Why Auburn can’t allow Cam to play against UGA (Updated)
On Tuesday Gene Chizik defended Cam Newton against allegations the coach called “pure garbage” by saying the quarterback had done everything asked of him since arriving at Auburn. But now Auburn needs to ask — nay, to demand — that Newton do something difficult for all involved.
Auburn needs to tell Newton to sit out the Georgia game.
The dynamics have changed since Chizik offered his ringing defense. On Wednesday ESPN reported that two unnamed Mississippi State “recruiters” had heard both Newton and his father Cecil mention money in separate phone conversations. On Thursday Kenny Rogers told ESPN 103.3 in Dallas that the elder Newton was seeking between $100,000 and $180,000 for his son to enroll at Mississippi State.
In nine days we’d gone from two reports that referenced the former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond as a rather distant accuser to stronger allegations that Cecil Newton himself asked for money. And late Friday Mark Winne of Channel 2 Action News reported that Cecil Newton has admitted discussing the possibility of getting money from MSU. (Though the elder Newton claimed no money changed hands and that both Cam Newton and Auburn are clean.)
Rogers has offered names, dates, details and demands. Rogers, who has worked for an agent who is apparently being investigated by the NFL Players Association, might not be the perfect witness, but the murky depths of NCAA violations tend not to be the realm of saints.
As yet, nothing has surfaced to tie Auburn to any player payola, but that’s no longer the issue. It can be an NCAA violation for anyone to seek money or benefits on behalf of a prospect, and now Cecil Newton has apparently admitted as much. Which means Cam Newton could be ineligible. More to the point, it means Auburn has reason to suspect he could be ineligible.
Auburn faces Georgia tomorrow. The Tigers can clinch the SEC West if they win, but there’s more at stake that a berth in the SEC championship game and the clear possibility of playing for the BCS title: There’s the reputation of a university on the line, and it’s a reputation Auburn hasn’t always gone to the wall to protect.
In 1957 Auburn went undefeated and finished No. 1 in the Associated Press poll but couldn’t grace a bowl because it was on probation. In 1993 Auburn went undefeated but was barred from a bowl appearance — and even from appearing on live TV — because it was on probation. In 2003 Auburn’s president and athletic director flew to Sellersburg, Ind., on a private jet owned by the toxic booster Bobby Lowder to meet with Louisville coach Bobby Petrino even though Auburn still had a coach in Tommy Tuberville.
According to the NCAA’s database, Auburn football has been penalized five times for major violations. (This doesn’t count JetGate, which was merely an affront to human decency.) The most recent sanctions were levied in 1993, which suggests the school has become more scrupulous in recent years. Here’s the chance for Auburn University to prove it’s more than a football program with a few classrooms as window dressing. Here’s the chance for Auburn to prove it cares more about being an institution of higher learning than it does the outcome of a given game.
Auburn has cause to doubt that Cam Newton’s recruitment was pristine. It plays Georgia on Saturday but doesn’t play again until it meets Alabama the day after Thanksgiving. That’s nearly two weeks to conduct a thorough in-house investigation, as opposed to relying on the kneejerk “Cam Newton is eligible to play at Auburn” defense. That’s enough time to get some grasp on what’s really what.
The worst thing a school can do is to allow a player of questionable eligibility to represent it. For Auburn to let Newton play against Georgia simply on faith would be to ignore the revelations of the past nine days. It doesn’t much matter if Mississippi State or Florida or the CIA or the KGB was behind these allegations; what matters is that the burden of proof — and proving that something didn’t happen is a massive burden — has fallen on Auburn.
If Newton doesn’t play against Georgia and the Bulldogs win, Auburn will have lost a football game. If Newton plays and is later found to have been ineligible, Auburn will lose much more. For the sake of his latest school, Cam Newton cannot take the field tomorrow.
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1,576 comments Add your comment
Tom
November 13th, 2010
1:42 pm
Cam Newton said he cared, he showed he cared, and so naturally everyone started to like him. After a little while he takes advantage! What you end up with are a loss of trust and grief to go with it.
Sounds kinda familiar huh? He even kinda looks like Obama
SEC: Some close calls, but lot of hoops wins : Woods Recruiting
November 13th, 2010
1:45 pm
[...] Mark Bradley of the AJC doesn’t believe that Auburn can allow Newton to play today. [...]
mark
November 13th, 2010
1:48 pm
BS. Auburn is already in for the dime.
mowreck
November 13th, 2010
1:49 pm
What if Cam doesn’t play and Georgia still loses?
