For Cam and Auburn, what the NCAA didn’t say resonates
For SEC championship game purposes, the three biggest words in the NCAA’s statement on Cam Newton were these: “Is immediately eligible.” Over the longer term, three bigger words were tucked into this statement from the NCAA’s Kevin Lennon.
“Based on the information available to the reinstatement staff at this time, we do not have sufficient evidence that Cam Newton or anyone from Auburn was aware of this activity.”
The three massive words: “At this time.”
Just because Cam Newton has been cleared to play Saturday doesn’t mean he has been cleared forever. It doesn’t mean the NCAA can’t and won’t continue to investigate. (It can and surely will.) And if at any time it finds “sufficient evidence” that Newton himself or a representative of Auburn violated an NCAA regulation … well, we know what that means.
Forfeit city.
Folks on the outside have a tough time understanding how the NCAA works. (Folks on the inside do, too.) But the key revelation made Wednesday was that the NCAA had indeed found evidence a rule had been flouted — by Cecil Newton, Cam’s dad, and the scout Kenny Rogers in their solicitation of Mississippi State. This prompted Auburn to declare Newton ineligible and petition for reinstatement.
This is the procedure in every NCAA case. (Georgia’s A.J. Green had to be reinstated after the NCAA suspended him those four games.) That the NCAA acted so quickly, reinstating Newton a day after Auburn ruled him ineligible, was surely due to logistics: Auburn has a game Saturday.
Yes, it’s a big game. And yes, it was awfully convenient that Auburn rendered Newton ineligible on Tuesday, Nov. 30, as opposed, say, to Friday, Nov. 26. (Gee, that was the date of the Iron Bowl!) So far, you’d have to say Auburn has found its version of Ed Tolley, the Athens attorney who has steered Georgia through tempest after tempest the past quarter-century. But that’s OK: If you were a school under scrutiny and your football team was about to play for an SEC championship and then maybe the BCS title, you’d have to be awfully dumb not to hire a smart lawyer.
Newton being rendered ineligible for one day might seem silly, but it served an essential purpose: It forced the NCAA to say yea or nay as to his playing status. It forced the NCAA to tell us, “A violation was committed … but the violation wasn’t Auburn’s.” A lot of folks have hooted down this ruling, saying it opens the door for every prospect to find a relative willing to be his talent broker and take the rap if found out, but the NCAA hasn’t yet slammed this particular door.
I say again: Don’t mistake this reinstatement for absolution. The NCAA didn’t say, “Case closed.” Newton and Auburn could still be held accountable for any transgressions that come to light. (And we know already the NCAA has found one violation involving one Newton.) Cam Newton has been cleared to play Saturday, but he and his school are not yet in the clear. Wednesday’s ruling restored his eligibility at this time, which isn’t to say for all time.
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450 comments Add your comment
Jeff
December 2nd, 2010
4:10 pm
Jim…..UF Grad here…Married UGA grad…..sister is UT grad…..so you can tell I know a bit about rivalrys
and former navy as well (West Coast Sailor)
Jim Pierce
December 2nd, 2010
4:12 pm
East coast sailor here … My son is an Auburn grad.. Married to a Georgia grad. I understand your predicament lol
hbcuclassics
December 2nd, 2010
4:15 pm
Black Power PollTM
Post-season
1. Bethune (14)
2. Albany St (5)
3. SC St ate (15)
4. FAMU
5. Texas Southern
6. Grambling (23)
7. FVSU (22)
8. Tuskegee
9. Morehouse (23)
10. Shaw (25)
(#) – Top 25 Ranking Coaches Polls, FCS, AFCA
Auburn`s the name ! Cheat`in`s our game !
December 2nd, 2010
4:16 pm
FOR SALE a one bedroom 1970 trailer on Wire Road in Auburn $180,000. Why worry about paying bills or a place to live as this will be our only shot at buying a SEC & NC Championship. I need me some tickets worse than a hawg needs slop ! YEE HAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW ! ! ! ! ! !
