Tennessee 'cooperating fully' with NCAA probe of recruiting hostesses

[madinmaryland]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- University of Tennessee officials say they are "cooperating fully" with the NCAA in its investigation into some of the school's football recruiting practices.

"We are concerned about the alleged activities of some members of the Orange Pride," Tennessee officials said in a statement released Wednesday.

"Both university and NCAA guidelines are a part of the Orange Pride's orientation and training. If those guidelines were violated, we will take appropriate action. Because of federal student privacy regulations, we can't comment further."

Orange Pride is one of three student admissions groups that act as "ambassadors" for the university providing campus tours, help with admissions and hosts prospective athletes and their families. The university said Orange Pride has 75 students, both men and women, as members who work with hundreds of students.

The New York Times reported on its Web site Wednesday the NCAA is probing the use of hostesses by Tennessee to attract top players. The NCAA has met with four prospects and is expected to talk to two more this week.

..snip

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/ncaa/12/09/tennessee.recruiting.ap/index.html

Hostesses??

[joeybee12]

1. Hey you can't call out DU members!

:evilgrin:

[madinmaryland]

7. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Is "he" the host for the Volunteers?

[joeybee12]

8. Naw, I just assumed we'd get a "new" member today to refute this...n/t

[madinmaryland]

9. Wonder what that "new" member name will be?? nt

[Scurrilous]

2. From the SI vault:

The Fall Roundup (August 31, 1987)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066350/index.htm

Persuasive Hostesses Help Colleges Lasso Top Prospects

<snip>

"When Betty Ling talks about her Gator Getters, most of what she says could just as easily apply to the Hawk Hunters, the Bengal Babes, the Hurricane Honeys, the Catamount Kittens or any other group of college recruiting hostesses.

But Ling, a 50ish woman who seems to have country-music lyrics written on her face, insists that her 45 University of Florida coeds are special. She would never include her girls among any of the aforementioned. Not among the Sweet Carolines, not among the Tigerettes. Not, God forbid, among the Garnet and Gold girls of Florida State. "I call it the Gator Gleam," she says of that quality that sets her charges apart. "If a girl doesn't gleam, I don't want her."

On every home football Saturday for the past eight autumns, Betty Ling has stood at her post just inside the glass doors that open on a carpeted lounge deep within Florida Field. In welcoming those raw high school stud recruits to Gainesville, she offers an important first impression of the school—before further, more lasting impressions are entrusted to the Gator Getters.

In the South, where hostessing is an old and honored tradition, one doesn't "talk" with strangers but "visits" with them. Give Betty Ling five minutes to visit, and she'll have settled on a Gator Getter for you. "If you're 6'6", she won't be 4'8"," Ling says. "I don't want to intimidate her or you."

But there will be someone. And when Betty Ling has a notion of exactly whom, she'll turn away from those glass doors, around to where her stable of Gator Getters are milling about, each in a white cotton blouse, a smart blue skirt and an electric-orange cowboy hat. Gator Getters wear the cowboy hats everywhere. The lassos are only implied.

Is that lineman a bit withdrawn? "Nicole!" Ling will call out, beckoning with an index finger to Nicole Cassisi, an animated public-relations major. Is that brainy receiver thinking of becoming a doctor? Betty summons Gelcys Montes de Oca, a raven-haired Miamian who's finishing her Ph.D. in pharmacology. Has that guy from the panhandle really been a Florida fan all his life? He's ripe for Lisa Spurrier, daughter of former Gator Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier. Says Ling, "She's a cutie."

[Auggie]

3. I had no idea this had been going on

Makes sense though. Usually I pictured a coach on a recruiting mission sitting around the family dining table extolling the virtues of University X and its football program. And maybe that's the way it still happens in some cases.

This hostess practice sounds like an escort service.

[joeybee12]

5. It's a southern thing...

no wonder they lost the WAR!

[hughee99]

6. I went to a D3 college (D1 in hockey only) and they had this...

not nearly so organized or official, but for a school with roughly 8 boys for every girl, they certainly found a lot of pretty girls to help show athletic recruits around.

[joeybee12]

4. New Gator Gleam! Toothpaste for all your crocs and alligators...

...for that sparkling smile!

[LisaM]

10. I had no idea this was going on, either.

They sound like the sorority girls in "Animal House".

Frankly, if I went to a southern school, this would piss me off.