Cam Newton and Auburn in the clear? Not so fast, my friend
Just because Auburn chose to play Cam Newton against Georgia doesn’t mean Auburn or Newton is safe. The NCAA doesn’t work that way. The NCAA gears, such as they are, grind slowly. The NCAA has only begun to sniff around.
Phillip Marshall of Auburn Undercover reported Saturday that the Newtons and Auburn administrators met with NCAA representatives last Thursday. (Link requires registration.) That the school chose to play Newton has been taken by some as an indication that the NCAA has nothing on Auburn. That’s not necessarily true. The NCAA might have nothing on Auburn yet. But by now its investigators have, or should have, a growing indication that this player was put up for sale at least once.
ESPN.com reported yesterday that another Mississippi State former player, the Florida businessman Bob Bell, essentially confirmed the story Kenny Rogers told on ESPN 103.3 Dallas last week and even added a detail: There was a payment schedule for Newton – $80,000 on his commitment to State, $50,000 one month later and $50,000 more a month after that.
From ESPN’s latest report: “Bell said Cecil Newton [Cam's father] never specifically asked him for money, but that Newton was present during three-way calls in which Rogers discussed a pay-for-play scheme.”
Again, none of the former Mississippi State players — Bell, Rogers or John Bond, who was the first to go public — has implicated Auburn. But here again we ask the only logical question: If Cecil Newton wanted $180,000 from Mississippi State, did he really turn around and send his son to another SEC school for free?
And the NCAA isn’t the only investigative body at work. From a TMZ report yesterday:
According to sources connected to the probe … FBI agents looking into the Newton recruiting controversy are also asking about Milton McGregor — a dog track owner arrested last month for allegedly bribing Alabama politicians to vote pro gambling.
We’re told agents asked someone connected to the Newton case if he was familiar with McGregor or the bribery scandal.
McGregor is an Auburn booster and an associate of the infamous former banker Bobby Lowder. McGregor owns VictoryLand, a dog track located just down I-85 from Auburn. Message boards have been buzzing about a possible Newton/McGregor link for the past week, but this is the first real report of any possible connection.
It’s unclear why the FBI would care about Cam Newton, but anytime the Feds get involved, however tangentially, the pace of an investigation accelerates. (Reportedly the McGregor case involves a wiretap.) The FBI, unlike the NCAA, has subpoena power. The FBI, unlike the NCAA, has the means to put somebody in jail for something.
Last week was a wild week regarding Newton. This week has been quieter, which is understandable. Auburn doesn’t play again until the day after Thanksgiving. Then it faces Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and that is, as you might have heard, a fairly big game. Then it comes here to play South Carolina for the SEC title. We are, you can be assured, going to hear much, much more about this surpassingly strange saga.
(Oh, and speaking of Cam Newton … a talented artist named MoonPie has re-imagined “Son of a Preacher Man” to fit these latest happenings. Take a look/listen. You’ll be glad you did.)
– Mark Bradley
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526 comments Add your comment
Unbiased
November 18th, 2010
10:50 am
Don’t kid yourself wareagle. The FBI is involved and the hammer will come down. Even if Auburn or it’s boosters didn’t pay a cent for this kid, they chose to continue to play him. The allegations against Cecil Newton would make his son ineligible to play… And whose decision was it again to continue to play him after the allegations came out? I know it only became public a few weeks ago, but MSU turned this over to the NCAA last fall. I’d be shocked if Auburn officials didn’t know about this long before the season ever started, yet they still decided to play him.
I don’t doubt that with Cam is the best player in college football right now, and I also believe Auburn is the best team with him. It sucks for college football fans everywhere that this is happening, but the smug attitude of many people surrounding the AU program over the past few weeks has really kept people from sympathizing with AU.
The truth will come out soon enough…
Summit Dawg
November 18th, 2010
10:51 am
The kid is a great football player, probably the best in college, but there appears to be too much smoke not to be a fire!! Sad for him, and Auburn!! Go Dawgs!!!!
Johnny DangerDawg
November 18th, 2010
10:51 am
dap01,
To be fair, I wouldn’t say Auburn did anything illegal. The school might get in trouble because of something an Auburn booster may have done, but it is most likely that individuals who work for the school (Auburn’s president, athletic director, etc.) are innocent.
D310NJAXON
November 18th, 2010
10:52 am
You are all a bunch of slaves to the establishment! The only consistency with this story is Rogers, Bond & Cecil Newton supposedly had a conversation about what it would take to get Cecil’s son to play at MSU.
