Summer Programs Feeling the Heat

The NCAA adopted a series of other regulations in recent years, attempting to curb the influence of summer league coaches and camps. In 2002, it prohibited contact between summer league coaches and college coaches at camps, a rule enforced by two NCAA representatives who roamed the gymnasium at ABCD Camp in New Jersey.

Perhaps the most controversial, though, was the 100-mile rule, since modified, which limited high school players to compete on summer league teams in their immediate area. Komara, however, countered with a loophole he found.

Komara said he and an attorney did not see a residency clause in the rule that stipulated a player had to live somewhere for a requisite amount of time. So the mother of Jackie Butler, a talented player from McComb, Miss., rented a small apartment in Huntsville for a few weeks, solely so Butler could play on Komara's team.

"You could move in one day and move out the next and play with that team," he said. "They didn't write the rule right. It's not my fault."

The NCAA has maintained that it does not practice selective enforcement, punishing some while protecting what are referred to as sacred programs and coaches. But Komara said last week that a coach of another school recently told him there were 780 calls made between Komara and that school over a two-year period. Yet it is Auburn that is prohibited from contacting Komara regarding player recruitment until 2006.

"I know what I've done," Komara said. "I've done it right. I'm not going to say I'm a complete saint. I'm really not. Anyone in this business . . . you got kids, if they need something to eat, I'm going to feed them. They need shoes, I'm going to give them shoes. If that's wrong, I'm sorry."

Though he is now an Auburn booster in the eyes of the NCAA, none of the trinkets in Komara's office -- including framed pictures of former Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, oversized liquor bottle souvenirs and the book "Undue Process: The NCAA's Injustice for All" -- is Auburn related.

As Komara said, "I need to put on an Auburn shirt, I guess."