LSU officials meet with accusers, NCAA

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - Two former LSU teachers who have alleged academic wrongdoing involving athletes met Tuesday with LSU officials and an NCAA investigator. <br> <br> Tiffany Mayne, a former instructor, and Caroline Owen, a former graduate assistant, attended the closed-door meeting along with their lawyer, Aidan Reynolds, LSU associate athletic director Bo Bahnsen, LSU lawyer Mike Pharis and an unidentified NCAA official. <br> <br> Mayne and Owen have said in lawsuits they were pressured to keep quiet about their allegations. <br> <br> LSU is investigating various allegations of academic improprieties involving the Academic Center for Athletes. <br> <br> The allegations center on a number of football players and include charges of plagiarism, improper use of note takers, tutors and academic center employees providing too much help, athletes taking unsupervised tests and superiors pressuring instructors to let improprieties continue. <br> <br> Mayne has said five LSU athletes presented papers in May 2001 that Mayne believed were plagiarized. Owen said she graded papers from LSU football players she believed were plagiarized. <br> <br> If found guilty of NCAA violations, LSU would be subject to additional punishment as a repeat offender. The university is still on probation for sanctions relating to the recruitment of former basketball player Lester Earl.

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