In September 1987 UT reacted by “categorically denying” charges that Sport magazine indicated were forthcoming in its November issue, claiming a “cover-up” in the UT internal investigation of extra benefits and comp ticket sales made in 1986.
The magazine further charged that the infractions were made with the knowledge and assistance of UT officials. Reggie White, Willie Gault, Joe Cofer, and Tim McGee were recorded and quoted as confirming extra benefits and comp sales. Carol Turner, former supervisor of the city car pound, was quoted as saying that the Athletics Department regularly got football players’ cars out of impoundment for nonpayment of parking violations. The NCAA “extended indefinitely” UT’s probation until an investigation of the Sport charges could be made.
In May 1988 the NCAA removed UT from probation. In its letter summarizing its findings, the NCAA indicated it had “found the unnamed source of the public charges of a cover-up, but the individual declined to make similar statements to the NCAA, even on a confidential basis.” The NCAA indicated also that the other allegations in the Sport article were found to be unsustained, were outside the NCAA’s four-year statute of limitations, or had been considered in its original 1986 investigation.