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Mountaineer Maniacs President Cassie Werner said her organization "in no way, knowingly" committed NCAA violations at Friday’s Mountaineer Madness event.
Reports surfaced Monday that the West Virginia University compliance department is reviewing possible NCAA secondary violations that were committed at the event involving basketball recruit Adreian Payne.
"I would never want to break a rule, and I would never want to get the University in any type of trouble," Werner said. "If we broke a rule, I’d like to know what it is.
"I honestly have to plead ignorance because I honestly don’t know a rule that we broke."
Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance Patrick Hairston told The Charleston Daily Mail Monday the situation is currently under review.
Calls to Hairston and Compliance Director Chad Wall were not returned.
The Maniacs handed out T-shirts that read "House of Payne" and "No Payne, No Gain" before the event and made signs directed toward Payne, encouraging him to commit to WVU.
The possible violation mainly concerns whether the T-shirts bought by the Maniacs would be considered a University purchase.
NCAA rules state a university cannot organize anything to help publicize a recruit’s presence.
But the Maniacs is a private organization that is only recognized by the University, not an entity of it, according to Werner.
She said the money came directly out of the Maniacs’ membership funds and the individual, non-profit organization, receives no money from the University.
Werner said, after learning of Payne’s plan to attend Mountaineer Madness, she and a group of friends took it upon themselves to organize the display and no other parties were involved.
"Nobody asked us to do it. At no point in time did someone approach me and say ‘Hey Cassie, you should get the Maniacs to do this,’" Werner said. "We took it upon ourselves. It was just a group of friends who love Mountaineer athletics, and we thought it was a very appropriate thing to do.
"There was a top 25 recruit coming to town. We can’t just not do something."
Werner said she feels the highly organized display is the main reason for the investigation. While the Maniacs have done similar events in the past to welcome a recruit, it has never been as detailed, according to the president.
"It was so organized, and there were so many people involved and I think that’s why it’s under question," Werner said. "No one ever came to us when we did things like this in the past and tell us that we can’t recognize a recruit."
Werner said she has spoken with "all the necessary channels" in order to help clear the situation.
27 comments
Have been involved otherwise in promoting the institution's athletics program.The Maniacs are the "official student booster group for Mountaineer athletics" or so says WVU press releases. Our own basketball media guide calls them a booster group.
Kudos for the effort. Stupid in not knowin' better in the first place....and on ESPN? Seriously...
And yeah there is a huge difference in chanting a players name and having a section of Payne dedicated groupies.