Jeff
December 2nd, 2010
4:16 pm
HA! lets just say jacksonville is interesting to say the least. My one repreive is the UGA-UT game….either way as a gator- I win
what year in navy?
Jeff
December 2nd, 2010
4:21 pm
we sit on UF side one year and UGA the following year….it works well. The other fans in our area know us so I dont get to hard of a time from the UGA croud and my wife is accepted by the UF crowd. Like college football is suppose to be….hmmmm novel concept huh?
melvinowens
December 2nd, 2010
4:29 pm
what cam newton’s fathher is alleged to have done has no bearing on his football performances. he did not cheat on the field of play
War Damn Cheaters!!!
December 2nd, 2010
4:29 pm
Allbarners
Underestimate
Blatant
Unruliness
Regarding
Newtons
Auburn`s the name ! Cheat`in`s our game !
December 2nd, 2010
4:30 pm
Auburn logic : I got caught speeding on I – 20 & got a ticket. Everybody was speeding so shouldn`t they all get a ticket too ?
Jim Pierce
December 2nd, 2010
4:30 pm
Jeff: Im ancient lol Served in Navy from ‘63 to ‘67.
My son has four daughters.. 3 root for Auburn,and one defected to her Moms alma mater.. Georgia lol
Jim Pierce
December 2nd, 2010
4:34 pm
Hmmmm this thing stopped posting
Jim Pierce
December 2nd, 2010
4:36 pm
Jeff: Served in Navy from ‘63 to ‘67… Im ancient lol My son has four daughters… 3 root for Auburn, one defected to her Moms side… Georgia. lol
Just Remember AU
December 2nd, 2010
4:36 pm
you barn raised heathens, the FBI investigation isn`t over so, the NCAA isn`t anywhere near finished with you yet.
Jeff
December 2nd, 2010
4:40 pm
Still works
DaveDawg96
December 2nd, 2010
4:42 pm
Georgia has beaten Auburn 4 of the past 5 times.
Georgia has beaten Alabama 3 of the past 4 times.
So, we’ve pretty much OWNED the state of Alabama in college football this decade.
How quickly idiots forget.
9-1
December 2nd, 2010
4:42 pm
Whoooo Whooo take the money and run.
Hope SC bust his chops to he can’t blow any more kisses.
John Wang
December 2nd, 2010
4:49 pm
DaveDawg96 – keep telling yourself that your dogs are relavent……you venting how great they are proves they are NOT and have not been………not since 1980…..1 9 8 0 – 30 years ago….OMG ! very sad……..has not even sniffed a championship in 30 years !!!!! except for gymnastics – hahahaha
WDE!
December 2nd, 2010
4:54 pm
To Former Auburn Fan:
georgiadawg70
December 2nd, 2010
4:54 pm
You guys need to go back and read my previous post. Newton is only a small piece of evidence in a much larger case..It starts with the collaspe of Colonial Banc Shares and goes back to 92. This is much bigger than a nare do well preacher trying to shake people down for money. This is big.
Dr. Craig Spinks
December 2nd, 2010
4:57 pm
Mark, let’s hope that the NCAA and the FBI are more expeditious in their investigations than the former was in its investigation of Reggie Bush.
WDE!
December 2nd, 2010
4:57 pm
To Former Auburn Fan: Yeah we are a bunch of scammers yet UGA has had about 12 players arrested and not ONE has been kicked off the team. Also A.J. Greens deal money actually changed hands and he did it on his own. This is a fair ruling and Georgia fans just keep on whining!!!!!!!!!!!
alabamaguy
December 2nd, 2010
5:10 pm
Dave Dawg you really think UGA “owns” anybody (except maybe Tech).
That “one” Bama won was the blackout beat down of epic proportions. It was the beginning of the end for UGA.
There is a crystal football in the trophy case at Alabama, there will soon be on at Auburn.
