Brett McMurphy debunks SI reporting in a day

This is just incredible.

Brett McMurphy (an Oklahoma State grad, full disclosure) went guns up at Sports Illustrated on Thursday afternoon with this article.

He cites multiple misreports by Sports Illustrated including when certain people were enrolled (!)

That includes this seemingly menial task of checking to see whether or not Tatum Bell was even at the school in 2004:

Carter also told SI that he and Bell were in the same classes and got A’s and then had the same instructor again in 2004 but both got F’s, Carter said.

“I’d guess that there was pressure (on the instructor) to give us those A’s when we were playing, but not when we weren’t,” Carter told SI.

However, Bell wasn’t at Oklahoma State in 2004. He withdrew from school after the 2003 fall semester, according to his OSU transcript that he provided to ESPN.

“I withdrew from school after the (Jan. 2, 2004) Cotton Bowl,” Bell said. “I was never enrolled in 2004 and never attended classes in 2004.”

I never thought questions surrounding Tatum Bell’s eligibility would be something that helped the Oklahoma State football program.

As Samantha Vicent said:

.@SINow: verifying someone's enrollment year(s) is one of the most basic elements of fact-checking. C'mon, guys. That's embarrassing.

— Samantha Vicent (@samanthavicent) September 12, 2013