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Nebraska football player found not guilty in NCAA investigation
By Andy Boyle, Daily Nebraskan
January 29, 2008
(UWIRE) LINCOLN, Neb. -- Andre Jones has been driving Robert Peinado's 2001 Jaguar around Lincoln, Neb., since August.
A Husker football player driving around someone else's Jaguar might seem suspicious, but in this case, no one is breaking the rules.
NCAA officials investigated the case last week, which is a standard job for the Nebraska Athletic Compliance Office.
Records obtained by the Daily Nebraskan show Jones has been getting tickets for driving a car titled to Peinado, who is a senior business administration major. An NCAA bylaw that prevents "extra-benefits" to athletes prohibits free transportation, including the use of a car, or free or reduced-cost services.
On paper, it looked like Jones violated an NCAA bylaw, but he's not, Peinado and NCAA officials said.
Peinado said Jones bought the car in August for about $17,000, which is more than its Kelley Blue Book retail price of $13,000 to $15,650. Peinado originally bought the car and tricked it out, adding a high-quality sound system and bigger wheel rims. Then he sold it to Jones.
There's documentation that proves Jones paid for the car and that it belongs to him, said Josh White, an NU assistant athletic director in charge of compliance.
This is one of the handful of cases White and others in the compliance office deal with on a weekly basis.
Only in this occasion, White said, the peculiarities of the case and the high profile of the athlete made his office jump into overdrive to make sure no NCAA bylaws were broken.
And none were.
"Having someone else's name listed on a title, that is cause for us to look into it no matter what," White said of Jones' case. "And we checked everything out, we interviewed all parties, there was documentation that he paid for the car at a fair market value for the car."
White said his office looks into cases similar to this on a regular basis. The compliance office fields comments from recruits, fans and athletic boosters to make sure theirs and others' actions are within the NCAA bylaws.
Constant sports gossip on online message boards, also sometimes leads to a boost in speculative rumors that get called to the compliance office.
Nine times out of 10 there isn't a problem, White said, but that one time could be a NCAA issue.
It's part of his job to investigate incidents that come to the compliance office. But he's not the only one who does the investigating.
Jo Potuto, the faculty athletic representative and a professor in the College of Law, also helps check any alleged NCAA violations.
She considers it time well spent to look into complaints.
"We are very appreciative of anyone who is concerned that there might be a violation letting us know because we want to be sure that the university and the staff are not violating NCAA rules," Potuto said. "And we have a very good history of not violating NCAA rules."
For Jones' case, the investigation was pretty quick. A parking official called Thursday afternoon after Jones' car was towed and explained Jones' Jaguar situation. It was resolved by Friday afternoon.
"The thing of it is, you can see how this would be a red flag around people on campus," White said. "On issues like this that could be big, we get them done right away."
By Andy Boyle, Daily Nebraskan
January 29, 2008
(UWIRE) LINCOLN, Neb. -- Andre Jones has been driving Robert Peinado's 2001 Jaguar around Lincoln, Neb., since August.
A Husker football player driving around someone else's Jaguar might seem suspicious, but in this case, no one is breaking the rules.
NCAA officials investigated the case last week, which is a standard job for the Nebraska Athletic Compliance Office.
Records obtained by the Daily Nebraskan show Jones has been getting tickets for driving a car titled to Peinado, who is a senior business administration major. An NCAA bylaw that prevents "extra-benefits" to athletes prohibits free transportation, including the use of a car, or free or reduced-cost services.
On paper, it looked like Jones violated an NCAA bylaw, but he's not, Peinado and NCAA officials said.
Peinado said Jones bought the car in August for about $17,000, which is more than its Kelley Blue Book retail price of $13,000 to $15,650. Peinado originally bought the car and tricked it out, adding a high-quality sound system and bigger wheel rims. Then he sold it to Jones.
There's documentation that proves Jones paid for the car and that it belongs to him, said Josh White, an NU assistant athletic director in charge of compliance.
This is one of the handful of cases White and others in the compliance office deal with on a weekly basis.
Only in this occasion, White said, the peculiarities of the case and the high profile of the athlete made his office jump into overdrive to make sure no NCAA bylaws were broken.
And none were.
"Having someone else's name listed on a title, that is cause for us to look into it no matter what," White said of Jones' case. "And we checked everything out, we interviewed all parties, there was documentation that he paid for the car at a fair market value for the car."
White said his office looks into cases similar to this on a regular basis. The compliance office fields comments from recruits, fans and athletic boosters to make sure theirs and others' actions are within the NCAA bylaws.
Constant sports gossip on online message boards, also sometimes leads to a boost in speculative rumors that get called to the compliance office.
Nine times out of 10 there isn't a problem, White said, but that one time could be a NCAA issue.
It's part of his job to investigate incidents that come to the compliance office. But he's not the only one who does the investigating.
Jo Potuto, the faculty athletic representative and a professor in the College of Law, also helps check any alleged NCAA violations.
She considers it time well spent to look into complaints.
"We are very appreciative of anyone who is concerned that there might be a violation letting us know because we want to be sure that the university and the staff are not violating NCAA rules," Potuto said. "And we have a very good history of not violating NCAA rules."
For Jones' case, the investigation was pretty quick. A parking official called Thursday afternoon after Jones' car was towed and explained Jones' Jaguar situation. It was resolved by Friday afternoon.
"The thing of it is, you can see how this would be a red flag around people on campus," White said. "On issues like this that could be big, we get them done right away."
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