Jim Clarke
November 13th, 2010
2:46 pm
Mark, I am a Auburn hater (roll tide) but your article makes no sense. It is like a 2nd grader wrote it. If he is guilty then the whole season is a wash because they will have to forfeit every game. If he is not guilty and they lose they blow their chance at a National title. If they sit Cam then Auburn is admitting he is guilty. If that is case then they should give the investigators all the info they have. There is no way he sits today unless their is a smoking gun. Even though I hate Auburn in the US you are innocent till proven guilty. Not guilty till proven innocent. This might be the worst article I have ever read. You should find a new job because this is junk. There are many other ways you could have written this article.
Arizona
November 13th, 2010
4:49 pm
Wow, what a shock…there are no ethics in college football. Newton is playing. What a farce! Win at all costs.
Walt P.
November 13th, 2010
5:32 pm
Personally, I agree Newton should sit, but if it is proven he was ineligible, then it wipes out ALL of Auburn’s wins to this point.
There is a lot more at stake than simply the SEC title game berth. There likely is a ton of additional pressure on the NCAA to get this done quickly because of the fact if Auburn falters, Boise State and/or TCU would then move up into one of the two title game spots, and if Oregon were to also falter, BOTH TCU and Boise move up, setting up a meeting between them for the title that some really want to see happen (and I would think especially NBC since with Boise moving to the Mountain West next year and Comcast taking over NBC later this year or early next, if we did have Boise-TCU for the title this year, Comcast/NBC would likely want Boise and TCU to have a title game rematch on the opening weekend of next season in a special college edition of “Sunday Night Football” next Sept. 4).
Dee
November 13th, 2010
6:16 pm
Just who is having the knee jerk reaction here? Sounds like it’s Mark, who already concluded that Cam Newton is ineligible to play at Auburn. Well, this is the AJC, after all. Why would I expect anything else from this rag.
QB
November 13th, 2010
6:18 pm
Racism still exist and this is evident..
Amused
November 13th, 2010
6:28 pm
Quite an amusing discussion here. Clearly a homer article written by an author who somehow thinks he can influence an enemy college’s actions, but like most bullies, with no effect.
Meanwhile, kudos to the majority of Georgia fans who see the article for what it is, and realize that Auburn has nothing to lose by playing Newton today, and that innocent until proven guilty is more important than let’s win by getting the other team to show up at less than full strength. If it turns out something was done improperly, and that can be proven, Auburn will forfeit the whole season and go on probation. One game won’t matter a bit at that point. There’s little or no chance that if that did happen, anyone would say well Auburn isn’t so bad because they sat Newton for the Georgia game. Especially in the case of an author like this one, they would be too busy piling on about how dirty Auburn is, how they never learn their lesson, how they should be banned from the SEC, the NCAA, and/or the planet, etc.
I also couldn’t help but notice that on this thread, like almost everywhere else in the world, people don’t understand the difference between its and it’s. If you went to Auburn, apparently graduated, and are by your own description, a doctor or an engineer, shouldn’t you know that you aren’t saying much for the university’s teaching success when you talk about it’s (sic) legacy of graduating successful professionals?
I have no dog in this fight, so I hope that it turns out that Cam Newton is clean. I hope his father is as well, though that seems less likely. So far it’s been a great game. Let’s hope that the most memorable part of this game will be the play and the final score, not the fact that it eventually turned into part of a tainted season.
dawgpounder
November 13th, 2010
8:21 pm
eat it Dawgs! And oh by the by, your Coach sucks….
Why Auburn cannot allow Cam Newton to play against UGA | Mark Bradley < Read what Young Americans Read
November 13th, 2010
11:40 pm
[...] Original post: Why Auburn cannot allow Cam Newton to play against UGA | Mark Bradley [...]
blit
November 14th, 2010
12:40 am
Actually I like your coach, doggies.. It’s your players who are thugs. Yeah, just target a player and attack like the school yard bullies you are. Your team runs on to the field like a bunch of losers..oh that’s right you are/did. Anyhoo..Cam played, you cried, he smiled, we win. I figure if your team can act infantile so can I.
blit
November 14th, 2010
12:54 am
Btw..it was unbelievable to watch CBS try to bench Newton. The CBS affiliate puts out another story that’s hear say. Some other source said Cecil gave a full confession mid-night before the Ga. game..right. All week no serious press did a real story about Newton, just a lot of columns and opinion pieces.. Now we have proper press actually publicly reporting an anonymous source story as fact and CBS network runs with it..just enough to prompt the NCAA call to AU. That’s about as nasty as it gets. It’s not the SEC that’s the embarrassment, nor is it the Newtons or AU..it’s sports journalism that’s the total embarrassment. Hey CBS..nothing to be proud here and certainly not how you called and covered the game..shameful.
