Auburn can’t get its stories straight on the “spice” scandal

Auburn University reacted swiftly and loudly to a detailed and scathing ESPN Magazine article exposing a drug problem that was sweeping through the Tiger football team during 2010 and 2011. The report—detailing a six month investigation into illicit drug use down on the plains—came on the heels of an equally damning story from a former SI and New York Times reporter. But in the process of trying to set the record straight, it seems that La Familia can’t even get its story straight.

How can you tell when someone is being untruthful? One surefire sign is that the story changes every time it’s told.

Here’s a quote from the ESPN story:

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What Harkness had no way of knowing was that while NCAA investigators pored through Auburn emails and phone logs in the Newton case, the highest-ranking members of the athletic department made a specific choice not to talk about Spice. Jacobs, a folksy, confident executive who played offensive tackle for the Tigers in the early '80s, told The Mag in an interview this past February that the decision not to inform athletes' parents about their positive tests was a matter of legal necessity because the drug had not yet been added to the school's banned substances list.

Based on documents obtained by The Mag, Auburn's 2010 drug policy allows for the banning of drugs also on the NCAA's banned substances list, including a category called street drugs. While the NCAA's list defines marijuana as a street drug (no specific mention of synthetic marijuana), a clause in the Auburn policy would've allowed it to expand the definition to include "related compounds." Yet the school's legal staff concluded that Spice was not a related compound of regular marijuana. "In 2010 and early 2011, using synthetic marijuana was not necessarily a transgression of our policy," says C. Randall Clark, the head of the university senate's drug testing committee.

In other words, the school deemed that the athletic department couldn't discipline students caught using Spice in the same manner as those caught using regular marijuana or cocaine. That meant no parental notification, no loss of playing time and no mandatory counseling. "There wasn't anything we could do except educate our athletes," Jacobs says.

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Not so fast, says a report from AuburnSports.com, the Rivals’ site headed up by former Montgomery Advertiser reporter Jay G. Tate. In their attempt to show that Auburn was on top of the problem early on, they tell us that parents were indeed notified during the relevant time frame:

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Though players who tested positive during the 2010 season didn't face sanctions since the substance wasn't yet banned, AuburnSports.com spoke with the parent of a former player who said he was informed by the school of his son's positive test.

ESPN.com reported Thursday night that the parents of former players Dakota Mosley and Shaun Kitchens claim they weren't informed of their sons' positive tests.

ESPN The Magazine reported Thursday that "not one parent was notified, and no discipline was meted out in the eight-month gap between the first test in January 2011, and August 2011, when Auburn's drug policy was officially amended to include synthetic marijuana."


One parent of an Auburn player that tested positive for "spice" during that time period disagrees.

"It's just false and inaccurate. As a parent, I was notified, so that bumps the fact that no parents were notified," said one parent that wishes to remain anonymous. "I haven't seen the ESPN story, but if they said the parents weren't notified, that's not true. I was called and I know two other parents that were notified, too.

"I know for sure two, from me seeing them down there. If they notified me and two other parents, if there was anyone else, I'm sure they were told. I don't understand this."

The parent says he was notified of the failed drug test between the end of spring practice and June of 2011. That's within the time period that ESPN claims no parents were notified.

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In an open letter posted on Auburn’s official athletics website, AD Jay Jacobs also disputes ESPN’s claim, saying that “phone records show that more than 50 phone calls were made to the parents of two former student-athletes who were interviewed by ESPN.”

Fifty phone calls to the parents of two players means about 25 each per parent. That’s a lot of phone calls to not very many people. They had guys failing drug tests about 25 times? Dakota Mosley said he only failed seven times.

Jacobs’ story jibes perfectly with Tate’s story, but the school’s own documents tell a different story altogether. AL.com

Auburn Bureau writer Joel Erickson explains that documents he obtained from the school under an open records request support the ESPN allegation that parents weren’t notified.

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Auburn's athletic administration and coaching staff could not have legally informed parents about failed tests for synthetic marijuana before the drug was banned, according to documents obtained by AL.com through an open records search.

Auburn informed the student-athletes of each positive test for synthetic marijuana (sometimes called spice), offered counseling to each of the athletes involved and told athletes that the substance would likely be on the school's banned list in the future, said Cassie Arner, Auburn's assistant director for public relations.

