HOUSTON, June 19 -- A former starter on the Texas Tech football team implicated head coach Spike Dykes and others in an ongoing NCAA investigation into major rules violations, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday. Former defensive lineman Stephen Gaines said he told NCAA investigators that the school's athletic officials gave him answers to a final exam for a correspondence course at a Florida college that has been previously implicated in NCAA scandals. Gaines also told the Chronicle that Dykes arranged for him to get a full scholarship at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, even though he was told he would never have to play football at Navarro. The Chronicle also reported that the NCAA began investigating Texas Tech after it found athletes there had obtained credit for correspondence courses at Southeastern College of the Assemblie of God in Lakeland, Fla. That college's correspondence course program played a major role in the FBI and Southwest Conference investigation into the Baylor University basketball program two years ago. That investigation led Baylor to impose sanctions on its own program and dismiss coach Darrel Johnson. Three of Johnson's assistants were eventually convicted on 12 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. An investigation in the case showed the assistant coaches arranged for four Baylor players to receive credit for a series of Southeastern College courses in the summer of 1993 by providing the players with final exam answers and other course work. Texas Tech attorney Pat Campbell said it would be inappropriate to comment on the allegations because the investigation into the case is ongoing and the NCAA has not informed the school about any violations.
'The university has hired an outside law firm to work with the NCAA to get to the truth of any allegations,' said Campbell, Tech's general counsel. 'The university has not received, and the NCAA has not issued, any formal allegations. 'The university wants to get to the bottom of this entire matter, and hopefully we'll be able to with the type of investigation that the NCAA and the outside counsel are conducting.' The Chronicle said NCAA Enforcement Director Chuck Smrt would not comment on any specifics of the investigation. But Smrt told the paper the NCAA has determined that nearly 70 athletes at 50 NCAA schools obtained correspondence course credit from Southeastern College between 1992 and 1994. Smrt said that information has allowed the NCAA to cite 10 to 20 schools for violations, though he would not name them. The Texas Tech case is the third publicly confirmed case, and the first at a major school. The other two confirmed cases involve the men's basketball programs at New Mexico State and Texas Pan-American. According to documents obtained by the Chronicle, Texas Tech told the NCAA that seven of its student athletes received course credit from Southeastern College. Gaines, a 6-foot-3, 300 pound lineman, played defensive end and nose tackle for Texas Tech. He started five games in 1992 and eight games for a Red Raider team that reached the John Hancock Bowl in 1993. He was ruled academically ineligible in 1994. Gaines failed to make the New England Patriots as a free agent last year.