Steve
November 14th, 2010
8:45 pm
“Here’s the chance for Auburn University to prove it’s more than a football program with a few classrooms as window dressing.” Mark Bradley
What’s the difference between insults and shoddy low brow journalism? Nothing when it is offered up by you Mr. Bradley.
Auburn and Alabama are ranked nearly identically in the U.S. News and World Reports top academic institutions, not the most learned rag in the country, but one that many rely upon for this kind of info. That places Auburn in the top tier of the SEC, admittedly behind Vandy, U of F and UGA, yet still in the top 100 institutions. Auburn has a number of top 10/top 20 nationally ranked academic programs, both undergraduate and graduate. “Window dressing” is a bit strong and inaccurate, but I would not expect that from anyone else but you. I supposed that is why I have so much more regard and respect for your colleague, the true “Mr. College Football” Tony Barnhart.
Perhaps you should spend a little less time focusing on one Newton and learn from the pearls of wisdom of another.
“Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy”–Sir Issac Newton
..or at least without making oneself look foolish and of questionable credibility.
Best of the Blogs | MrSEC.com
November 15th, 2010
5:50 pm
[...] Mark Bradley of the AJC doesn’t believe that Auburn can allow Newton to play today. [...]
warren casaday
November 15th, 2010
7:15 pm
“A young amateur collegian enrolls at a large university with valuable skills. While using those skills, he is accused of stealing and found legally liable. In addition, he is brought up on disciplinary action by the college. Despite all this, while still enrolled, he sells his valuable skills to the highest bidder. He receives millions… no billions of dollars despite his amateur status. Although his brazen disrespect for the institution’s purpose of study is clear, he is idolized by millions. This proud university, despite this student’s tarnished record, does nothing out of the fear of the loss of revenue generated. Regretfully, this is how far Aub, sorry……….Harvard University has fallen since it pious founding almost 500 years ago. “
Anon
November 17th, 2010
6:31 pm
“The worst thing a school can do is to allow a player of questionable eligibility to represent it.”
I argue that the worst thing a school can do is deny any player, regardless of talent, this right based no solid evidence.
You don’t immediately berate based on hearsay from someone you and your child barely know. You find out more information and have faith in your child until proven otherwise. Even if your child had stolen something in the past, that doesn’t mean he/she is guilty this time, and it’s a terrible message to take action with no evidence. I would hate any school to send that message.
If you believe AU has acted unethically in the past, benching Newton without sufficient evidence to do so would only add to your list.
Anon
November 17th, 2010
6:32 pm
You don’t immediately berate your child***** based on hearsay from someone you and your child barely know
Aub1
November 17th, 2010
8:12 pm
Sorry Atlanta man and GA fan.
we played him, we won. sorry about the loss
NEXT…
yes bama fans, its YOUR turn.
Gary Barnett
November 17th, 2010
8:47 pm
Mark,
If I understand you correctly, your form of justice is guilty until proven innocent.
auburn university | World Top Trend
November 18th, 2010
3:30 am
[...] Here's the chance for Auburn University to prove it's more than a football program with a few classrooms as window dressing. Here's the chance for Auburn to prove it cares more about being an institution of higher learning than it does More… [...]
World Spinner
November 18th, 2010
4:29 pm
Why Auburn cannot allow Cam Newton to play against UGA | Mark Bradley…
Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……
JaneMill
November 18th, 2010
7:14 pm
We shouldn’t have to present evidence that he is innocent. THEY should have to present evidence that he is guilty. That’s the way it works. He’s innocent until proven guilty. Auburn has nothing to worry about, and neither does Cam. It’s just a conspiracy plotted to get him off task and unfocused. You seriously think this would have come up if Auburn wasn’t undefeated? This article is clearly biased, and furthermore, insulting.
Bill2
November 18th, 2010
8:14 pm
Why Mark Bradley is an idiot.
joe
November 19th, 2010
10:53 am
Cam has already been caught lying,cheating,and stealing.If he took a polygraph test on whether he did or didn’t know about his fathers’ “solicitations” we would know real quick if he’s still lying.Refusing to take a polygraph would also tell us the answer to the question.