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Isn’t that what ESPN said? Why yes, I believe it is.

The AL.com headline for the story linked and quoted above suggests that the documents support Jacobs’ and the AuburnSports.com versions. But the story itself supports the ESPN report—which said that the legal department’s ruling prevented disclosure of positive test results because the substance was legal and not banned by the NCAA.

Either Jacobs doesn’t know the facts as shown by the school’s records, or he’s not being truthful. Or, the parents interviewed by Tate et all at AuburnSports.com were being untruthful. OR, AuburnSports.com is being untruthful.

Is your head spinning fast enough yet?

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It’s not the money, or the bagman. It’s the academics, stupid!

Once again, from the bottom of my Crimson Bleeding Heart, I would like thank the University of Auburn for some badly needed offseason free blogging. I haven’t had the opportunity to use the jailed Aubie photoshop in over two years. With that out of the way…

Don’t sweat the allegations of inflated entertainment budgets in Selena Roberts’ Roopstigo.com story. The allegations of Muschamps’ money drawer are peanuts. As is Darvin Adams’ allegations of being offered financial incentives to forego the NFL draft and return for his senior season.

If there’s any red meat in Roberts’ piece, it’s right here:

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Academic fraud: Three players say that before the BCS Championship game the team was told that as many as nine of their teammates would not be able to play in the title game because they were academically ineligible. “We thought we would be without Mike Dyer because he said he was one of them, but Auburn found a way to make those dudes eligible,” says Mike Blanc, a teammate and roommate of Mike McNeil’s. Dyer’s name was cited by McNeil, too. Dyer did not respond to calls to his cell phone. Before the season, McNeil says he was given an F for attendance in a computer science class. “I had B work but I missed too many classes; and I went to the instructor and said, ‘I really need this grade,’” says McNeil. “He said that he was sorry but he wouldn’t change it. I went to the person over him. She was in a position of power and backed up the instructor. I then told my counselor with the athletic department.” Within days, McNeil says, the grade was changed from an F to a C and he did not miss a game.

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I touched on this two years ago.

The alleged academic improprieties are of particular interest to the NCAA because such issues go straight to the heart of the principles of the organization. Nothing would enrage the Committee on Infractions more than a documented case of fraudulently manipulating student-athlete grades, forcing changes in majors, pressuring educators to maintain eligibility and failing to maintain academics as a primary focus of amateur athletics.

Those are also much easier to prove. They are violations that break some of the NCAA’s most fundamental principles, and they are alleged to have occurred during a timeframe when the school was expected to be honest and forthcoming with information. The time frames involved surround two separate incidents of NCAA scrutiny—the 2006 sociology department scandal and the 2010-11 investigations surrounding Cam Newton’s recruitment.

That's a violation of the same "lying to or misleading investigators" bylaw that got the scalps of Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl canned and Ohio State’s Jim Tressel.

Of the 81 cases before the NCAA regarding violation of bylaw 10.1 since 1989, 78 of the coaches or administrators involved lost their jobs. In all 81 cases, the Committee on Infractions handed down harsh penalties and wrote absolutely scathing final reports. While the coaching staffs during the time frames mentioned by Roberts are no longer in place, the administrative big guns are.

It should be noted that this is the third time in seven years that Auburn has had to deal with allegations of academic wrongdoing and skated both times. Auburn is getting really good at this because apparently, they’ve been doing it a long time and practice makes perfect.

The NCAA is reeling right now in the wake of their own scandal in Miami. So it’s anybody’s guess as to when happens next. But don’t be surprised if the NCAA uses a fresh new case to make a bold new statement.

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Auburn and the NCAA: Have we learned anything new?

By now, everyone has seen the stories from Yahoo, al.com and ESPN regarding an ongoing NCAA investigation into Auburn University’s football program. The stories all cite sources who say that the NCAA is looking into—among other things—the recruitment of Memphis standout Jovon Robinson. Have we learned anything new? Do we know anything now that we didn’t know before Pat Forde’s story dropped yesterday afternoon?

Here’s what he wrote:

According to multiple sources, NCAA investigators have spent weeks looking into potential improprieties involving Auburn recruits, players, coaches, representatives of the school's athletic interests and third parties. Assistant coaches Trooper Taylor and Curtis Luper have been scrutinized by the NCAA, sources said. Taylor is the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach, while Luper coaches running backs and is the recruiting coordinator.

