The Glade 4.0

So, the NCAA has come forward with their results from their investigation of Cam Newton, the heisman candidate from Auburn. For those of you who don't know, here's a brief history of what occurred:

Halfway through the NCAA football season, this star QB for Auburn was accused of accepting money in order to enroll at Mississippi State University, leading people to believe he did the same for Auburn. Some person on the inside of MSU talked about how he and his Dad were asking for $100-180 thousand to come play football. If true, this is a direct violation of the NCAA amateurism policy. You can't even accept a dinner at Applebees under the NCAA rules. Taking cash money is a huge violation.

As it turns out, the NCAA has ruled that the dad violated the rules, not the son. He was shopping his son around. However, the NCAA has ruled him eligible to play. So what does this mean?

NEW LOOPHOLE! Attention all blue-chip high school football players! If you want money from a school, make sure your dad takes all the blame. Deny any knowledge of being shopped around, and you too can cash in on hundreds of thousands of dollars, just like Cam Newton.

This story is very similar to the Reggie Bush story, though that one didn't break open until after Bush was already in the NFL. His stepfather was apparently the one taking money for him, similar to Newton. What happened to USC, Bush's alma-mater? They were stripped of all their wins for the seasons he was there. They were stripped of over 10 scholarships per season. They were banned from bowl games for two seasons. What has happened to Auburn? Well...nothing. It's interesting, to say the least. Perhaps it's only because they have nothing to prove specifically against Auburn yet, but we'll see.

Opinions?

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I honestly don't care. Until the NCAA dumps the BCS system, they're a bunch of cash grubbing hypocrites anyway.

Good for the kid if he gets paid.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I tend to agree. The BCS system needs to go. They blame the kids for getting money, but that's all the NCAA cares about.

I don't personally care if the kid gets paid. He's going to get paid eventually, even if it takes a few more years until he gets NFL caliber money. I just find it terrible how the NCAA deals with these things. There's a huge elephant in the room, but they won't do anything about it.

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Your synopsis of the events is fairly divergent from what I have read, on several matters.

1) He wasn't accused of getting paid to play at MSU.

2) He and his agent were accused of shopping schools and asking for $180,000-200,000 from MSU to play football there via boosters.

3) MSU supposedly reported the request for payment to the SEC, and then the NCAA.

4) His father admitted to participating in a Pay to Play scheme to shop his son's enrollment.

5) Auburn ruled Newton ineligible to play this Saturday, pending word from the NCAA.

6) The next day, the NCAA ruled that Newton was eligible to play for Auburn, as the charges and actions related to the father had to do with MSU.

7) There has been no final ruling from the NCAA regarding his eligibility to play for Auburn.

1) His dad was flat out accused of asking for money for his kid to play football at MSU.

2) See above. Your 1 & 2 are somewhat contradictory. He wasn't "wasn't accused of getting paid to play," yet, "He and his agent were accused of shopping schools and asking for $180,000-200,000 from MSU to play football there." Point is, he was accused of requesting money to play football at MSU.

3) True. I didn't mention every single detail because I didn't feel like typing out the entire story. This is worth noting.

4) I didn't know the father ever admitted. He denied everything for a very long time.

5) Also true, and recent news.

6) Also true, and news from today.

7) Well, they have determined him "eligible." They didn't say "eligible for now." From what I understood, they're saying he's off the hook entirely, since it was his dad who was doing the shopping around. Even if they find that there was money exchanged with Auburn, they make it sound like the dad is taking all the blame, not Cam. So if that did occur, it'd be Auburn, not Cam, who gets in trouble.

In my opinion, if a student broke NCAA rules while shopping around at MSU, it shouldn't matter what school he's at now. Just because Auburn didn't do anything wrong doesn't mean Cam shouldn't be punished. Don't punish Auburn, if they did nothing wrong. Punish Cam, alone. If he asked for money, or his father even, to play football at an official NCAA sanctioned school, he should be penalized. Just because MSU didn't meet his demands doesn't mean he didn't do something against rules. Just because the elected official doesn't accept my bribe doesn't mean I didn't just commit a crime by attempting to bribe him. It's no different here.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5870788

INDIANAPOLIS -- Auburn quarterback Cam Newton is eligible to play in the SEC title game this weekend, even though the NCAA says his father broke rules by shopping his son to another school.

