Allen Greene weighs in on presence of tampering at Auburn

Tampering has become a prominent issue within college sports over recent months. Ever since the introduction of NIL and the transfer portal, we have seen more instances of tampering across the nation. Schools across the nation have been impacted by this problem. Recently, Auburn Tigers athletic director Allen Greene joined The Paul Finebaum Show to address how Auburn has been impacted by tampering.

Ultimately, Greene believes that tampering and those kinds of things “erode” the nature of college athletics. But when it comes to the student athletes at Auburn, Greene believes that the majority are committed to the Tigers.

“It erodes it a little bit,” Greene said. “But I would also say that some of those student athletes who are saying, ‘I’m going to leave if,’ or ‘I’m going to stay if,’ I think that’s a very small percentage. Obviously the driving force is football and men’s basketball, and we’ve seen some of that stuff bleed into other sports. But of our 550 student athletes, the majority of them want to be at Auburn, want to get an education, they want to get a world class education and they want to be able to compete for the orange and blue.”

A prominent example of tampering came in recent weeks, as reports emerged that Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans had contacted Pittsburgh Panthers wide receiver Jordan Addison, even though he wasn’t in the transfer portal at the time. This caused an uproar, and Addison later officially entered the portal, though he has not yet committed.

Greene also addressed the Bryan Harsin, Auburn situation from the offseason

Earlier in the offseason, the future of Auburn head football coach Bryan Harsin was very publicly questioned and put into doubt. The process played out right in front of the public eye, and the Tigers ultimately retained Harsin for next season. When talking to Finebaum, Greene went in depth on the Harsin situation, and expressed his excitement for Auburn’s football program next season and beyond.

“We weren’t as successful as we should have been last year, and everybody knows that and Coach Harsin knows that,” Greene said. “I think for us, the important thing is address the areas of concern and be able to move forward. I’m thankful that Coach Harsin has – he’s made changes, but he’s also now in more of a stable environment as COVID, I don’t want to say moved on, but we’ve gotten more accustomed to it. I know he’s engaging with our student athletes, he’s engaging with our coaches and with the fans. Just being more natural in his element. So we’re looking forward to an exciting football season.”