Both Taylor and Luper were taken off the road recruiting several weeks ago amid the NCAA probe, sources said. Taylor was a finalist this season for national Assistant Coach of the Year honors from the American Football Coaches Association.

The only real surprising news here is that an assistant coach on a team that’s 3-8 was a finalist for the AFCA Assistant COY. The rest isn’t news to anyone who’s been following this story. Possible recruiting irregularities and possible academic fraud were first reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal in August.

It was also widely known in October that the two assistants were grounded from off-campus recruiting, with several recruiting websites reporting the situation. Although this information never made it into print or on-line mainstream media, it was talked about extensively on talk radio and internet message boards. If you followed college football in the south, you knew this was out there.

From ESPN’s version of the story:

Lynch, 62, who said she retired as a counselor at Wooddale High School in May to care for her ailing husband and mother, wouldn't specifically identify the teacher who she says instructed her to change Robinson's academic transcript.

But when Lynch was asked whether Wooddale physical education teacher Rhonda Wilkinson instructed her to change Robinson's grades, Lynch smiled and told a reporter, "No comment." Later, when Lynch was asked why she changed Robinson's grades, she said: "You already said her name. Go talk to her."

Robinson's recruitment has been under scrutiny since late August, when Wooddale guidance counselor Valerie Starks-Sykes admitted making changes to Robinson's transcripts and told Memphis City Schools officials that she was "certain someone had asked her to make the changes but was reluctant to name anyone who may have been involved," according to an email obtained by the Memphis Commercial-Appeal.

Again, a lot of stuff we knew back in August from the MCA and others who were covering the story. What we didn’t know—but suspected—was that someone who could easily be defined as a “representative of the school’s athletic interests” (aka, a “booster”) was likely involved with the falsified high school transcript. So while there’s some media confirmation of the dot-connecting many have already done, this story really isn’t any farther along than it was weeks ago.

What is significant is that mainstream national media organizations are confirming what regional and local organizations have already covered. As Miami, Ohio State and USC have painfully learned, having Yahoo! Sports’ team of investigative journalists snooping around your program is never a good thing.

That’s not news, either. But we do know for a fact that there’s certainly some fire to the smoke and now that the national media is covering the blaze, others will start turning over rocks. Sports Illustrated is likely to have a gander. The New York Times may want to talk to some folks in Memphis and Auburn. Fox’s Pete Thamel and Thayer Evans are probably on it. That in turn intensifies the pressure on the local and regional media outlets, who are closer to the story and have access that national types probably don’t. It’s not news, but it’s significant nonetheless.

There has been some conspiracy theorizing speculation that the stories dropping just days before the Iron Bowl is part of an orchestrated effort to inflict maximum harm on Auburn. That’s crazy talk. It implies that these competitive media outlets sat on a big scandal story for several weeks, dropping it only when everyone would be paying attention to the biggest game in the state. It implies that some sinister force controls the media and lets them know when to make things go BOOM. The idea that Yahoo!, ESPN and al.com are mere puppets for the dreaded Red Elephant Club plays well in the 334 area code, but the rest of the college sports worlds points and laughs.

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The “Gogue may fire Chizik” story isn’t news

On the afternoon of October 6, after Auburn had been dominated at home by a then-awful Arkansas team, the talk started and Gene Chizik’s seat got uncomfortably warm. By the time the clock read 00:00 in the 63-12 shellacking (again at home) by SEC newcomer Texas A&M, the talk of change was more than just idle whisper. It was a full-throated roar.

So yesterday, Auburn’s 247Sports.com’s affiliate posted a story that wasn’t news and wasn’t really a story at all. In fact, it did nothing to advance either the notion that Chizik would return or that he would be dismissed. There was no there, there.

Year2 at TeamSpeedKills beat me to expressing this view and probably does it better than I could:

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It's completely hedged. If Gogue might possibly fire Chizik, it also means that he might possibly retain Chizik. That adds no value to the story. While a conditional statement probably reflects reality—I doubt a final decision has been made—it's also not news. Once the decision is made, then there will be news.