Scott Van Pelt

Kirk Herbstreit reacts to the Cam Newton news and explains why he thinks Newton is a lock to win the Heisman Trophy.

The NCAA released its finding in a statement Wednesday. The college sports governing body had concluded on Monday that a violation of Newton's amateur status had occurred. Auburn declared Newton ineligible on Tuesday and requested his eligibility be reinstated.

Newton has been cleared to compete without conditions.

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Holy shitsnacks!

So, there *was* a violation of his amateur status, yet he's allowed to continue playing by the NCAA. I don't get it. The school the violation occurred at is irrelevant. Does it matter what state you rob a bank in? A federal crime is a federal crime. Amateur violations within the NCAA are amateur violations, regardless of what team you eventually land on. The individual responsible for the violation of the amateur status should be ineligible, based on NCAA rules.

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Because he's playing for the #1 (#2?) school in their title game this weekend, and will probably be in the BCS Championship game. They (Auburn) stand to lose a shitton of money if he's not eligible. I can bet you they begged and pleaded for the NCAA to not suspend him.

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Holy shitsnacks!

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

This, absolutely, has to do with Auburn being #2 and the BCS national championship. Shame on the NCAA.

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Yeah, what a sham. thanks, I hadn't really been paying attention to all of this.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I honestly don't care about the story and would rather it not take up so much time on the various sports shows.

I'm of the opinion that the schools make tons of cash off of those guys, and there's nothing wrong with them getting what they can for the services they're providing to the schools. But that's just me.

Let's not forget, these kids are basically handed $50-75k to play football, in the form of a full-ride scholarship. People are very quick to forget about that part of it. Considering most of these players aren't anywhere near a professional level, where they actually deserve to make big money, I think it's fair to receive a free education in exchange for playing 10 football games a year.

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The NCAA and BCS is the NFL with free (or almost free) labor.

Top talent gets paid, and always has. I remember 20 years ago, a certain shall not be named basketball player at our local university in southern missisippi, could be seen driving around in a brand new, tricked out, top line BMW. The kid most definitely didn't come from money, and certainly nowhere near enough to buy a car that probably cost $80,000.00 while going to school.

I've known guys who played ball for the university that had huge TVs and stereos in their dorms, when they most certainly didn't have a) a job, or b) money from their families.

Do I believe Cam is guilty? You bet. Did he personally shop for money? Probably not.......but I don't think for a second he is innocent. Should he not be playing? Probably, but he will because it's big bucks at a big school with big bucks, making the NCAA and BCS guys big bucks.

Chances are, if Cam was some second rate QB at a lowly school, he would have been ousted from school and banned from playing football.

I'm pretty sure they would have ruled him ineligible if the #3 team was from an AQ conference. But since it's TCU from the MWC they're trying to keep Auburn in.

Here's hoping they lose the SEC title game.

The old football coach is pretty good at big games......but I don't think SC has a snowball's chance I'm afraid.

Oregon/Auburn should be a good game. TCU is over rated, but undefeated. I seriously doubt TCU could be any of the top 10 teams atm. Maybe Michigan St......but I doubt it. Stanford, Ohio State, Wisconsin, LSU, Arkansas, Oklahoma.....I just can't see it.

Your prediction holds true.

As for TCU, I agree. It's a really tough call, but I'm not one to just award someone with a title shot simply because they're undefeated. I really don't think TCU could even hang with most of those teams you mentioned. It looks like they'll be playing Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl now, which I believe is going to be a complete blowout. Wisconsin's running game is brutal. They never make mistakes offensively, and their defense has put up a ton of points all season as well. They're scored 70+ points on three different occasions, with two of those being against Big 10 teams. TCU is going to be exposed in the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately for them, they're going to look a lot worse than they are. They do deserve to be in the talks, but they're going to get smoked by the Badgers.

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I may actually go to that Rose Bowl game. Which is of course a sure guarantee that the wrong Badgers team will show up. Depends how much dough I want to blow - cheapest ticket I could find a week ago was about $250.



Good point. I was going to say " ... except that huge numbers of them never finish school," but the NCAA's data on this suggests that the average athlete graduate rate is comparable to the average general student body. I wonder if they're gaming the numbers, though. Wisconsin, for example has an 81% overall graduation rate, while the athletes finish less than 60% of the time. Auburn, however, runs 64?%/62%. But, yeah point taken.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge