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At last, an NCAA victim who can win Friday, August 06, 2004 Please welcome Jim Johnson - finally - from out of the woodwork. The Georgia car dealer, found by the NCAA to have provided an illegal benefit for Alabama player Travis Carroll in the form of a free used SUV, is considering suing the NCAA for a false finding. But he'll toss the already-written suit in the trash if he can get just an apology. That's typical of the bizarre, lawsuit-infested aftermath of the NCAA's investigation into the Alabama football program. The latest weirdness is this: All the implicated people with lousy cases sued a long time ago; the guy with the best case hasn't and doesn't really want to. Go figure. The Ronnie Cottrell/Ivy Williams lawsuit makes the best headlines, but that doesn't make it the best case. Cottrell and Williams face the legal problem that when coaches take a job at an NCAA school, they inherently subject themselves to NCAA regulation and accept the risks. Kinda like joining the military. Williams faces an additional obstacle - the small matter of a whole lotta evidence that points to guilt. It's phone records mostly. Cottrell faces the additional problems of the well-documented loans from Logan Young and the reality that a head coach would have several reasons not to hire him that have nothing to do with the NCAA investigation. A Cottrell job interview would likely turn quickly to topics such as recruit attrition, Michael Gaines, Milford Academy, and the lack of Christmas-card exchanges with Cottrell's former coaching colleagues. Plaintiffs Wendell Smith and Ray Keller at least are private individuals who didn't consent to subjecting themselves to the whims of NCAA justice. But they, too, face persuasive evidence of guilt. Smith's is even on tape. But the NCAA clearly goofed up on the allegation against Johnson. Even the University of Alabama, which didn't contest much in the entire case, fought the NCAA on this one. The SUV in question was a five-year-old damaged Jeep Cherokee clunker with 132,000 miles, fashionably trimmed with duct tape. The enforcement staff's inability to correctly determine the vehicle's mileage - it said 77,000 - ranks really high on the klutz-o-meter in this case. The NCAA deemed the transaction as "no cost" to Carroll, somehow deciding that its expertise on such transactions exceeded that of UA faculty athletics representative Gene Marsh, who - get this - has testified in numerous court cases as an expert on car dealer lending practices toward buyers with zippo credit. Marsh and Alabama persuasively argued that Carroll's supposed no-cost transaction - at 28 percent interest, mind you - is common for such kinds of vehicles and borrowers. The NCAA took Alabama to task also because assistant coach Neal Callaway called his friend Johnson on behalf of Carroll. Johnson later testified, however, that Callaway told him "to do no favors" for Carroll. And, oops, the NCAA didn't interview any of the six other dealership employees who dealt with Carroll that day. Johnson's attorney said this week that Johnson only wants his name cleared; he doesn't want any money. Well, sir, I think you could get some if you want it. Kevin Scarbinsky is on vacation. Tom Arenberg is sports editor of The News. ______________________________________________________ RollTideFan - The University of Alabama Athletics Discussion List "Welcome to RollTideFan! Wear a cup!" To join or leave the list or to make changes to your subscription visit http://listinfo.rolltidefan.net