The report continues, saying that Gogue will form a committee to help make the decision on whether to keep Chizik. I guess it's nice to know the president won't act as the sole judge and jury on the matter, but it just reinforces the fact that no decision has been made yet. Continuing, that committee would, in the case of Chizik's dismissal, be called upon to assist in the process of finding a replacement "within days after the end of the season". Well, I'd hope so. Programs don't typically wait until after the bowl to fire a coach, and protracted coaching searches are never in anyone's plans.

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David’s right. What do we know differently today from what we knew after the A&M game? Absolutely nothing. There’s a strong possibility that a coaching change is in the offing and there’s also a possibility that Chizik gets another year to show progress.

Actually, he has a fair case to argue for another year. He’s hired two new coordinators who have installed completely new offensive and defensive schemes. He’s still only two years removed from winning Auburn’s first national championship in more that five decades and its only outright undisputed title. The last several recruiting classes—and the still forming 2013 class—have enough talent to pick things up a bit going forward.

Despite the acutely disappointing 2012 season, the defense is playing more physically and more enthusiastically. The stats may not show it, but the defense has improved its play under VanGorder. It’s the offense that hasn’t produced, and that’s leading to a thin, young and gassed defense getting hammered by deeper, more experienced SEC squads. Chizik could offer Gogue a plan for improvement in 2013 and ask for one more year.

On the other hand, there is the abysmal record on the field and the inability to retain and develop the talent they’ve recruited. Prized recruits with elite potential have either failed to develop or have failed to stay on campus.

None of these issues have changed, so why bother with a pot-stirring story explaining that Chizik may or may not be back next year?

What’s new?

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Opelikistan

At first, I didn’t think this was for real. But apparently, it is.

AUBURN - The Auburn football program has contracted with a private security firm to help enforce player curfews, an official with the company confirmed to The Advertiser.

Stanley Dallas, the Auburn Regional Manager of the Event Operations Group, confirmed members of his staff are working in conjunction with members of Auburn’s football player development department to “enforce” player curfews throughout the week.

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The curfew has been a source of frustration for Auburn football players, many of whom have complained via social media, including last week during Halloween. Several tweets by players from that evening have since been deleted.

I wonder what Sheik Chizik will do next—make the cheerleaders wear burkas and habibs?

Comical stuff like this is the clearest indication of all that the staff has lost the team. Head coaches don’t need to resort to such draconian steps as using an outside contractor to enforce a curfew. Teams that have bought into what the coach is trying to do will discipline themselves and don’t need much supervision.

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Danny Sheridan off the record

Whatever you think of USA Today sports analyst Danny Sheridan, he has never shied away from offering his opinion and typically, his opinion is based on knowledge he gains from a variety of sources. No one succeeds in the business that Sheridan works in without having contacts in key organizations. If you don’t have inside information, you have no edge.

Last night at the Tuscaloosa Quarterback Club dinner, Sheridan spoke at length about a number of topics regarding the state of college football today. One of those topics was the seemingly endless entanglement between the NCAA and Auburn University.

I spoke with someone who attended that meeting and who spent some time with Sheridan during and after the event. Here are some of the things Sheridan didn’t tell reporters who also attended. I am paraphrasing here so please don’t quote this verbatim. While not an exact transcript, the paragraphs below capture the gist of what Sheridan said and believes, based on his contacts.

Sheridan's NCAA contacts tell him that a Letter of Inquiry and formal investigation are imminent. The preliminary phase has ended and recruiting irregularities may have occurred that warrant a full Enforcement investigation.

Both Sheridan and the NCAA understand that two unnamed assistants have been removed from off-campus recruiting activities, but they are still allowed to contact recruits via telephone and electronically.

Sheridan would not say which specific recruits, coaches or parts of the country were at the heart of the matters in question.

He said there is a high likelihood that Auburn University “cleans house,” meaning that everyone associated with Auburn football—from the athletic director all the way to “special advisers” to the program—will be dismissed.

Sheridan also said that NCAA President Mark Emmert has been on a warpath against what he believes are programs that calculate risk-reward ratios in deciding how closely to follow NCAA rules, and that Auburn University (among others) should be fearful of the new attitude in Indianapolis.

He believes that Bobby Petrino is the heavy favorite to replace Gene Chizik should the program go through with dismissing Gene Chizik and his staff. Petrino has made his “mea culpa” tour and expects to be coaching again in 2013. Petrino likes the Auburn opportunity because he believes, should he be hired there and the NCAA launches an investigation, he will have a 2-3 year period at a minimum as a “grace period.” This will allow the program to work through any investigation and address any sanctions that may result.

