in cooperation with the NCAA, the university is unable to comment further at this time."
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John Talley, a Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative who the series charged with paying illegal benefits to OSU football players, sued Time Inc. last week over how the series portrayed him,
according to the Tulsa World.
The newspaper said Talley is seeking more than $75,000 in damages for making allegations against him and portraying him in a false light as a booster who performed illegal activities. The lawsuit said the series falsely reported that he grossly overpaid players for jobs they did or compensated them for jobs they didn't do.
The series was criticized for not allowing Oklahoma State a chance to refute claims and defend itself.
"(Sports Illustrated), as it had throughout its reporting, showed little interest in the perspectives or information of anyone not directly involved with the football program — surprising, given that the supposed purpose of the investigation was to provide a 'deeper, longitudinal' view of how big-time football can corrupt an academic institution,"
wrote Dom Cosentino of Deadspin last year.
"The magazine also declined to give OSU the opportunity to address specific claims or corroborate basic information about players, coaches, tutors, and professors. Partly, this was a tactical decision by journalists not wishing to leave footprints all over Stillwater while reporting a sensitive story, but it would backfire when it turned out that a key source's claims could have been refuted with a simple phone call." wrote Cosentino.
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