Now that is a State “owning” college football.
porta pottie
December 2nd, 2010
5:13 pm
It’s almost 2011 folks…If money did change hands, it was in small bills and may be trickling in through the offering plate being passed around at Cecil’s church for the next 20 years…or it’s buried in a mattress or attic somewhere?? Really good (bad) criminals know how to launder money, it’s not rocket science. …..not accusin, just sayin.
San Francisco Dawg
December 2nd, 2010
5:20 pm
By the wording given in that “law”, this is a clear violation, and Newton should definitely be ineligible. A member of his family (his father) clearly agreed to receive “aid or assistance” (read a gob of money) on Cam’s behalf–this isn’t even gray, it’s plain as day. Sounds like the NCAA is desperate to keep their chosen teams in the championship game and not blow up their system (with a non-AQ school like TCU). If not that, there’s still something very shady here, because Newton and Auburn are most-definitely being protected from warranted punishment.
SID
December 2nd, 2010
5:21 pm
In 1980 Herschel’s father worked for minimum wages. How did Herschel afford a corvette at this time?? The more things change the more they stay the same!! Accept the fact that college football is all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$……..
tr
December 2nd, 2010
5:27 pm
georgiadawg70 – Went back and read a few previous posts as you suggested, and they make almost as much sense as the last one did. Got one question, though. How “BIG” can this be if the NCAA hasn’t even served Auburn (or Cam Newton at Auburn for that matter) with the mandatory “Letter of Inquiry”? Even if no one else is wise enough to fill us in on that one, I know you can and will!
porta pottie
December 2nd, 2010
5:33 pm
PHIL, dang good post! You’re on to something…. The UF/Urban Meyer handling of the ‘Death Threat’ incident completely blew me away..It was like, ‘He’s off the team!!’….and then a week later he’s back on because his accuser wanted to drop the charges and he had a lawyer plea bargain for community service…are you kidding me?? The UT bar brawl was another University/Police Department ‘we got it worked out now’. Seems UGA may really have a ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy in place when it comes to breaking the law where as these other schools have a ‘Flex Plan’ in place? Agree??
tex dog
December 2nd, 2010
5:37 pm
To Victory Land: Do not suggest anything having to do with Victory Land. When the FBI is through there will be a lot of players from Auburn and Bama involved in the fallout.
scwebbie
December 2nd, 2010
5:38 pm
Ahhh, didn’t Cam also say that he didn’t know the computer he threw out the window at Florida was stolen…. Seems that is his standard response.
Tweets that mention For Cam and Auburn, what the NCAA didn't say resonates | Mark Bradley -- Topsy.com
December 2nd, 2010
5:41 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gabe Correa, Jordan Smith. Jordan Smith said: For Cam and Auburn, what the NCAA didn't say resonates | Mark Bradley: Mark Bradley believes what the NCAA didn'… http://bit.ly/ek5XKe [...]
gss303
December 2nd, 2010
5:46 pm
His high character dad has already signed them a deal with DELL.
perfesser33
December 2nd, 2010
5:52 pm
It’s funny having to listen to this sanctimonious scat from fans whose schools couldn’t field a team unless the county sheriffs authorized work release.
UGA and proud of it
December 2nd, 2010
5:54 pm
To John Wang Auburn fan…what is relavant? Is that word in a dialect spoken in Alabama? I am confused….do you mean relevant? If so, then I think you just made the case that an Auburn education is not relevant.
Patrick Romano WAR DAMN EAGLE
December 2nd, 2010
6:00 pm
Kyle,
I mean “your mother & father wern’t married” get some counseling and some limp dick, anger management!
If UGA had Fairley, they’d be loving him, like Buck Belue said during UGA game…
WAR DAMN EAGLE,
Montell
December 2nd, 2010
6:14 pm
If Cam Newton and his dad were white, the NCAA wouldn’t be looking at any of this. It’s another example of a racist organization trying to keep the African-Americans down in this country. I’ve had enough!