FWIW, this blog does not deal in rumors (other than what you see in the SEC Rumor Central page in the top level menu). The main blog deals only in information that can be verified by trusted sources. When I say I know someone who was there and spoke with Sheridan, please rest assured that I do, and he did.

That said, a lot of what appears above has been speculated on talk radio and internet message boards for much of the last few weeks. I don’t know and won’t judge the veracity of Sheridan’s sources, but I would hope he’s more resourceful than scouring message boards and dropping in on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network.

Extra Point:  This is not the first time Auburn assistants have been pulled off of the recruiting trail in an effort to placate the NCAA. In 2010, numerous secondary violations occurred in connection with the Tiger Prowl and Big Cat Weekend affairs. As a result of those violations, Auburn agreed to restrict its staff from having any off-campus contact with at least one of the recruits in question from November 2011 through January 2012.

Auburn promptly broke that agreement when one of the recruits in question told reporters that he had an in-home visit from Auburn coaches during the so-called “restricted period.” To my knowledge, that matter was never resolved and could be part of the current probe.

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High court drama developing in Antonio Goodwin Felonious Four case?

Yesterday, as jury selection was about to begin in Antonio Goodwin’s trial on armed robbery charges, defense attorney Lauryn Lauderdale filed motions to obtain specific drug testing information from Auburn University. In additional pre-trial maneuvering today, the school and the defense have reached an agreement in which the school will provide “certain general information” on its drug testing policies.

But the school has also agreed to provide to the court  individual data related to Goodwin and the other defendants in the case – Shaun Kitchens, Mike McNeil and Dakota Mosley – and potential state witnesses including DeAngelo Benton and former players Mike Dyer and Neiko Thorpe.

That information will only be released to the defense (and likely entered as evidence at trial) if the individual waives his right to confidentiality.

The state originally sought to quash Lauderdale’s subpoena, calling it a “fishing expedition.” The court was set to rule on the motion in hearings today, but the parties reached the agreement before arguments were to begin.

Lauderdale’s defense strategy is to have her client acquitted because of mental defect. While she has not said why she seeks the drug testing data, speculation is that if it shows what she thinks it does she’ll use the data in the attempt to show that her client was caught up in a culture of rampant drug abuse.

Lauderdale has also objected to the state’s actions with regards to Dyer and Thorpe, accusing the prosecution of trying to persuade them not to waive confidentiality.

“The state does not represent Neiko Thorpe. The state does not represent Mike Dyer,” she argued.

That prompted Lee County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Hughes to order prosecutors not to influence potential witnesses.

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FBI reportedly investigating an Auburn basketball point shaving scandal

Yahoo! Sports’ “Angel of Death” Charles Robinson dropped a bomb this afternoon, just as the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament kicked off. According to his sources, the FBI is investigating Auburn’s Varez Ward as part of a federal point shaving probe.

Robinson broke the news via his Twitter account.

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Suspended Auburn University point guard Varez Ward is under investigation by federal authorities in an ongoing point-shaving probe, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

Three sources with knowledge of the case said the FBI has been investigating Ward since late February after he and guard Chris Denson were suspended by the Tigers prior to a Feb. 25 home game against Arkansas. Two sources said Denson was also questioned as part of the point-shaving investigation, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to the team after sitting out the loss to the Razorbacks. The sources said additional players have been questioned in the case about whether Ward – who has not been with the team since being suspended – attempted to enlist them in a possible scheme. The sources said at least two games are under scrutiny: a 68-50 loss to Alabama on Feb. 7 and a 56-53 loss to Arkansas on Jan. 25.

Messages left at the FBI’s field office in Auburn and divisional headquarters in Mobile were not returned. Auburn spokesperson Kirk Sampson did not return a call or text to his cell phone seeking comment. The NCAA also declined immediate comment. An email to Ward was not returned.

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Ward has been suspended since late February. Now we know the likely reason for the suspension, and wasn’t Barbee smart to hold out on his contract, insisting that he not be penalized for NCAA (or presumably other) investigations.

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Update: Auburn’s statement on the matter:

“Auburn officials were made aware of a rumor regarding an allegation two weeks ago and immediately reported it to the FBI, the NCAA and the SEC. Because of the nature of the allegation, Auburn is not in a position to make any further comment on the situation.”

