No Way Alabama
Should come as no surprise. One bag-man elects to give up his identity
https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/11/06/2009-alabama-championshi…
I don't expect anything to happen to the program, just happy to see to truth come out.
GO BLUE!
November 7th, 2017 at 5:56 AM ^
That is, unless you stretch too much, and your name happens to be Michigan.
Bama, UNC, Mississippi...
Can you see a pattern here?
November 6th, 2017 at 5:48 PM ^
Some desperate autograph hawker literally stalked these guys around the Alabama campus and paid them a couple hundred bucks so he could turn around and hawk that stuff on ebay.
The bigger story on SI.com was that said hawker later realized the profit margin on doing said stalking wasn't high so he started up a multi-million dollar fake memorabilia ring on ebay and got busted.
All in all, Alabama's culpability on this is very very minimal and I wouldn't classify this as anything near the proverbial "Bagman" concept of shady alums/boosters stuffing cash into the pockets of recruits, parents, coaches etc. This was just a desperate dork trying to get stuff to sell on ebay.
November 6th, 2017 at 7:03 PM ^
So is the distinction here that Alabama didn't know about it? Because if so, the Final Four wants their banners hung.
November 6th, 2017 at 5:56 PM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 5:59 PM ^
Alums and supporters are smarter and wealthier than MSU alums. That's bloody obvious. And the standards ain't that high.
November 6th, 2017 at 6:42 PM ^
Bernie Madoff #2 and Gomer Pyle #3. LULZ...
https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-university-of-alabama-alumni-and-stu…
November 7th, 2017 at 5:54 AM ^
It is no surprise that he flourishes in the deep South, where hypocrisy and corruption are King.
November 6th, 2017 at 6:05 PM ^
November 6th, 2017 at 6:18 PM ^
People are high if they think this kind of behavior has had any significant effect on how good Alabama has been in recent years.
November 6th, 2017 at 6:21 PM ^
November 7th, 2017 at 8:52 AM ^
Thanks for the input, Mrs. Capone.
November 6th, 2017 at 6:28 PM ^
They should have held out for more. They're Alabama fergodsake.
These are MSU rates.
November 6th, 2017 at 6:30 PM ^
It would seem the next logical step the NCAA would take is to begin to partner with memorabilia dealers. They could then give stipends to players who sign memorabilia. That would also take some heat off the NCAA for not properly compensating players. I'm not sure how big the memorabilia market is, but it probably is nothing compared to how much they make off of tv contracts...so in their eyes it would be a great way to pro-actively diffuse the argument for players to get paid...although I guess the NCAA doesn't really need to have the "approval" of anyone to do what they want.
November 6th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
November 7th, 2017 at 12:21 AM ^
Just the tip of the iceberg...
November 7th, 2017 at 5:59 AM ^
November 7th, 2017 at 8:36 AM ^
November 7th, 2017 at 9:16 AM ^
"The two collectors had 40-odd white-paneled footballs, each emblazoned with Alabama’s logo"
My daughter gave me a Michigan autographed white-paneled football with Michigan logo. Has Higdon's autograph on it among a bunch of other players (but not Peppers). Does that mean he was paid? Were the other players paid?
Not that big of a deal to me.
November 7th, 2017 at 9:39 AM ^
November 7th, 2017 at 11:17 AM ^
This has nothing to do with bagmen. The dude was getting autographs to turn a profit, and only went to Bama because they were in demand. He had no connection with the school.