The FBI is involved because it is illegal to extort money from a state school and if Bond or Rogers asked MSU for money without Newton knowing…. well thent he FBI will bust them for extortion.
TMZ = Thirty Mile Zone, a lame ass celebrity gossip circus, is involved because this story has become a gossip ring.
In the end, Auburn becomes the 2011 NCAA Football Champions and Cameron Newton wins the Heisman Trophy. So, everyone settle down and enjoy the show. WDE!
Meck
November 18th, 2010
10:53 am
I thought sec teams didn’t play on thursday night. Tha’t what some idiot ga fans say
Auburn Miss st already have
Tonight bama does
Sammi
November 18th, 2010
10:53 am
Just remember the FBI is not on the UGA campus looking into recruiting!
Oh wait that means that the arrest of the UGA players for traffic tickets is not in the same class as the Auburn issues.
Took me a while but now I understand.
AU FAN
November 18th, 2010
10:53 am
If you cant see past all of the BAMMERS, its because they bury themselves looking for excuses, OH we have a title, we have a 4 million dollar coach, we have Julio Jones, WHY CANT WE WIN??? Because CAM NEWTON makes Greg McElroy look like a bitch on the field. Greg Mcelroy is the most overrated , crybaby there is – OH WAIT, that’s what all Bammers are!!
Bleacher Fan
November 18th, 2010
10:54 am
Heisman and BCS voters need to look at this situation real closely.
http://thesportsdebates.com/2010/11/17/the-reggie-bush-fallout-debate-heisman-and-bcs-voters-cannot-ignore-the-charges/
Josha
November 18th, 2010
10:54 am
Who cares. In 8 months he will be playing preseason nfl football
matt
November 18th, 2010
10:54 am
Poor Auburn, everyone hates that your the best in the nation. If only you’d have gone 8-4 for the season (like you were predicted to do) NO ONE would give a crap about Cam or this scandel. tsk, tsk
Bogu
November 18th, 2010
10:55 am
I thought the sec didn’t play thursday games
aub miss st have and now bama. so much for those stupid lying ga fans.
That Guy
November 18th, 2010
10:56 am
@DawginLex, if Auburn has to vacate wins (it wouldn’t be a forfeiture), that still would not make UGA bowl eligible. If Auburn vacates wins, that’s all that happens, the losers (aka UGA in this instance) would still have a loss for that game. They’ll put in asterik (sp?) in their programs, but they’ll still have a loss.
Al Sharpton
November 18th, 2010
10:56 am
Quit hatin’ on brothers.
Dirty Dawg
November 18th, 2010
10:57 am
Hey guys…and particularly AU posters…if I were you I wouldn’t utter another word about ‘nothing has been proven’. In fact if you aren’t already ‘lawyered up’ then you better get there. And if you haven’t visited ‘tigerdrpppings.com’ and read through the ‘as the plains burn’ stuff, then you need to. Hell, before this mess is over you guys are gonna be scraping the AU decals off your rear windows.
I just hope that the SEC survives your crap.
bruce mac
November 18th, 2010
10:57 am
Unfortunately for us all, this is going to result in big penalties for Auburn despite all of the AU fandom hoping and praying it goes away. It is too bad that the Colonial mafia cannot leave this fine institution alone. Pitiful.
PTC DAWG
November 18th, 2010
10:58 am
I too wonder about why Bama is playing tonight….Frankly, I hope UGA never does it. I guess when you play Georgia State, you’ll play anywhere/anytime to be on TV.
Al Sharpton
November 18th, 2010
10:58 am
I’m getting in touch with REM Bassist Mike Mills to investigate!!!
SimpleDawg
November 18th, 2010
10:58 am
The jig is up…..Scam is dirty, and so are others.
Auburn’s big money people will be jailed, if not already, and there will be Hell to pay.
I hope this doesn’t include people at Auburn….coaches, administrators, etc. No one benefits from Auburn receiving the death penalty. No one.
The scumbags who sullied the reputations of the school and the conference should be prosecuted and jailed.
It is a sad day for Auburn, the SEC, and for college football.
GT Trumpet
November 18th, 2010
10:58 am
Kudos on the alliteration at the end there.
AU FAN
November 18th, 2010
10:58 am
Dirt Dawg – Bitter from that beatdown, just a little?? Poor UGA, all that emotion and nowhere to place it, Mark Richt is a joke , UGA is a joke.
PTC DAWG
November 18th, 2010
10:59 am
The Barn…The Barn…the Barn is on fire….