War Eagle
December 2nd, 2010
7:08 pm
JUDGES`S, ATTORNEY`S AND KNOW-IT-ALLS, KENNY ROGERS WAS TRYING TO MADE A BUCK FOR HIS BANK ACCOUNT USING MISS STATE AS HIS GOPHER..
NO RULES WERE VIOLATED,ALTHOUGH, ADMISSION WAS MADE OF “MONEY TALK”. IF NCAA CONVICTED EVERY SCHOOL WHO HAD “MONEY TALK” THEIR WOULD BE NO COMPETITIVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL..
DID MISS STATE TELL KENNY ROGERS TO BUY CAM? NO. THE GUY WAS DESPERATE WITH NFL CHASING HIM FOR FRAUD.
BESIDES, AUBURN AND NO ONE REALIZED CAM WOULD BE BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYER IN THE COUNTRY, ONLY THREE SCHOOLS OKLAHOMA, AUBURN AND MISS STATE THAT ACTIVELY RECRUITED HIM
PERSONALLY ATTACKING CAM NEWTON IS PATHETIC.
BULLDAWG BILL
December 2nd, 2010
7:22 pm
Cam went to Auburn because someone representing Auburn’s interest paid his dad at least $180,000. If you don’t believe money changed hands for Cam to go to Auburn you are in total denial.
Why would anyone think Auburn would admit doing this?
I have found that people usually act in the future like they have acted in the past. Cam was a trouble maker at Florida with over 8 arrests in one year. He is only doing again what he has done in the past.
Auburn has a long history of NCAA violations and cheating. Nothing about this surprises me.
AlphaRita
December 2nd, 2010
8:28 pm
3 months ago AU buried the inquiry. 3 weeks ago AU denied any problems. 3 days ago AU asked for leniency. Time is not in AU’s favor. Give it 3 more months.
CBS News
December 2nd, 2010
8:50 pm
Why want AU allow Cam to be interviewed??????? Does he know how to speak?? Oh yeah, he has no ability to talk or understand what is father did to get him to sign with AU. What about those stolen computers????? Oh, he was just borrowing them,, Give me a break he is crooked but the cleverly disguised AU boosters know how to make it all disappear. This whole thing is tainted and Auburn will will the BCS and will revel in their glory, but EVERYONE knows it’s a tainted, stinky, title and they will never be the program they want to be! This will always follow them and continue to cling to them like mold!
Take the Money!
December 2nd, 2010
10:26 pm
Cecil got the money—probably already spent it all, and Cam gets to play! Nice deal for the newton family—pay to play baby!!!! Cheating at auburn—it never ends.
BarnDoor
December 3rd, 2010
3:14 am
Montell: Yea ya… Das what Im talkin bout…
Typical Auburn Moron.
BarnDoor
December 3rd, 2010
3:44 am
BullDawgBill: You are right…
Did Cam’s Dad recieve 100,000 plus and Cam has no inkling about it?
His Dad traveled across SouthEast to colleges regarding Cams one year football career and he was unaware?
Sure are a lot of secrets in that household…..
All Auburn All In
December 3rd, 2010
12:50 pm
GIVE IT UP. IT’S OVER. CAM IS ELIGIBLE. AUBURN IS NOT BEING INVESTIGATED. The NCAA did not have to rule him eligible for tomorrow’s game. Do you really think the NCAA would have cleared him if they thought there was any evidence that he might be declared ineligible at a later date? NO WAY – that would make them look like a bunch of idiots. The “at this time” is CYA, boilerplate language that appears in all NCAA statements regarding these types of issues.
WAAAAAAR DAMN EAGLE
thUGA Team Bondsman
December 3rd, 2010
3:16 pm
Wow, Mark Bradley has either revealed himself as a UGA homer, an Auburn hater, or just not that sharp. The ONLY reason Auburn ruled Cam ineligible on Tuesday was because the NCAA only ruled on what it had found on Monday.
