MBA coverup exposed

[DavidSchwetty]

Quick question. It seems like everyone on here is assuming that some stud football players have been the recepients of this additional aid. Would people on here be so up in arms if the recipients turn out to be either A) members of the football team who rarely play or B)members of the cross country or swim teams? I have no knowledge of who the students were but the originial inicident involved a backup quarterback so I thought I would ask.

 

Also, if I am correct, the school requires students to participate in 2 after school activities per year. Being that most students select some sport, is it safe to assume that the probability of a student on financial aid playing a sport and therefore being a student athlete is quite high? Again not necessarily football.

Edited January 13, 2012 by DavidSchwetty

[retiredtothebleachers]

Quick question. It seems like everyone on here is assuming that some stud football players have been the recepients of this additional aid. Would people on here be so up in arms if the recipients turn out to be either A) members of the football team who rarely play or B)members of the cross country or swim teams? I have no knowledge of who the students were but the originial inicident involved a backup quarterback so I thought I would ask.

 

Also, if I am correct, the school requires students to participate in 2 after school activities per year. Being that most students select some sport, is it safe to assume that the probability of a student on financial aid playing a sport and therefore being a student athlete is quite high? Again not necessarily football.

 

I have said repeatedly that this extends beyond football and I have seen no one making an assumption it is a stud football player. That seems to be your assumption.

[DavidSchwetty]

I have said repeatedly that this extends beyond football and I have seen no one making an assumption it is a stud football player. That seems to be your assumption.

 

My thought wasn't really directed at you. By everyone, I really meant Custer, but this is a good opporuntity to expand my thought. So were these recruited stud swimmers, golfers, wrestlers, etc or just students who happened to be on one of these teams and were not star contributors?

Edited January 13, 2012 by DavidSchwetty

[big red big blue]

Quick question. It seems like everyone on here is assuming that some stud football players have been the recepients of this additional aid. Would people on here be so up in arms if the recipients turn out to be either A) members of the football team who rarely play or B)members of the cross country or swim teams? I have no knowledge of who the students were but the originial inicident involved a backup quarterback so I thought I would ask.

 

Also, if I am correct, the school requires students to participate in 2 after school activities per year. Being that most students select some sport, is it safe to assume that the probability of a student on financial aid playing a sport and therefore being a student athlete is quite high? Again not necessarily football.

 

It doesn't matter...the rules are the rules and its up to the school to do everything in its power to ensure compliance. My guess is that the beneficiaries of certain people's largess are basically all athletes of some kind, because if you are just playing intramurals you can accept whatever you want and no one cares.

 

Here's IMO how this sort of thing happens...a kid comes to MBA from a "non-traditional" background. He is on a sports team playing alongside the sons of wealthy people in Nashville, and the wealthy families get to know the kid. They like/admire him, and when they hear that money is tight for the player's family, they take matters into their own hands. Maybe it's noble and doing the right thing in the bigger scheme of things, but it's against the rules, and the school has failed if it has looked the other way while this has gone on under its nose.

[retiredtothebleachers]

My thought wasn't really directed at you. By everyone, I really meant Custer but this is a good opporuntity to expand my thought. So were these recruited stud swimmers, golfers, wrestlers, etc or just students who happened to be on one of these teams and were not star contributors?

 

Whether or not they were studs or they were recruited and what sport they were participating in is immaterial to the discussion. They were student athletes at the school that were having their tuition paid outside of acceptable conditions.

[DavidSchwetty]

Whether or not they were studs or they were recruited and what sport they were participating in is immaterial to the discussion. They were student athletes at the school that were having their tuition paid outside of acceptable conditions.

 

It does not matter to the TSSAA but it certainly does matter in the court of public opinion.

 

"Here's IMO how this sort of thing happens...a kid comes to MBA from a "non-traditional" background. He is on a sports team playing alongside the sons of wealthy people in Nashville, and the wealthy families get to know the kid. They like/admire him, and when they hear that money is tight for the player's family, they take matters into their own hands. Maybe it's noble and doing the right thing in the bigger scheme of things, but it's against the rules, and the school has failed if it has looked the other way while this has gone on under its nose."

 

Those were my thoughts exactly. I would be interested to know how many of these instances involved students receiving extra aid from day 1 at MBA and how many had some sort of "hardship" and received aid from/at that point on.

 

Is DII getting to the point that the schools need compliance staff to monitor these types of things?

[inappropriate203]

Is DII getting to the point that the schools need compliance staff to monitor these types of things?

 

 

I think that is a logical conclusion. It is obvious you cant count on coaches to act ethically. Just stating the facts.

[retiredtothebleachers]

The TSSAA has only issued the death penalty on one occasion (to Nashville Cameron) that I can locate, and that stemmed from crowd actions in a state tournament game in '68. It was litigated, and the court's decision seems to hold that such "group punishments" are not strictly forbidden, but only appropriate in especially egregious cases. I don't know if the TSSAA has the ability to ban individual coaches (and I'm genuinely ignorant on the issue...no idea at all). I doubt the TSSAA would want to fight a protracted legal battle with a school that has MBA's financial resources.

