Charges against NCAA dismissed

Tuscaloosa Circuit Judge Steven Wilson dismissed Ivy Williams' claims against the NCAA seeking damages stemming from a mistaken posting on the Internet as well as his claims against recruiting analyst Tom Culpepper.

"Absolutely, we feel like this is a victory for us," NCAA attorney Robert Rutherford told The Tuscaloosa News.

Jurors will be left to decide whether Cottrell, deemed a public figure by the judge, has proven the required actual malice in his claims against Culpepper, all that remains of a highly publicized suit that focused on the NCAA and in many instances Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer.

"What can you say? We've lost against the NCAA, but we definitely will appeal," said Tommy Gallion, an attorney for the coaches. "I am like a tick on a hound dog. You will have to burn me off to get rid of me. We will keep going against Tom Culpepper. That's all we have left."

On Tuesday, Wilson dismissed Williams' claims of defamation and invasion of privacy against the NCAA, much as he did earlier in Cottrell's part of the suit.

According to the coaches, an NCAA posting on the Internet had indicated that schools wanting to hire them would have to show cause, following NCAA sanctions against the Alabama program. The posting was later taken down.

Cottrell and Williams had claimed in the nearly 2-year-old case that they had been unable to find comparable employment following the NCAA's investigation and sanctions.

Cottrell is now head coach at Carroll High School in Ozark. Williams is an assistant at Division II Savannah State.

After Wilson's rulings, attorneys for Culpepper began their defense by playing portions of a videotaped deposition from Gene Marsh, Alabama's former faculty athletics representative.

On the tape, Marsh described how Cottrell was the subject of four secondary NCAA violations within a six-month period and how Alabama and the SEC set out to discipline Cottrell.

But Marsh said on tape that the the university never considered Culpepper "a major piece of our case."

"He was not that critical," Marsh said. "He became critical from the NCAA perspective. That is one thing that's puzzling, is that he gets elevated as if he were some kind of big deal."

Lawyers for the recruiting analyst also called his former employer in Birmingham, Jud Moore, to testify about Culpepper's professional personality.