Big Orange Pimp: UT sending "Orange Pride" hostess to streets for football recruitment

[doeriver]

N.C.A.A. Puts Tennessee’s Recruiting Under Scrutiny
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/sports/ncaafootball/09tennessee.html?_r=2&hpw

December 9, 2009
By PETE THAMEL and THAYER EVANS
The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.

N.C.A.A. officials have visited four prospects and are scheduled to visit two others this week in an investigation covering at least three states. The inquiry is unusual in its scope and its timing. It is rare that the N.C.A.A. looks at this wide a swath of one university’s recruits before the players have signed with a program in February.

Tennessee Athletic Director Mike Hamilton confirmed that an investigation was under way but declined to elaborate.

“Typically, we do not comment on inquires that are in progress,” he said Tuesday night in New York.

Since Tennessee Coach Lane Kiffin took over in December 2008 after being fired as the Oakland Raiders’ coach, the Volunteers have committed at least six secondary N.C.A.A. violations — unintentional violations that provide minimal recruiting or competitive advantage.

Interviews with multiple recruits and their family members revealed that the N.C.A.A. has strong interest in Tennessee’s use of recruiting hostesses, students who are part of a formal group at the university that hosts all manner of prospective students at campus visits, including athletes. It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players.

In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing.

Marcus Lattimore, a running back who made an unofficial visit to Tennessee but said he would not enroll there, said multiple Tennessee hostesses attended a game at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., in September. He said they brought signs, including one that read, “Come to Tennessee.”

“I haven’t seen no other schools do that,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.

...(more at hyperlink)

NCAA eyes use of hostesses
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4727155
December 10, 2009, 7:57 AM ET
ESPN.com news services