The University of Nebraska Athletic Department denies any knowledge of large cash payments made by boosters to Thunder Collins while he was a Husker football player.

On Thursday during a jailhouse interview, Collins, who just learned he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison for murder, said he made $1,000-a-month to play football. "When I was at Nebraska, the boosters were paying us and they wanted to know who was paying us...I wouldn’t do it. For one, Nebraska would have been on probation for the first time ever and I didn’t want that to happen. It’s a fraternity and I was loyal to them and I just walked away."

Collins declined to give more specifics. He quit the team in 2002.

Friday afternoon in response to inquiries made by Channel 6 News, the University of Nebraska Athletic Department says it thoroughly investigated Thunder Collins during the 2002 season and says it takes all reports of violations seriously and reports infractions to the NCAA.

At the time the internal investigation was led by NU Faculty Athletics Representative Jo Potuto who "confirmed that while NU did self-report Collins to the NCAA for secondary violations, Nebraska never had any reports or information regarding large cash payments made to Collins, as he has recently claimed."

The University's compliance department defines a secondary violation in this way: "a violation that is isolated or inadvertent in nature, provides or is intended to provide only a minimal recruiting, competitive or other advantage and does not include any significant recruiting inducement or extra benefit."