“Not so fast” on the Mops for Props.
Chapman Printing WAS paying Marshall players $25 per hour and they did show up for it (well most of them). The problem was that prop players while serving their time were not allowed to have any contact with the athletic department while they paid their way through their first year of college.
The NCAA was investigating Marshal for a self reported issue of players getting copies of test answers from members of the athletic department. The investigators walked by an assistant football coaches office and saw the player’s pay checks and started asking questions. The one who took it “for the team” was the owner of Chapman Printing. Served 5 years from doing business with Marshall.
A few excerpts from the link posed below.
"The NCAA busted Marshall in 2001 for a series of rule violations, including academic fraud and a scheme where players were paid up to four times the prevailing wage for jobs with a firm owned by mega wealthy and ultra-personable Marshall booster Marshall Reynolds.
The school was put on NCAA probation for four years and lost five scholarships a year for three years. The school also was required to have no association with Reynolds for five years. (The very instant the five years was up, the school welcomed its big time benefactor back with open arms.)"
"Former players Sam Goines and Charlie Tynes swore they were paid $25 an hour to work for Reynolds' Chapman Printing Co., well above the going rate for menial labor.
Both players testified Pruett told them that if they wanted to play, they had to sign statements saying they were paid $12.50 an hour, not $25."
"Frankly, it was always hard to believe when Marshall got caught cheating that Pruett didn't know what was taking place under his nose.
The questionable payments to players started under Coach Jim Donnan and continued under Pruett, with players even picking up their checks at the football office."
