Report: Bama Asst. Coach Accused Of Impermissible Benefits
TUSCALOOSA (CBSMiami) – Alabama head coach Nick Saban has a lot more to deal with this week than just the Tide's opponent.
Saban indefinitely suspended star safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix on Wednesday for violation of team rules. The Tuscaloosa News has since learned that Alabama's assistant strength and conditioning coach Corey Harris is on administrative leave for providing impermissible benefits to Clinton-Dix.
According to the Tuscaloosa News, the University of Alabama also found that Harris had a connection to a representative of a sports agent. However, according to the News, Clinton-Dix has not had any contact with an agent or agent representative.
The Tuscaloosa News reported that Harris loaned Clinton-Dix less than $500 this past summer in violation of NCAA Bylaw 16.11.2.2. Clinton-Dix showed the school bank records that showed the loan has been paid back to Harris, according to the newspaper.
The NCAA will likely be the next entity to get involved with the story. Alabama has a history of NCAA violations and at one time in the early 2000's was said to be as close to the death penalty as any school had been since SMU.
What's unknown is if Clinton-Dix was ineligible for games since the beginning of the season. If he was, as a starting safety, Alabama would have to forfeit any game in which he played.
