Missouri president expresses relief over allegations

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- University of Missouri President Elson Floyd told The Associated Press he feels "much better" about allegations of inappropriate academic help for a former basketball player after a meeting Thursday with the NCAA.

But Floyd also said said Missouri hasn't been cleared, the long-running NCAA investigation isn't over, and he doesn't know when it will end.

The university and the NCAA have spent months investigating allegations surrounding troubled former guard Ricky Clemons, including assertions by Clemons' ex-girlfriend, Jessica Bunge, that he received improper help with school work. Missouri coach Quin Snyder has said he had no knowledge of his former player receiving improper academic help.

"Personally, I feel much better about there not being a possibility of any academic violations having occured, but we need to wait and see what the NCAA says," Floyd told the AP after about two hours of meetings in Indianapolis with NCAA enforcement officials.

Floyd said he sought the meeting "to get a sense of where they were, relative to the investigation -- and it's unclear when they will be finishing their investigation."

The NCAA said in a letter dated Sept. 23 that it was giving Missouri formal notice of an inquiry already under way for several months.

The NCAA and Missouri had said they expected the investigations to be wrapped up by this month, but Floyd said: "We don't know when it will end."

Questions have arisen about how Clemons accumulated 24 academic credits -- enough to enroll at Missouri from a Kansas junior college -- during a two-month period in the summer of 2002.

After more allegations related to academics by Clemons' ex-girlfriend, Jessica Bunge, Floyd commandeered the internal investigation from the athletic department and handed its leadership to veteran electrical engineering Professor Michael Devaney, an immediate past president of the Columbia campus faculty council.

Floyd's hands-on involvement is notable because he runs the entire four-campus university system.

But Floyd told the AP that because of the seriousness and high profile of the academic allegations, "This is something that goes to the core of our mission. It is what we are all about and I am going to get to the bottom of it."

Bunge alleged Clemons choked her in a headlock and held her against her will at his Columbia apartment one night last January.

Clemons at first denied the allegations, but after the basketball season ended, he pleaded guilty in April to two misdemeanors. Clemons was sentenced to a halfway house but was ordered to complete a 40-day sentence in the county jail after violating terms of his sentence.

While Clemons was in jail, he was booted from the basketball team. He has made no recent public comments about Bunge's allegations or answered questions about whether he is cooperating with the NCAA.

The investigations intensified this summer because of allegations by Bunge that Clemons had also received cash and clothes while playing for Missouri.

Snyder acknowledged in his sworn depositions that he gave Clemons a couple of pairs of promotional shoes and pants he intended to discard. But Snyder said he didn't recall more extensive clothing gifts and he denied giving Clemons cash. The coach has said he is cooperating with the NCAA and internal investigations.

Floyd said he was joined in the meeting at NCAA headquarters by Athletic Director Mike Alden, Associate Athletic Director Sarah Reesman, and university attorneys Bunky Wright and Bill Arnet. Snyder did not attend.

"We hope to bring closure to this as soon as possible, but the length of the current stage of the review is not unusual," Alden said in a statement Thursday night. "MU will continue to cooperate fully with the NCAA as this process continues."

NCAA spokeswoman Kay Hawes told the AP she was prohibited from commenting on "any potential or ongoing investigation."