Alabama Jury Sends a Message to NCAA

By Rick Karcher   On November 29, a jury in Alabama awarded $5 million to a former University of Alabama football booster, Ray Keller, who claimed the NCAA defamed him when it announced the imposition of penalties on the Crimson Tide in 2002. Keller maintained that the NCAA wrongly lumped him in with other boosters who were accused of making improper contacts and payments to recruits in the 1990s. A timber dealer and Crimson Tide fan, Keller argued that the NCAA slandered and libeled him