The allegations of Selena Roberts' Roopstigo.com report are compared here to facts provided by Auburn University.
ALLEGATION
The reporter wrote that Melodie Campbell claims the family didn’t get a call about the arrest of her son, Mike McNeil, until 3:30 p.m. on March 11, 2011.
FACT
Phone records show that Athletics Department employees talked with a member of the family three times before 3:30 p.m. and once afterward on March 11, 2011. Calls were made at 9:01 a.m. (3 minutes), 11:34 a.m. (9 minutes), 1:07 p.m. (7 minutes), and 4:45 p.m. (10 minutes).
ALLEGATION
Campbell was also quoted as saying, “To this day, no one from the University has talked to the family.”
FACT
Phone records show that Athletics Department employees talked with a member of the family on March 12, 2011. Calls were made at 11:41 a.m. (1 minute) and 11:44 a.m. (5 minutes). Athletics employees also talked to a member of the family on March 13, 2011. Calls were made at 12:07 p.m. (1 minute) and 8:54 p.m. (18 minutes). In addition, Auburn’s team chaplain had continued conversations with a family member, including an 80-minute phone conversation on April 1, 2011.
ALLEGATION
McNeil’s defense attorney was quoted in the story as saying, “To show you how innocent he is, Mike is willing to go to trial because he says he didn’t do it.”
FACT
Five days after the publication of this story, McNeil pled guilty, accepting a deal for three years imprisonment and three years probation for first-degree robbery.
ALLEGATION
Roopstigo wrote, “Three players say that before the 2011 BCS Championship game, the team was told that as many as nine of their teammates would not be able to play in the title game because they were academically ineligible. Roopstigo also quoted Mike Blanc as saying, “Auburn found ways to make those dudes eligible.”
FACT
An internal review by Auburn Athletics and an independent review by Auburn University Internal Auditing found no evidence that improper grade changes occurred. In fact, six players were deemed academically ineligible for the game and did not travel with the team to Arizona. Mike Blanc later Tweeted his reaction to the story: “This article is outrageous and isn’t true. The media will do anything for a juicy story.”
ALLEGATION
Roopstigo quoted Mike Blanc as saying, “We thought we would be without Michael Dyer because he was one of them.”
FACT
Mr. Dyer was never in any jeopardy of being ineligible for the 2011 BCS game. He passed 15 hours during the fall. He only needed 6 to be eligible per NCAA rules. Mr. Dyer actually passed a total of 24 hours through the Summer and Fall semesters in 2010. He had a 2.8 GPA at the end of the Fall semester.
ALLEGATION
Mike McNeil is quoted as saying of a computer 1000 class, “I was doing B work, but missed too many classes; and I went to the instructor and said, ‘I really need this grade.” McNeil contends that his academic advisor got the grade changed from an F to a C.
FACT
Mr. McNeil’s grade was changed after documented excused absences, due to medical reasons, were provided to his professor. The professor followed institutional policy in making the change.
ALLEGATION
Mr. McNeil says he recalls coaches giving him $500 to host Dre Kirkpatrick while Mr. Kirkpatrick was on an Official Visit to Auburn.
FACT
Dre Kirkpatrick never attended Auburn on an official visit. After the article was published, Mr. Kirkpatrick publicly stated about his unofficial visit to Auburn, “Nobody gave me any money, and nobody spent any money on me that I know of. I don’t know what they would have spent it on. We went to a party, but nobody was paying to get in there. We just walked in like everybody else seemed to be doing.”
ALLEGATION
Ms. Roberts wrote, “As players recall, more than 40 players tested positive for recreational drugs after the National Championship.”
FACT
In a six-month period from August 2010 through February 2011, three football players tested positive for recreational drugs out of 231 tests performed. In the two months after the National Championship game, an additional seven football players tested positive for synthetic marijuana, prior to synthetic marijuana being added to Auburn’s drug policy as a banned substance.
ALLEGATION
Roopstigo quoted McNeil as saying, “When the new coaches came in under Chizik, they implemented new rules and it was kind of no tolerance, but it always seemed to be aimed at black guys. Chizik didn’t like tattoos and he didn’t like dreads.”
FACT
Numerous players on the 2010, 2001 and 2012 teams wore dreadlocks. Specifically from the 2010 team, they included Darvin Adams, T’Sharvan Bell, Josh Bynes, Kenneth Carter, AJ Greene, Byron Isom, Mike McNeil and Ryan Smith. None were made to cut them off.
ALLEGATION
The story claims McNeil was not read his Miranda rights.
FACT
In the “Affidavit Charging Crime” document available to the public, it is stated, “All four suspects made rights-advised statements admitting involvement in the robbery.”
ALLEGATION
Roberts contends that Auburn obstructed McNeil’s transfer process to Livingstone College.
FACT
After his arrest, Mr. McNeil did not properly withdraw from Auburn University, making him academically ineligible to transfer per NCAA rules. Auburn Athletics Compliance and the Office of General Counsel assisted Mr. McNeil in addressing those issues with the NCAA. Those efforts ultimately rendered him eligible to play at Livingstone College.
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