HOOVER — Georgia’s A.J. Green said he’s never been to Miami.

Florida’s Mike Pouncey was left to defend his brother and his family name.

As the NCAA’s investigation into a party in Miami that might have resulted in numerous college athletes having improper contact with agents spreads, the issue has taken center stage at SEC Media Days.

Green’s name popped up, but he denied going to the party, which was held at the Fountainbleu hotel in Miami.

On Tuesday, it was Alabama’s Marcell Dareus linked to the party.

Before that, it was North Carolina’s Marvin Austin, a defensive tackle, and Greg Little, a receiver, and South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders.

Pouncey’s brother, Maurkice, wasn’t linked to the party — he was drafted by Pittsburgh in the first round of the NFL draft. But Maurkice Pouncey was accused of accepting $100,000 from an agent between the 2009 SEC Championship game and the Gators’ bowl game.

“... I talked to my brother, and it’s just not true,” Mike Pouncey said on Wednesday. “I feel bad about it because it ruined somebody’s name ... My mom and my dad, they took it real personal because, you know, we come from a great family. We pride ourselves on being great people ...”

Alabama coach Nick Saban railed on agents and called for action against them, including having their license suspended for a year for improper contact and not being able to collect fees. Saban equated the rogue agents to “pimps.”

The crackdown appears to be related to the NCAA’s harsh penalties against Southern California stemming from issues surrounding former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.

“I think to assume that people are going to do the right things in this circumstance without some guidelines is not going to work,” Saban said.

Saban said he thinks there should be consequences for people he says are “entrapping and taking advantage of young people at a difficult time in their life.”

“... although the players are responsible and the players should have consequences if they do it, but the agent should have consequences. Right now, they have none,” Saban said.

At the heart of the issue of the Miami party is who paid for what. If players accepted anything from the agents, it can result in a loss of eligibility.

According to NCAA rules, any athlete who accepts transportation or other benefits from an agent shall be ruled ineligible. Communicating with an agent is not illegal, but there can be no talk of a contract of any form if the athlete hopes to retain eligibility.

Saban pointed out that the happenings certainly aren’t fair to good agents, either.

“There’s a lot of good agents out there that don’t do this stuff,” he said. “They’re not out there chasing guys and giving them money and breaking rules and flying them all over the country, sending girls after them, all kind of stuff. They’re not breaking the rules.”

Saban suggested limiting the NFL presence at practices, but said he preferred not to do that and would like it if either the NFL or the NFL Players Association would do something about the situation.

Player responsibility

While Saban said he would like to see agents held responsible for the improper contact, there still must be accountability from the athletes.

Schools typically try to educate their players, but monitoring them 24/7 can’t be done, leaving it in the hands of the players to avoid improper contact and taking improper benefits from runners or agents.

“You’ve got to be aware of who you’re around at all times,” Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett said. “It’s unfortunate that the schools are having to deal with this and it’s happening in such a great conference. It’s obviously a problem.”

Making changes

SEC commissioner Mike Slive addressed the agents issue during his state of the conference address on Wednesday. He called for a change in how the NCAA deals with agents.

“It’s time to re-examine the NCAA rules that relate to agents,” Slive said. “This is a national problem that calls for a national agent strategy for college athletics.

“In calling for this strategy, our intent is not to eliminate NCAA oversight of agent issues, and not to excuse improper student-athlete behavior, but rather to change the NCAA’s philosophical basis for these rules from enforcement to an assistance-based model.”

Slive said an NCAA committee has been established to look into these things.

“Given the surreptitious nature of these matters, it is difficult, if not impossible, for institutions to know what might have taken place,” Slive said.

While Saban made headlines across the country by calling rogue agents “pimps,” Florida’s Urban Meyer didn’t go that far, instead calling them predators. He said the university had security for the sole reason of keeping out people they don’t want around the players.

Like Saban, Meyer said he thinks there needs to be repercussions.

“In the history of civilization, without getting overdramatic here, if there’s a problem, to fix a problem, there’s a set of rules and violations, rules and laws,” Meyer said. “If you violate a rule or a law, you have to pay a serious price ...

“A student-athlete losing a season of eligibility or games, that’s significant. That affects their livelihood, name, reputation, the school’s reputation. The other end of that has to be severely punished, as well.

“If one end is being punished and the other is not, that’s not right. It’s not fair. It’s not going to work. Somehow, that has to be figured.”

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said he had talked to Saunders, who denied any wrongdoing. Spurrier said that coaches do what they can to tell their players the rules and that they can’t take things from boosters or agents or whomever.

“But it’s hard to watch ‘em all the time,” Spurrier said. “But sometimes, you just got to, you know, trust your players know the rules and can wait ‘til after their final game before they take the money.”

Otherwise, there will be many more players defending their actions.