University of Alabama officials are investigating whether junior defensive lineman Marcel Dareus broke NCAA rules by attending an agent's party in Miami's South Beach earlier this summer, multiple sources told ESPN.com.
Dareus, ranked as the No. 7 prospect for the 2011 NFL draft by ESPN analyst Mel Kiper, is the latest prominent college football player to be entangled in an evolving NCAA investigation into illegal contact and conduct by sports agents.
"Our [university] compliance people are looking into it," Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
Sources told ESPN last week that NCAA investigators have interviewed North Carolina players, including defensive end Marvin Austin, about attending the party. South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders also confirmed to ESPN on Sunday that he recently spoke with NCAA investigators about the same party.
The NCAA is trying to determine who paid for the players' transportation to Miami, and lodging, food and entertainment while they were there.
And in what appears to be an unrelated incident, Florida and NCAA officials are investigating whether former Gators offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey accepted $100,000 from the representative of an agent between the 2009 SEC championship game and his team's season-ending victory over Cincinnati in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Saban, a former coach of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, said it might be time to ban NFL teams from college campuses in order to get the league to take seriously the issue of agents boldly breaking NCAA regulations. Alabama is considered one of the more welcoming schools to NFL scouts, who may come watch video at almost any time.
But Saban says it might now be time for a change.
"What the NFL Players Association and the NFL need to do is if any agent breaks a rule and causes ineligibility for a player, they should suspend his [agent's] license for a year or two," Saban said. "I'm about ready for college football to say, 'Let's just throw the NFL out. Don't let them evaluate players. Don't let them talk to players. Let them do it at the combine.' If they are not going to help us, why should we help them?"
Saban said he also believes the NCAA should "take schools off the hook" for the actions of agents and players. In the end, however, he points at the former.
"Right now, agents are screwing it up," Saban said. "They are taking the eligibility of players. It's not right that those players do the wrong thing. We have a great education process here. We have a full-time worker who meets with players and their families and does everything else."
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