"Ohio State Tattoo Parlor, Meet Alabama's Suit Parlor"

Well, well... well.

This is going to be interesting.

Here we have one of the Mount Rushmore-caliber college football programs in the country, with a stuff-for-autographs scandal brewing that appears to be a carbon copy of the dynamics that brought down Jim Tressel at Ohio State.

Mind you, Nick Saban has yet to blatantly lie to the NCAA about this - yet - but who knows where it's headed.

We pick up the excellent legwork on the ground from Outkick The Coverage.com....

As the T-Town Menswear story continues to grow, one of the most interesting aspects of the story has been the degree to which a middle-aged suit store owner ingratiated himself with the Alabama football program. As you've seen from our previous story hundreds of Alabama players have been pictured hanging out at his store. 

Including Julio Jones at the above picture, trying on a suit coat inside the store.
Why are so many players hanging out here? 

How many mall stores did you regularly hang out at while you were in college? 

The only real reason why so many Alabama players would be hanging out at this store is simple -- because they were getting hooked up in some way. Ohio State's tattoo parlor meet Alabama's suit parlor.

The basics are as follows.

Mall store owner has easily 100 or so Alabama players he is "friends" with. They sign stuff for him. He sells that signed stuff.

And we're supposed to believe that the players will do this for anybody - like say, the Dairy Queen down the road, not at the mall, and not with access to $1000 plus tailored suits.

Uh, sure.

Julio Jones - who proudly recounted how his single mother worked to raise him by working at fast food chicken joints - apparently wore up to 16 different suits while playing for Alabama and walking in from the team bus.

At 6-4, 220, he's not borrowing them, either.

The store manager won't talk.
The owner of the memorabilia company won't talk.
Alabama says there are no violations.

And yet, they are voluntarily "disassociating" with the guy for 3 years.

Hmm. Doesn't ESPN have a 15 year, $2 BILLION deal with that same conference.

Why, yes. Yes they do. Wonder if this story gets equal scrutiny as Ohio State.

Ahhh. Sure it will. Of course. Right?