Here’s a link: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/latest+news/2010+news+stories/december/ncaa+addresses+eligibility+of+cam+newton
And if you can’t click the link, here’s the relevant passage from the NCAA’s own web site:
“The NCAA concluded on Monday that a violation of amateurism rules occurred, therefore Auburn University declared the student-athlete ineligible yesterday for violations of NCAA amateurism rules.”
So Bradley, did you not get the memo, or are you just bitter? I know it’s difficult to distinguish Fridays from Mondays sometimes.
Fat Cat UGA Booster
December 3rd, 2010
3:18 pm
I paid Herschel Walker $25K/year to play for Georgia a few decades back. Overcome by guilt I’ve turned over the evidence to the NCAA. Sorry Dawgs, that National Championship is going to have to be stricken from the record books.
Southern Cal Fan
December 3rd, 2010
8:00 pm
From the LA Times. Regardless if Auburn didn’t know about it, “What’s hard to track here is that the NCAA, in its infractions report on USC, broke new ground in saying that even if USC didn’t know about the Reggie Bush violations … it should have known.”
Reggie should have just kept saying I didn’t know my family got a house and he would’ve been fine too. And Dillon Baxter, suspended a game because he rode across campus on a golf cart. The NCAA didn’t rule very fast on that one. He was fined $5 and missed a game. Seems pretty stupid to me how the NCAA will pick and choose which investigations to move quickly on even if the case is open and shut.
Southern Cal Fan
December 3rd, 2010
8:07 pm
Oh and all this doesn’t really matter because Oregon is going to whoop up on Auburn.
Damon Evans
December 3rd, 2010
11:48 pm
Dear Hobbit Bradley and Inbred Bulldogs,
It’s amazing how Georgia fans are sitting on their moral high horses looking down on Auburn with their tens of felon football players led by Coach “Look at me I’m Christian”, with his team dancing like monkeys on the sidelines against Auburn, rushing the field against Florida, never sitting a felon for any big game, while you are spewing venomous ignorance in sheer hypocrisy. And as for you, hobbit Bradley, Robo Coach? Really? That’s called class. No, he’s not posing as a religious leader of thugs or talking trash, he’s simply taking care of business and winning. I know it’s hard to remember what that’s like as a UGA fan so your sour grapes are noted. But as for your vendetta with Auburn- What happened little fella? Did you catch your boyfriend lusting after Lee Ziemba? It’s obvious that you hate Auburn, but your stupid and irrational diatribes expose you as what you are- a ten cent blogger trying to pose as a journalist. Do you really think you and all your idiot bulldawg redneck followers think you know more than the SEC, NCAA, and FBI about the Newton situation? Just because your boyfriend rejects you and UGA has become irrelevant, you have no credibility in your whiny bashing of the # 1 team in the land.
San Francisco Dawg
December 4th, 2010
3:04 pm
SEC Bylaw 14.01.3.2 states:
“If at any time before or after matriculation in a member institution a student-athlete or any member of his/her family receives or AGREES TO RECEIVE, directly or indirectly, any aid or assistance beyond or in addition to that permitted by the Bylaws of this Conference (except such aid or assistance as such student-athlete may receive from those persons on whom the student is naturally or legally dependent for support), such student- athlete shall be ineligible for competition in any intercollegiate sport within the Conference for the remainder of his/her college career.”
Solicitation of funds is by definition to “agree to receive” funds. He’s ineligible by the SEC’s own rules. The spin here is amazing. The ncaa and SEC are both pathetic. And you don’t know that money didn’t exchange hands. You’re taking old Cecil’s word for it which isn’t worth much. The FBI will sort it all out in due time.
Mark Bradley
December 4th, 2010
3:10 pm
We’re about to arrive at a splendid time. The hour before the SEC championship is the best time of the year in the Georgia Dome.