LSU acknowledged its involvement with Houston-based talent scout Willie Lyles in a news release Thursday. Yes, the same Lyles who has been surrounded in recruiting/scouting controversy with the Oregon Ducks , whose staff paid him $25,000 for his scouting services. According to the release, LSU paid Lyles, the director of Complete Scouting Services, $6,000 and acquired 32 DVDs of California and Kansas junior college prospects from the 2010-11 recruiting year. The DVDs also contained footage of a 2010-11 Texas high school prospect and a 2007-08 Kansas junior college prospect that LSU didn’t request. LSU also received typewritten material that consisted of 91 pages of “roster-type information from junior colleges in California and Kansas.” The written material consisted mostly of information on prospects that had “finished junior college in 2009-10 and had already enrolled in a four-year college by the time LSU received the materials.” LSU’s staff didn’t try to gather the 2010-11 information because the staff felt the video footage was sufficient enough for evaluation purposes. LSU has submitted all of these materials to the NCAA, the release read. LSU maintains that it has cooperated with the NCAA regarding questions about Lyles’ scouting service and has supplied materials to and answered questions from an NCAA official. Several members of the LSU’s coaching staff who participated in the questioning met with the NCAA official on campus last week. This isn’t the first time LSU has been linked to Lyles. Earlier this year, former Texas A&M cornerbacks coach Van Malone told ESPN that in 2007 Lyles told him after former LSU standout corner Patrick Peterson visited A&M’s campus that A&M had to “beat” $80,000 if it wanted to sign Peterson . Malone told Lyles that wasn’t happening and informed Peterson of Lyles’ intentions. Peterson later released a statement denying any sort of relationship with Lyles. “I have never had any type of relationship with Willie Lyles and he had no influence on my decision to attend LSU, or any other school for that matter. He had no involvement with my recruiting process and I resent the fact that my name has come up in these allegations. I chose LSU because it’s a great school with a great football program. I never received nor was I offered anything to go to LSU and anyone saying otherwise is being dishonest.” Here is the complete news release from LSU regarding its involvement with Lyles: LSU has cooperated with the NCAA regarding questions about a college scouting service by supplying materials and answering questions posed by an NCAA official to several members of the LSU football coaching staff last week. The football coaches who participated in the questioning met with the NCAA official on the LSU campus. Also, LSU has chosen to identify the contents of materials supplied to the university’s football coaching staff in 2010 by Complete Scouting Services and its director Will Lyles. LSU is issuing this statement in order to provide factual information about the materials provided by the service to LSU. These materials have been supplied to the NCAA by LSU. The LSU football coaching staff specifically requested information pertaining to junior college prospects in California and Kansas for evaluation purposes. The material LSU received from Complete Scouting Services consisted of two types: (1) DVDs containing game footage or highlights on prospects, and (2) typewritten pages containing basic data on prospects. The DVDs provided by Complete Scouting Services contain footage of 32 California and Kansas junior college prospects from the 2010-11 recruiting year. The prospects were eligible to sign national letters of intent in February 2011. The DVDs also contain footage of one 2010-11 Texas high school prospect and one 2007-08 Kansas junior college prospect, material which LSU had not requested. The typewritten material consists of 91 pages of roster-type information from junior colleges in California and Kansas. The material consists almost entirely of information pertaining to prospects that had finished junior college in 2009-10 and had already enrolled in a four-year college by the time LSU received the materials. The LSU coaching staff did not attempt to collect the correct 2010-11 typewritten data from the service because it determined the video footage was sufficient for its evaluation purposes. LSU issued a check in the amount of $6,000 on December 21, 2010 to pay for these services from Complete Scouting Services. LSU will make no further comment at this time regarding these matters.

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LSU cooperating with NCAA regarding Lyles