Earlier tonight, as you might have heard, an ESPN.com article was posted that linked Cameron Newton’s name to allegations that a rogue agent of some sort approached Mississippi State during Newton’s recruitment and offered Newton’s services in exchange for cash. The article reported that the situation is under NCAA investigation, and has been for months.
You can read it all for yourself, but let’s get a few things clear. First off, Auburn University is not under investigation. The NCAA is investigating whether or not the “agent”, identified by ESPN as Kenny Rogers, approached Mississippi State with the offer, whether or not Mississippi State acted at all on the offer, and if Rogers actually was representing Newton.
OA-News beat writer David Morrison has confirmed from a source inside the Auburn athletic department that there are no allegations against Auburn.
There is no evidence nor even an accusation that Rogers ever contacted Auburn with a similar offer. We also know that Rogers is a Mississippi State graduate and former player, so it’s very possible that Mississippi State is the only place he brought the offer, or even could bring it (if he brought it at all).
We know that Rogers operates a company called Elite Football Preparation, which, apparently, matches high school athletes with college programs. We also know that he has gotten into some trouble before.
The actual allegation, as reported, is that Rogers told persons connected with Mississippi State that he could secure Newton’s commitment to the Bulldogs for $180,000, i.e. if Mississippi State paid Rogers the money, he would convince Newton to go there.
With all this in mind, the real question for us is whether or not the Newton family was actually involved with Rogers. Cecil Newton, Cam’s dad, has denied that it was and said today that he is fully participating with investigators.
While Auburn’s name isn’t attached to the story, Newton’s name certainly is.
But as it stands right now, Auburn fans have zero reason to panic. What exactly would happen were the Newtons found to have had past dealings with Rogers? I don’t know. But I do know that there is currently no evidence or even the suggestion that Auburn bought Cam Newton’s signature, or that Cam Newton asked Auburn to pay him for it.
All of the other rumors out there are just that: rumors.
Gene Chizik said earlier tonight on the Tiger Talk radio program: “I will say this loud and clear: Cameron Newton is eligible at Auburn University. Period. End of story.”
Yeah… somehow, I don’t think this is the end of the story. And hopefully it isn’t — hopefully the investigation will be completed and the truth will come to light. Soon. And hopefully, if Cam is cleared of any wrongdoing, this won’t stalk him through Google like a cheap laptop.
The source in the Morrison story does my heart good. Hopefully Newton’s name will be cleared and as Family members I think we all need to be supportive and express that in our book he will be nothing short of innocent until proven guilty. War Eagle.
Looks like the OANEWS link is dead?
I believe this entire allegation is a farce from a corrupt, cry-baby Mississippi State Alumnus. I have sincere faith that Cam and the Newton family would not have ever done anything to blemish their reputations or Cam’s career and quite possibly the rest of his life.
“Rogers told persons connected with Mississippi State that he could secure Newton’s commitment to the Bulldogs for $180,000, i.e. if Mississippi State paid Rogers the money, he would convince Newton to go there.”
This is bribery on Rogers’ part, plain and simple. If Mississippi State gave him $180,000, they and Rogers are the only parties who are suspect as far as I can tell.
I wish people would lay off Cam and accept that he is an awesome player who has helped Auburn have an outstanding, winning season.
War Eagle
AuburnDude — It looks like it. And it’s nowhere to be found. Maybe it’s a technical error, or they’re taking it off the site to publish it in tomorrow’s paper or something. Morrison’s twitter still has quotes and those tweets haven’t been deleted or anything, so I don’t think it’s any kind of recanting or taking anything back.
Brandi — I personally don’t really think anyone from Mississippi State has done anything wrong. Rogers is the scumbag here. John Bond just did the right thing, heard what Rogers was telling (or was going to tell) MSU, and reported it. Everything else — the sour grapes and all that — is just rumor at this point.
I think this is it?
http://www2.oanow.com/blogs/aublog/2010/nov/04/report-cash-sought-during-newtons-recruitment-ar-1053673/
Even if AU and Cam are innocent, the timing of this story could cost him the Heisman.