Auburnfan
November 18th, 2010
11:00 am
why does UGA care so much? We beat you. Get over it. Unless you are in the SEC west or South Carolina you really don’t have any reason to complain.
Ar
November 18th, 2010
11:00 am
Mark you realize is Auburn lost a game, you wouldn’t even be writing this article.
This just in....
November 18th, 2010
11:01 am
from Athens! DT from Auburn Nick Farley, just hit Murray in the back as he walked to class. Murray’s last pass was five days ago…
Douglas
November 18th, 2010
11:01 am
I am a UGA alumni and even if UGA beats GT, they don’t deserve to do to a bowl game with a 6-6 record. Matter of fact, I think the NCAA ought to require that a school have at least an 8-4 record to go to a bowl game. I would be embarrassed to go to a bowl game with a 6-6 record — talk about rewarding mediocrity.
BG
November 18th, 2010
11:01 am
Newton is guilty!
Roll Tide Roll
November 18th, 2010
11:03 am
I told you! I told you! The Barnyard cannot win without cheatin. Why in the world would you go to Auburn? They are surrounded by schools with more storied and accomplished programs. I am loving this. I cannot wait until Bama rolls over them Tigers.
AU FAN
November 18th, 2010
11:03 am
BG- NOT GUILTY.
Scott
November 18th, 2010
11:04 am
Mark –
Great job on how you refer to ‘message boards have been buzzing’ about MM.
Read your article again and tell me if you have any substance on Auburn.
That Guy
November 18th, 2010
11:04 am
@”CamGate”–the rule you posted says the punishment is from furhter intercollegiate competition. My question is this, would it be punished from when the act was committed or from when found “guilty”? If it is from the finding of guilty, then Cam wouldn’t be able to play any more after the finding, at which time he would probably be a pro right?
@wvgal–Ignorance is bliss. He didn’t steal the laptop, he bought it (not condoning the purchase of stolen goods by any means) but get the fact straight. Three-time cheater, UF (which I believe we’d all agree we hate) cleared him of that. Nobody wants to pay attention to that.
Unless Auburn is found to have paid Cam Newton, there is no way they get the “death penalty”. NCAA and/or SEC has had it for almost a year and still no letter of inquiry to Auburn, that says something to me. The investigation is not about Auburn.
As the Plains Burn
November 18th, 2010
11:05 am
For clarification, the FBI may have wiretaps implicating Cecil Newton receiving money from AU through boosters and funneled through Cam’s uncle. As well as details on a number of AU players receiving additional benefits from AU boosters such as “Slot Cards” (which enable the user to win on the mahine it is placed into) and ATM cards funded through Lowder’s bank. If this is true, I would hardly call that “no evidence” as so many AU fans on here have. Additionally, the FBI has this “evidence” becuase it was investigating Lowder and fellow AU boosters invovlement in paying state officials for favorable votes in regard to gambling entreprises. Given Lowder’s reputation as a shady character around the AU program, I would say this whole thing is certainly within the realm of possibility. The FBI investigation into Lowder, his bank, and their associates over the misuse of TARP funds is no secret and is most definetly a fact since the bank was taken over in late 2009 by the FDIC. Isn’t that about the same time Cam was recruited?
AU FAN
November 18th, 2010
11:05 am
This just in out of JOX Radio in Birmingham,AL- Cam Newton had no knowledge, MS. State is receiving sanctions…. more to come.
Vixzilla
November 18th, 2010
11:05 am
There was a Tech football player dismissed……why wouldn’t we know about that? hmmmmm??
picassokat
November 18th, 2010
11:06 am
In an e-mail to the AP, NCAA spokesman Stacy Osborn wrote that “solicitation of cash or benefits by a prospective student-athlete or another individual” could either be a secondary or major violation depending on the specific situation. She also wrote that “the school must make the determination whether a student-athlete is ineligible. Once they do so, they could request reinstatement from the NCAA on behalf of the student-athlete.”
Under NCAA bylaws the conversation Bell had in 3-way call with Rogers & Cecil Newton would have made Newton ineligible to play at MSU.
Dennis Dodd (in question emailed to NCAA): If a person related to a prospective student-athlete solicits money for that student-athlete at a certain school then that student-athlete is ineligible. Is that true no matter where he signs?
emailed response from NCAA spokesperson Stacey Osburn: Generally speaking, eligibility issues are tied to the student-athlete, not the school. So if a student-athlete is ineligible at one school and then transfers to a second school, the school the student-athlete transferred to would need to seek reinstatement.