Update: Charles Robinson speaks about his investigation with Craig Shemon. Click play to listen.

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Deadspin story shows media carrying water for Auburn during 2010 season

If you haven’t seen this already, get another cup of coffee and settle in for some fascinating reading. Under an open records request, Deadspin obtained copies of email correspondence between Auburn University athletics media relations and members of the media during the Tigers’ BCS Championship season and concurrent controversy over the recruitment Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton.

Newton and Auburn were formally cleared by the NCAA of all wrongdoing in October 2011, nearly one year after the allegations first surfaced.

Don’t be shocked or outraged by what you read. This kind of chumming around is the nature of the business when it comes to covering sports, politics, celebrities or any other hot button topic. When your professional reputation depends as much on your access as it does on your perceived objectivity, you have to walk a very fine line. You don’t get interviews by being a jerk and no one does you any favors if you aren’t scratching their backs in return.

A couple of emails from CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd highlight this reality.

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Nov. 4, responding to a statement from Kirk Sampson that Newton was eligible and would play:

This ruined both our days.

Five days later, after writing a brief news story:

This stuff has been absolutely ridiculous. I realized it when I found myself Tuesday writing about Cam's 12 traffic tickets at Florida. Am I sick? Are we all sick?

See you soon.

dd

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Dodd routinely gets subjected to accusations that he lacks objectivity. These do nothing to quell those suspicions.

The stuff from ESPN representatives is absolutely comical. They go from being “jacked up” to ominous to chummy and friendly, all in the span of about 10 weeks.

Also interesting is the apparent fact that Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel was already on the academic affairs issue weeks before Thayer Evans of Fox Sports:

Deadspin author Tommy Craggs notes that the correspondence appearing on the site is only a sample of what they received in response to their records request.

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Auburn may have violated agreement with SEC and NCAA in reported visit with prized recruit

On November 4, 2011, Auburn University released a ream of documents related to the NCAA and school investigation into the football program.

While most of the documentation was related to the highly publicized investigation into the recruitment of former Auburn Quarterback Cam Newton, a number of other documents were also released, including details on numerous secondary violations committed by the program over a two year period.

Part of the documentation of the secondary violations included the school’s report on the Tiger Prowl affair, in which the school admitted to a handful of violations regarding improper contact with prospective student-athletes. As a result of those violations, Auburn restricted its football staff from having any on- or off-campus contact with Jameis Winston, the highly regarded football and baseball prospect from Hueytown, Alabama.

 

Auburn also self-imposed a 60-day period of no off-campus contact from November 2011 through January 2012. However, recent reports indicate that the Auburn coaching staff may not be keeping up its end of the bargain.

On November 28, 2011, Fox Sports Recruiting Analyst Laura McKeeman sent the following tweet:

Ms. McKeeman has since confirmed to IBCR via email that her source was Jameis Winston himself, and that the prospect “told me point blank that AU was in his house last night.” The contact was also reported on at least one other Auburn related recruiting site.

It was not immediately clear which Auburn coaches were involved with the reported visit.

While the initial contact in 2010 resulted in a secondary violation and resulted in relatively light penalties, it is also unclear whether a violation of the self-imposed sanctions would be secondary in nature. IBCR has reached out to NCAA compliance experts and more reports are likely to follow.

Exit Question: This isn’t a nuclear detonation by any stretch. Even if this violation rises to the level of a major infraction, the likelihood of harsh penalties is slight. But given the fact that the school has just recently escaped the scrutiny of a major investigation into its recruiting practices, isn’t this somewhat embarrassing for “the best compliance department in the country?’ And, could this result in the program ceasing its recruitment of the prospect altogether?

Helmet tap to Brian Warwick on Twitter.

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Friday Document Dump: Auburn releases information related to NCAA – Newton investigation

Jay Tate of the Montgomery Advertiser was planning to take a few days off. Auburn is on its bye week and everyone else is in West Alabama, covering the Game of the Century.

Little did he know that Auburn University would channel its inner Barack Hussein Obama and comply with an open records request on a Friday afternoon. The records pertain to the recently concluded investigation into the recruitment of Cam Newton.

The school has released details of the NCAA’s findings as well as correspondence between the school and the NCAA and communications between the perpetrators of the scheme people involved.