 

I'm not especially worried about the bumpy ride from the TSSAA. I'm much more concerned about the school's response to this issue. I've seen nothing so far that makes me optimistic.

 

There already is, but its up to the schools to follow the rules. From TSSAA;

Tuition and Financial Aid

Section 16. If tuition is charged, it must be paid by parent, bona fide guardian or other family member. If a parent,

guardian or other family member secures a loan for payment of tuition, it must remain an obligation of the parents,

guardian or other family member to repay the principle and interest in full with no exceptions. Financial aid will be

allowed under the following conditions:

1. Children of full-time faculty members may be given financial aid, but such students, if transfers, shall be

ineligible for 12 months in any sport in which they have an athletic record for the previous or current year.

2. Financial aid may be awarded on the basis of need, but proof of such need must be filed in the TSSAA

office on forms approved by the Executive Director. In order to determine the basis for need, all schools

awarding financial aid shall use one of the following services in order to determine the basis for need:

FACTS Grant and Aid Assessment (FACTS), Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST), School and Student

Scholastic Service for Financial Aid (SSS), Family Financial Needs Assessment (FFNA), Private School

Aid Services, or Smart Tuition Aid. Schools must choose one of the companies for all student-athletes. A committee consisting of School Heads from Division II schools and one ex-officio, non-voting member

from the Board of Control and Legislative Council will meet and make recommendations to the Board of

Control on each student submitted. In addition, this committee will collect information from schools

regarding financial aid statistics, grant procedures, and the overall financial aid program within the school.

The Board of Control will then rule on all cases at the August meeting. The Board of Control shall have

authority to reject the basis of need for students when in its opinion, or in the opinion of the school

committee, the amount of need stated by the financial service cannot be justified.

3. Any loan program, grant program, educational foundation or similar program that is established and/or

administered, in whole or in part, by a school or official of a school is considered financial aid.

Schools shall remove any student from athletic eligibility whose accounts with the school are 60 days overdue.

All records pertaining to financial aid or tuition assistance shall be open to TSSAA upon its request. Each school

shall be responsible for securing necessary authorization to allow TSSAA to review or audit such records.

[retiredtothebleachers]

As predicted:

FROM THE TENNESSEAN:

 

Major sanctions have been leveled against Montgomery Bell Academy by the state’s high school athletic governing organization for violations of recruiting rules and the tuition and financial aid rule.

 

After a five-month investigation, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has placed the school on probation for two years, vacated the state football championship the school won in 2007 and the basketball championship it won in 2010.

 

Additionally, the school is required to forfeit a number of wins that came about when ineligible players were used, and TSSAA is requiring MBA to repay tournament and playoff revenues totaling $46,952.33.

 

Now Gioia must go.

[ADD1950]

Having just read Jimmy Webb's letter to the alumni, it is apparent that the School and the alumni plan to take the low road by placing all the blame on caring parents and board members who simply wanted to help. Really? My experience with the MBA family has always been one of feeling like I am being spun something...and then after awhile it becomes fact. I say the low road because no one seems willing to admit that the recruiting was fairly systematic and that the administration and some of the board was clearly a part of it. Now I understand why Dan initially refused to resign insists that he is the scapegoat and then insisted that he had not done anything immoral or unethical and wanted those words in print. He was only one part of the deceptive team. Which is really digusting because he seems to think that he is impervious to dishonesty. This is how the School would explain its errant ways and convince itself that they were being upstanding and responsible by helping these poor families. If not, why would the famous $1500.00 be written on the company check of Dan's father's company without fear of discovery by Finance and Admissions? Why would the booster club dinner, where money donations were requested for new helmuts, not send all sorts of red flags? Could it be that many "understood" the need for extra, untraceable money? Why, when Dan is discovered on the voicemail of a recruit"s mother, promising things and misrepresenting the School's mission, Mr. Goia becomes unglued and threatening when he is told that Dan has been exposed, but points the finger at the messenger, another school, the mother, the recruit? I, too, wonder when it all began. Was it Dan's father's need for Dan to be a winner? Was it Paranoia Goia's obsession with Ricky Bowers and Ensworth? Was it's Dan's need to fulfill his McGugin destiny? Would like hear more.

[notredame788]

Barton Simmons has to be kicking himself right about now. On another note, how have Joe Davis and "Backfield in Motion" not been brought into the discussion?

[MBATruth]

I think it is time for people to know that the $1500.00 check given to Aaron Simonis was repaid to the school several years ago. It is sad to all who know this family to see how this situation continues to go on and on bringing pain to all those involved including the McGugins. It is time for all of us to move on.

 

It is a HUGE shame that two more families from Lebanon are going to be suffering now tnat the City Paper and the Tennessean have published their names totally unnecessarily.