College football roundup: Tuiasosopo apologizes, claims he was abused as a child
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the man who masterminded the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax, apologized to the Notre Dame linebacker publicly on Friday and said he devised the scheme as an escape after being molested as a child.
Tuiasosopo, 22, told Dr. Phil McGraw in the second part of an interview on the "Dr. Phil Show" that he was molested repeatedly by a family friend starting at age 12.
The alleged attacker wasn't identified and Tuiasosopo didn't disclose whether he had reported the abuse to authorities.
Tuiasosopo contends that he devised the false persona of Lennay Kekua to help him live an alternate reality and make him feel that he was a good person after the trauma he experienced as a child.
He also has maintained that, contrary to one report, that Kekua's voice was his and not that of a cousin. Tuiasosopo offered McGraw a voice sample, which was sent to three laboratories to verify. All three reported that the voice matched the one heard on phone calls and voicemails to Te'o from Kekua.
In the first segment of the interview that was broadcasst Thursday, Tuiasosopo said he was romantically in love with Te'o.
--- San Diego State head coach Rocky Long has agreed to a contract extension with the Aztecs that will take him through the 2017 season, the school announced.
Long's initial contract with San Diego State was a five-year deal worth $4 million that would have expired in 2015. The extension does not include a raise.
---Wide receiver O.J. Ross, Purdue's second-leading receiver this past season, has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules, the school announced.
It's the second time in a little more than a year that Ross has been suspended from the team. He had been suspended indefinitely in December 2011, then reinstated last May.