Justin, you are correct that Rogers is the “scumbag”. Miss St. said they didn’t pay and if that is true they are also victims of this jackhole.
Having a Bammer for a boyfriend, I hear negative comments and jabs about Cam all of the time. This whole sad situation, (thanks, Mr. Rogers), only makes it worse. It’s frustrating to watch the guys work so hard and do so well, only to be disrespected such as they are.
I just hope that Cam has all the support of his team and keeps his head up through all of this. He’s been through enough in his young career.
Yeah, that’s it. They took it down and put it back up just to clean it up I assume, because before it was chopped up by a series of updates as they got more information, and now it’s all put together in one fluid article. All the same quotes are still there.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see about Heisman implications. I don’t remember anyone else facing any kind of scrutiny in their Heisman run, so I can’t think of any kind of precedent for this sort of thing. But we’re a long way from Heisman talk right now anyway.
Let it interfere with the Heisman. Worst case scenario: someone else takes home the coveted prize, Cam and the Auburn family still know he’s one amazing football player, and Mr. Newton is given one more reason to return for his senior year!
You’re right about the Heisman, it’s small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. But what bothers me the most, aside from the possibility of any actual wrongdoing by Cam or by AU, is the timing of the story, given that the investigation has apparently been ongoing for some time. And for ESPN and the NYT to suddenly break this story at the same time… why now?
What, you’re surprised that journalists are scumbags? And people throw so much dirt at lawyers . . .
We have to ask who approached/leaked this story to ESPN. Seemingly, John Bond, Mississippi State, the slimy agent, Auburn University and the Newtons and the NCAA knew about this months-long investigation. Most of those listed can not comment on an ongoing investigation. Was it John Bond? Or did the reporters go to him and the Newtons to verify the story? I just want to know from ESPN if the the source of the leak is someone that we haven’t heard about yet.
As mentioned in the other thread, the NCAA asked bama and UNC to suspend players because their were rumors they went to a party paid for by an agent. (and they did). There was no hesitation or delay in the decision to hold them out.
The NCAA had this information months ago – you don’t think they would have told Auburn to hold him out if they had a doubt about his recruitment by Auburn??
ITAT has some good quotes also:
http://auburn.scout.com/2/1018704.html
Anyone care to speculate when the next wave of stories on this will hit?
One Hiesman voter in Orlando is stating his vote wont go to Cam because he is not a man of “integrity.” One man with a vote has already declared him guilty. This would typically be footnotes at the bottom of the page somewhere if it were some unknown player. But it is the Hiesman trophy incumbant. That’s why it is BIG news. My gut tells me we will end up with egg in our hand.
Heisman is gone. It’s a shame because from all indication he did nothing wrong and has worked so hard to get back to this spot. I hate it for him, but like I said yesterday, they may have kicked the giant. He has some extra motivation for the stretch run. I also would like to know who leaked the story to ESPN.
“Heisman is gone?” Ridiculous. I think a backlash is coming against those who are rushing to judgment and takeing the word of scumbags like this at face value.
Over the next few game weekends, the facts will come out and the commentators will have no choice but to admit that there’s nothing on Cam in this.
The damage has been done. Like the above post, there are already voters jumping off the Cam bandwagon. And that is from a voter in the south. The national media is going to sensationalize this to no end and they will never report all the facts unfortunately. I’d rather have an Iron Bowl win, an SEC title, and a BCS Trophy anyway.
If there was any kind of money trail leading to AU, I can’t imagine Cam would’ve been playing. Whatever the final outcome, this sure blows. I thought with Lowder more or less out of the picture, we were through with these kinds of stories/non-stories.
this doesn’ matter…improving the team against Chattanooga is all that matters.
WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!
i’m not worried about the Heisman… Bo Jackson and Pat Sullivan will rally support for him.
All this is focused on Cam because he is the current “rock star” of college football. The real culprits are Bond and Rogers but who ever heard of them and who would care if they were found dirty? Maybe out there we will find a couple of reporters with scruples who will help bury this story in time for Cam to get proper consideration for the Heisman Award. Don’t count on a retraction from ESPN or NYT and certainly don’t expect an article from them in a couple weeks when all these allegations fall apart.
