The Hoover report

The long-awaited Hoover High School Board of Education report on alleged academic fraud in the Hoover football program was released on Saturday by The Birmingham News, but did not implicate Alabama in any wrongdoing.

Alabama freshman defensive tackle Josh Chapman --- identified as “Student No. 1” in the report, had his Algebra II grade changed from an 89 to 90 over the summer, thus making his qualified to play for the Crimson Tide this fall (he has appeared in three games this season). But the board concluded that Chapman’s grade change came as the result of a “rounding error” and not at the behest of Hoover or Crimson Tide coaches.

“The incident that has attracted the most media attention --- that involving a change of (Chapman’s) Algebra II grade --- is also perhaps the least egregious,” the 71-page report read. “As we have noted, this grade change was simply the result of innocent human error, and was not a devious effort to inflate an athlete’s grade.”

The report also acknowledges a telephone call from Alabama assistant coach Kevin Steele to Terri Borie, the Hoover’s Peer Helping Coordinator. According to the report, however, Steele’s call was only to point out that Chapman had unexpectedly fallen “ seven 1,000ths” of a point shy of qualifying, and not to request that his Algebra II grade be changed.

There are also several pages in the report regarding the academic record of former Hoover defensive tackle Kerry Murphy, who signed with Alabama in February. Murphy was several points short of qualifying to play with the Crimson Tide, however, and enrolled at a Virginia prep school (Alabama was never accused of any wrongdoing in Murphy’s case).

Read the entire report here.