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• The NCAA found evidence that Cecil Newton and Kenny Rogers, the agent/non-agent, communicated a total of 275 times prior to Newton’s commitment to Auburn.

• Rogers was working on MSU’s behalf.

• Rogers told Bill Bell, an MSU booster, that Cam Newton would commit to Oklahoma if a cash payment wasn’t made on MSU’s behalf.

• Cam Newton, Auburn investigators concluded, “only knew Rogers as an MSU alumnus who provided information to Cam’s father about MSU and, in particular, his perspective on being an African-American male in Starkville, Miss.”

• Auburn told the NCAA, in its letter requesting Cam Newton’s reinstatement on Nov. 30, 2010, that “it is clearly established that Cam didn’t hire and agent and didn’t receive any benefit from individuals alleged to be acting on his behalf. The facts do not support that Cam was aware of any such alleged activity.”

• Kenny Rogers also contacted UNC assistant coach John Blake about Cam Newton, saying “I have three kids that love UNC.” The first was Newton. Rogers also mentioned DL Donald Langley and RB Justin Rogers.

• The NCAA affirmed MSU’s findings earlier this year that Rogers, despite all this, wasn’t a representative of MSU’s athletic interests. MSU cast Rogers as a rogue and the NCAA agreed. Rogers officially has been disassociated from MSU.

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That last item should give Mississippi State Bulldog fans a reason to sigh loudly in relief. While every indication was that Starkville did it right, there was still some nervousness about whether the NCAA would eventually turn its spotlight back on the Bulldog program.

If you closely followed developments of roughly one year ago this week, you may also recall that Mississippi State not only played by the book, they also held a little somethin’-somethin’ back from the SEC (shared with the NCAA) just in case the suits in Birmingham decided they needed someone to throw under a bus.

It’ll be interesting to see exactly how much of the material actually reaches public hands. Specifically, there are still some questions in lots of minds about the breadth of the NCAA’s query into Auburn’s recruiting and allegations of improper benefits.

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Unanswered Questions Still Remain About Auburngate

By @NailPhyl

The NCAA has given up on concluded the investigation into not only the recruitment of Cam Newton but also several other issues, according to a recent letter sent to Auburn University last week. Some time has passed and the dust has settled and the fog of disbelief has thinned somewhat. But it still doesn't make any sense why the NCAA closed this investigation after just thirteen months. There are too many unanswered questions that need to be addressed.

In no particular order, here are a few to rattle around in your head:

1. Who was the source for Joe Schad that provided him the direct quote "the money was too much"?

In the article released by Joe Schad on ESPN.com he writes that he was told by a source that Cam Newton called a recruiter for Mississippi State and that source told Schad that an emotional Newton called them on the phone and said he regretted he wouldn't be going to Mississippi State and was going to Auburn because "the money was too much."

Auburn people have tried their hardest to discredit Joe Schad. The truth of the matter is Schad had two direct quotes in the article. The first quote—which turned out to be absolutely true—was Cecil saying it would take "more than a scholarship" to bring his son to Mississippi State. Why was the second quote ignored and not explained? Who is this recruiter and were they even questioned by the NCAA?

Normally I won't link to SportsByBrooks but I really like his theory on who this source is.

A good follow up to this question just so happens to be...

2. Why did ESPN stop working on the story?

Six days before Schad came out with his story Pat Forde, Chris Low and Mark Schlabach released "Cash Sought for Cam Newton" which was the first domino to fall regarding the Cam Newton scandal. Both articles came from ESPN.

Take a minute to look back and analyze something you may have missed. Four people are credited for the information relating to this story. There were FOUR people that included Joe Schad, Pat Forde, Chris Low and Mark Schlabach. A reasonable assumption would be that if four of the most respected journalists that work for ESPN are working on a story, then they were assigned to this story. The editorial staff at ESPN believed the story had legs and wanted to get the information out there.

What happened?

I have a theory. It's a purely speculative theory that ESPN had a change of heart to protect one of their commodities. Instead of dabbling in speculation however, some insight may be gained by looking at the recent news about Forde leaving ESPN to go to Yahoo! sports.

We all know what happened to Bruce Feldman who left ESPN for CBS. I won't get into specifics but you can read the details here. I bring Feldman up because Forde mentions his situation as one of the reasons for his departure and provides a good insight of how ESPN can be sloppy. Feldman flatly states about his situation that ESPN "made such a mess, and then they never cleaned it up." Is this kind of like opening a damming story on a team with National Championship aspirations, which also has a player with a great chance at winning the Heisman, and not finishing it?