Agreed AU64. Here in Atlanta, even Barnhart was pretty harsh with his assumptions. And typically he has more intregrity but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree I guess.
Generally I’m not a consiracy theorist but I believe this to be a calculated move. We’ll hear about this all day today and tomorrow. Then Cam will have an average day against a weak team (simply by game plan) and LaMichael James will probably have a big game on TV. So starts the ESPN drum beating for LaMicheal James for Heisman.
The guy in Orlando said he wasn’t going to vote for Cam anyway becuase of the laptop deal. So I’m curious who is he going to vote for that DOES past his integrity test? I believe James failed that test back in March with his arrest, guilty plea, and 10 days in jail.
The more I read about this, and study all of the background, the more I believe we’ve been jobbed.
IF that’s the case, and ONLY IF that’s the case, I hope the Newton family and Auburn University sue ESPN, John Bond, and Kenny Rogers into the ground.
If you haven’t seen it yet … this from Will:
http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1148586
Thanks J.M. A great story by Will. Very interesting.
The group that needs to be slammed for all this is FoxSports.com. They have dedicated their site to the destruction of Auburn and Cam.
From what I uderstand, Coach Chiz had a team meeting last night to address what he knows to be false allegations. Sounds like it was very spirited. Poor UT Chattanooga is caught in the middle of this.
http://collegefootball.scout.com/2/1018821.html
It looks like some of the worst offenders are starting to backtrack, now.
Guys, Heisman ballots aren’t due for a long, long time. There’s plenty of time between now and then for everyone to actually read the entire story. As quick as ESPN jumped the gun last night and for as little information as they put in their Breaking News ticker last night, they’ve been much more clear and precise early today in telling the whole story. They had Schlabach on SportsCenter earlier — and I’m not a fan of his at all — but he was very careful and thoughtful with his words and explained the situation very well. This whole fiasco will also be the subject of Outside the Lines later today, so we’ll see how they handle that.
I don’t think the damage is necessarily done. The knee jerk reaction from last night was really just a bunch of hacks trying to cash in by taking an extreme position. No one even reads any of their garbage anyway.
As far as the Heisman goes, we can just hope that the voters do what they’re supposed to do — determine who is playing the best on the field — and then let the Heisman Trust determine who is eligible for the award and who isn’t.
JA — Let the ESPN opinion-heads beat whatever drum they want to. They’ve been on Boise State for weeks, and they’ve dropped to fourth in the polls.
Again, everyone just needs to keep cool heads and not jump to any conclusions. From what we know, John Bond and Mississippi State didn’t do anything wrong, and we shouldn’t have any animosity towards them. They’re the good guys. And as far as we know, any involvement of Meyer, Mullen, or any media type, is just speculation and rumor.
“This whole fiasco will also be the subject of Outside the Lines later today, so we’ll see how they handle that …” with Paul Finebaum as the guest. Really. LOL.
I meant he really is the guest.
This from Auburn Undercover via http://auburn.nu/:
http://auburn.nu/board/display.pl?page=1&thrd=1&mess=874963&full=1
John Bond spills his guts.
Good post on another Aub site. Who is in favor of Coach Chiz going Mike Gundy at a press conference about all this? I know it won’t happen but for those 5-10 mins it would be awesome.
I feel sorry for Cam, he is a GREAT player who is now caught up in scandle from some stupid agents that shouldn’t even be allowed to talk to the players until they are eligable for the NFL ! I love the Tide, but I hate to see this happen to Cam. He deserves to be known as a great player , and not a cheat or a theif. Roll Tide Roll!
Am I the only Auburn Fan that wonders why a ex-Mississippi State Athlete would think that Miss St. Athletic Director or Coach would entertain his offer. Has he or the other football player seen prior cases where the school was willing to pay for a player ? I can’t imagine making someone an illegal offer unless you though they would listen. Also strange timing, this has been on the table since summer. Miss St, Auburn, SEC office, NCAA all knew about this.