TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) – Alabama coach Mike Price could find out Saturday whether his off-field behavior will cost him his job before he even coaches a game for the Crimson Tide.

University President Robert Witt, who took over shortly after Price’s hiring in December, will present his findings to university trustees. The meeting Saturday will be open to the public, except when officials are discussing someone’s “good name and character,” spokeswoman Kellee Reinhart said.

The university is investigating Price’s conduct during a trip to Pensacola, Fla., last month for a pro-am golf tournament. According to news reports, Price paid for several private dances at a topless bar and, the next morning, a woman at the hotel where Price was staying ordered about $1,000 in items from the room service menu and charged it to Price’s room bill.

A close friend of Price, Mack Bledsoe, said the coach told him he didn’t know how the woman wound up in his room.

“He said he wound up with a lady in his room the next morning and he had no recollection of it,” Bledsoe told the Paul Finebaum Radio Network, based in Birmingham, on Friday. “He was fully clothed. She was fully clothed. He was wearing the clothes he wore the night before.”

Bledsoe’s son, Drew, was a star quarterback under Price at Washington State and plays for the Buffalo Bills.

The school’s investigation also could be expanded to include accusations that Price bought drinks for students, The Tuscaloosa News reported Friday.

Price, 57, has declined to comment about the details of the reports. Alabama players who met with him said he was somewhat embarrassed but candid with them.

Six team leaders met with the coach in his office Thursday and expressed support for him.

“It’d be a very, very tough situation” if he’s dismissed, quarterback Brodie Croyle said. “Everybody on this team feels the exact same way we do. We all want him here.

“We had more fun playing football this spring than I have since I’ve been here.”

Price agreed to a seven-year contract worth $10 million after leaving Washington State, but he hasn’t signed the deal. It has a clause saying he can be fired for any behavior “that brings (the) employee into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, or ridicule or that reflects unfavorably upon the reputation or the high moral or ethical standards of the University.”

Trustee John England, a member of the athletics committee, said he didn’t know whether Saturday’s meeting would extend beyond Price’s behavior in Florida, or when a decision on Price’s status might be announced.

“This is not a typical situation, but I suspect that we’ll hear from the president, and the president will allow us to ask questions and have input,” England said. “But it’s the president’s decision. He will determine his timetable.”

The university hired Witt in late January from Texas-Arlington. Already he’s faced with a thorny decision regarding the job status of the university’s most prominent and highest-paid employee.

If Witt decides to fire Price, there would be little time for a new coach to put in a new system and assemble a staff. Price has two sons on the Alabama staff: offensive coordinator Eric Price and quarterbacks and kickers coach Aaron Price.

He also has two assistants with head coaching experience: Defensive coordinator Joe Kines was head coach at Arkansas in 1992, and tight ends coach Sparky Woods had head coaching stints at South Carolina (1989-1993) and Appalachian State (1983-88).

Not firing Price could also cause lingering image and recruiting problems for a program that already is on NCAA probation and has dealt with a sexual-harassment case against former coach Mike DuBose in 1999.

“People love to slam us when they get an opportunity,” former Crimson Tide All-American Lee Roy Jordan said Friday. “We’ve withstood that before, and we’ll do it this time.”

AP-ES-05-02-03 2302EDT