Attorney: NCAA looking for more Sidney records

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The attorney for Mississippi State basketball signee Renardo Sidney says the NCAA requested more information Wednesday in its investigation of the heralded recruit's amateur status.

This time investigators with the NCAA's eligibility center want the tax returns of not only Sidney's parents, but his grandparents. And Montgomery, Ala.-based attorney Don Jackson said that goes too far.

Jackson said the latest request "represents an illegal intrusion" into the family's right to privacy and that the investigation has "troubling racial overtones."

"In effect, this investigation has required that two generations of an African-American family prove to the NCAA that they have the financial ability to support themselves," Jackson said.

Jackson also said the NCAA investigator who sent him the e-mail request said Sidney would not be cleared to play for the Bulldogs this season unless the tax returns are turned over.

A spokeswoman said the NCAA has often requested similar records in the past in other investigations.

"There is extensive case precedent for requests of specific information, including bank records, if that information is relevant to the case," Stacey Osburn said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "To suggest that race has anything to do with this request is both absurd and flat out wrong. Mr. Jackson's client is not being treated any differently than any other student-athlete in similar circumstances."

Sidney has been under investigation since a Los Angeles Times article citing anonymous sources alleged the former Jackson resident and his family were living in million-dollar homes without visible means of support while the 6-foot-10 power forward played at Fairfax High in Los Angeles.

Jackson disputes the allegations in the article and says investigators have yet to offer any proof the family did anything wrong. Sidney eventually signed a national letter of intent with Mississippi State.

The Times article said Southern Cal and UCLA dropped pursuit of the recruit because of concerns he or his family may have committed NCAA violations.

But former Trojans coach Tim Floyd, in his first public comments since resigning in June, told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson that the school simply backed away when it learned of the Times article over fears the pursuit of Sidney would reflect poorly on a school that's already under investigation for allegations that Floyd paid someone to steer O.J. Mayo to sign with USC.

"Given the fact that the institution was involved in an institutional control investigation, they viewed it as preventive management," Floyd said.

Floyd said USC officials never conducted their own investigation, but never ran across any apparent violations. He hopes the probe doesn't derail a promising career.

"I just hope that the first stage is not snatched away from him because he has the potential to make $100 million, $200 million in his career," Floyd told the paper.