UT proactive about Morley's school

Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said he wasn't caught off guard or overly concerned, from a compliance standpoint, about the published report.

In fact, Hamilton said UT has been proactive in researching the correspondence school, sending associate athletics director for compliance Brad Bertani down to Miami to investigate the school in the spring.

"Schools of this nature are more and more prevalent, so (people) are beginning to look behind the scenes a little bit more at what's there,'' Hamilton said.

The Times pointed out that Morley graduated with a 2.75 grade-point average from University "precisely what he wound up needing to qualify for a scholarship.''

The story stated that Morley had received three Fs from Killian High and had a 2.09 GPA in his core courses.

Morley also was taking seven courses at University and scored all As and Bs, graduating in December of 2004 with the precise GPA he needed.

Hamilton said Tennessee "trusted'' the certification process in Morley's case, but the Vols were careful to send a detailed report of their findings to the SEC, which in turn forwarded the information to the NCAA.

"When all this became an issue and we started looking into it, we contacted the SEC and the NCAA and talked to them about these issues,'' Hamilton said. "As far as I know, we were the only school to go down there.''

The other schools to have players sign with them after gaining credit from University, according to the Times, are: Auburn, Central Florida, Colorado State, Florida, Florida State, Florida International, Rutgers, South Carolina State, South Florida and Temple.