Auburn is toast.
That Guy
November 18th, 2010
11:06 am
And let’s think about this Tigerdroppings stuff too, it’s LSU, who has the absolute most to gain from anything going against Auburn in the next two weeks……wait for it….wait for it….yep, LSU. They’ll make up anything….
fishtales
November 18th, 2010
11:06 am
Little brother syndrome rears its head again. Is it possible for you Auburn jackholes to say ANYTHING without the word Bammer in it? Bama has not been mentioned in any of the 2,000 stories realted to this…yet every Barner apologist tries to deflect all of the negative attention to THE EVIL BAMMERS!!! You are truly a pathetic lot and I hope your cow college POS of a University and athletic program comes crashing down. Not because of Cam, YellaFella, or Uncle Milty, but just because you are all tools who can’t say do or say anything without yelling at Bama about something.
Auburnfan
November 18th, 2010
11:07 am
@ dirty dog.. people like you probably made tiger droppings. Bitter UGA fans
yearofthedawg
November 18th, 2010
11:07 am
You can’t spell ‘badly’ without Bradley.
That Guy
November 18th, 2010
11:08 am
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/11/what_teams_commit_the_most_per.html
Concrete Pete
November 18th, 2010
11:09 am
If you Auburn fans truly think that the Newton’s, Auburn, the coaches and the Redneck good ole boy crew (Lowder, Rane, McGregor among them) is 100% innocent and that this just a big scheme cooked up to smear Cam and Auburn during their magical season then you are incredibly naive and walking blind without a cane. Accept it. It’s over. Never again will a high profile, top national recruit from far away just pick your depressing campus and program out of the blue, because NOBODY would choose Auburn over UF, UA, LSU, UGA, FSU, UT, and any other national program all things being equal. Now that your $ will be out of the mix, things will for the first time be equal. YOU ARE OVER!!! “WAR ‘DAMN its over’ EAGLE”
AU FAN
November 18th, 2010
11:09 am
Typical BAMMER- always hurting, complaining . You define BAMMER- “FISHTALES” which actually fits you well since most of BAMA’s titles are in themselves “fishtales” not nearly as many as you “claim” are legit wins. “BAMMER”
fishtales
November 18th, 2010
11:10 am
Hey AU Fan –
13…8…whatever. It’s a lot more than 1/2 isn’t it? Surely you can do THAT math without crayons.
PMC
November 18th, 2010
11:10 am
Every house in the SEC is made of glass and every pane of that glass is shattered from all the rocks.
AU FAN
November 18th, 2010
11:10 am
Concrete Pete- LAUGHABLE. You son, are uneducated.
Glenn
November 18th, 2010
11:10 am
Dude there is no need for speculation now . The feds are involved .
Da Point
November 18th, 2010
11:11 am
The sad part about all of this is that if Cam was just an average player non of these would have come out. Miss St is mad he didn’t want to go there. Bell just said Dan Mullen and Cam didn’t have the relationship that Mullen thought they did. Maybe he wanted to go to Auburn for free, but wanted money to go to Miss St. I know I would want money to go there.
Paul in RDU
November 18th, 2010
11:11 am
If the FBI follows their usual method of operation in a complicated political corruption case – put pressure on the little fish to squeal on the big fish – the Auburn saga is going to get very interesting. From the reports the big fish are MacGregor, Lowder and the people trying to push for gambling in the State of Alabama. The little fish (so far) appear to be the characters involved in CamGate. If the FBI has people on tape talking to MacGregor about payoffs you can bet that they will put pressure on them to spill everything. Subpoenas, grand juries, etc. tend to get the truth out of people.
Dawgboy
November 18th, 2010
11:12 am
If Cam is guilty he should come out now and clear Auburn of all wrongdoing. Oh, wait…
Maybe Auburn is guilty as hell.
Da Point
November 18th, 2010
11:12 am
The sad part about all of this is that if Cam was just an average player none of this would have come out. Miss St is mad he didn’t want to go there. Bell just said Dan Mullen and Cam didn’t have the relationship that Mullen thought they did. Maybe he wanted to go to Auburn for free, but wanted money to go to Miss St. I know I would want money to go there.
edit
AU FAN
November 18th, 2010
11:12 am
I think the growing hatrid for in-state rivals has escalated to unforseeable heights , with people like “fishtales” – its not just him- IT’S every single Alabama fan- they are all just alike- like they breed one another.