The New York Times has put out an article today about the Andrew Oliver situation which ended up getting him suspended before the NCAA Tournament. He ended up getting suspended for his relationship with an agent after being drafted out of high school.
Oliver has now filed a lawsuit against the NCAA for not giving him due process in the situation. The New York Times article states the following about the lawsuit:
Oliver’s lawsuit also argues that the N.C.A.A. denied him the right to due process afforded him under Oklahoma State’s student code of conduct. During the week before his interview with investigators, Oliver said that an Oklahoma State compliance officer, Scott Williams, discouraged him from flying in his lawyer from New Jersey, saying that it would only delay the process and might prevent him from pitching in a game that Saturday. Williams and other Oklahoma State officials declined to comment on the case, citing the pending lawsuit.
Johnson, Oliver’s lawyer, said athletes’ rights were overlooked by the N.C.A.A. in favor of its relationship with member universities. “The kids have no rights with the N.C.A.A.,” he said.
Johnson said he believed that the N.C.A.A.’s investigation of Oliver was overly aggressive because the baseball team was still being penalized for a 2006 infraction. That year, athletic department officials discovered that they had incorrectly interpreted N.C.A.A. rules governing scholarship limits; as punishment, they agreed to remove 5.27 scholarships from the baseball team over a four-year period.
The full article from the New York Times is available here.
This is going to be really interesting to see how this plays out.