You know it’s been a big year when even your team’s NCAA compliance directors become alumni club circuit rock stars. So yeah, here’s our reporter’s notebook (as scribbled by the weighed down fingers of Terry Lathan, a Mobile Auburn Club advisory board member) from Rich McGlynn’s Monday night speaking engagement with the Mobile Auburn Club at True’s Midtown Restaurant.
Stories told: A younger player gave his three rings to his mother and father because he planned to win more. Nick Fairley smiling at McGlynn on the sidelines down 24 points at Bryant-Denny and saying “I got this.” Normally calm Cam getting rather vocal about winning the game during halftime. Gene Chizik’s pre-BCSNC game insistence to the team that this was a great moment in their lives, but not greater than getting married, becoming a father, raising a family, or playing with your grandchildren.
The Juicy Stuff: McGlynn said the compliance department had to take a conservative win the war, not the battle approach. They knew they were right, but couldn’t talk about it. Had he thought Newton was anything less than eligible? There would have been no Newton. Outcome was exactly what they thought it would be.
Quote re: the choices of young athletes: “We are all one decision away from being stupid.”
Before the event, McGlynn spoke to the Mobile Press-Register regarding the status of Florida running back transfer Mike Blakely.
“We have filed a waiver in an attempt to see if we can have Mike be immediately eligible and we’re in that process right now,” said McGlynn, who spent five years on the NCAA staff before accepting his Auburn position. “We’re working with the NCAA and hoping to get a favorable outcome on it. That’s where we are at this time.”
Blakely would give the Tigers some much need depth at running back where they have only two experienced players in sophomore Mike Dyer and junior Onterio McCalebb.
McGlynn said he hasn’t seen an appeal be impacted by the fact that a player never practiced at his previous school. “But that doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “The NCAA takes each case on its merits and looks and reviews those specific facts and makes a decision.
“We need to make an argument based upon the rule. The rule was not put into place based upon an individual in Mike’s situation in order to be eligible here at Auburn. I believe we put together a strong waiver to that. Now it’s just a matter of seeing what the NCAA has to say about it.”
McGlynn said he expects to have a response from the NCAA within three weeks.
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Helluva good job this year. People made a joke of Jay Jacobs saying our compliance department was the best in the country, but hey, they really are. In all that media swarm, they managed not only to protect Cam, but to arrange for his suspension and reinstatement completely under the radar, right when every story was about Cam. War Eagle Mr. McGlynn, you are the Cam Newton of NCAA complaince.