According to bigleadsports, it is also being said that Forde "has long been unhappy with what he couldn't report on or look into because of ESPN's many conflicts of interest." That is very interesting if you consider the abrupt halt on a story that would have surely put a stop to the National Championship run of a team that just so happens to be a member of the Southeastern Conference. Considering the messy way ESPN handles situations it wouldn't be hard to imagine that in the beginning they didn't think through the implications this story would have had to one of the teams that is part of the fifteen year, $2 billion deal ESPN made with the SEC on August 25th, 2008. I would definitely consider that a "conflict of interest."

As a side note, Forde and Charles Robinson are now coworkers.

3. Why did just one person from the HBO Four talk to the NCAA?

Specifically, why did Chaz Ramsey not talk to the NCAA? I remember he refused to talk if Auburn's attorneys were present. It seemed the story changed when a report came out that said Ramsey had specified a time between April 18th and April 20th of this year. Whatever came of that?

Apparently Only Gray agreed to be interviewed and the others "refused to cooperate," the NCAA said. So, what does that mean? Because Ramsey refused to talk to the NCAA without the presence of any and all attorneys representing Auburn he refuses to cooperate? Did all of the "80 interviews" conducted by the NCAA have to follow this rule? What about other institutions hit with major sanctions in the past 30 years, did they also afford the same luxury or is this preferential treatment of some kind? If this is true, how much of an influence did Auburn's attorneys have on the investigation and who was actually in charge, the NCAA or Auburn University's legal representative?

4. Has anyone made a request for all communication between Auburn and the NCAA enforcement staff?

Remember the reason open document requests were refused? Because there was an ongoing investigation. So lets see the information now. Was there ever a Notice of Inquiry? If no NOI existed, how in the bloody hell did the NCAA conduct an investigation without ever telling Auburn they were investigating? If one doesn't exist does that mean they made no effort to interview students, coaches or other administration on campus?

5. What about Auburn's institutional control?

What else is going on if the NCAA had nothing to pin on Auburn involving Newton and didn't believe the HBO Four but still felt the need to investigate Auburn's institutional control? It's already been discussed on this blog so I won't hit the whole thing again. However, as said on this site, "there’s no reason to engage in a review of institutional control procedures unless there’s something to suggest that it’s lacking." So why was the NCAA reviewing lack of institutional control if it had zero instances of violations and how did they do this without issuing the NOI?

6. What will the end of the bingo trial bring?

A lot of people have already jumped the gun and said 'I told you so' when talking about this trial. However, the buzz I heard when the end of the trial was nearing was that the end of the trial would result in the release information. That trial isn't finished and has been rescheduled for January 30th of 2012.

I realize this question can't be answered right now. Naysayers love to say it's nothing. I have zero reason to trust them any more than the people claiming that there are links with McGregor and illegal recruiting. I'm legitimately intrigued at what happens, if anything, when this case is over.

This isn't just message board fodder. Around the time the first trial was coming to an end, The Opening Drive on WJOX 94.5 FM in Birmingham, Alabama, which is hosted by Jay Barker, Tony Kurre and Al Del Greco, aired several discussions pertaining to this subject specifically and it is where I initially heard mention of multiple southern schools being involved. They didn't go into details. If you know the show, you know that it isn't based on rumor mongering and this information didn't come in from a caller. If you don't believe me, call them and ask them. They are the only ones I know of that have specifically mentioned the ties between the bingo trial, gambling and sports where a link from the source and someone specifically involved in the trial can be traced.

Insert Paul Finebaum to complete that link.

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Unanswered Questions Remain About Auburgeddon

Accidental double post.

Please click here for the story.

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AUburgeddon Avoided

To the shock of everyone whose favorite team doesn’t play in the 334 area code, the NCAA closed its investigations of the Auburn University Football program. The league’s lead investigator wrote in a letter to Athletic Director Jay Jacobs that it had conducted a thorough, 13-month long investigation into the program and failed to find sufficient evidence of major infractions.

And that was that. The raging fire has been extinguished. There will be no AUburgeddon.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that the timing of yesterday’s announcement probably wasn’t a coincidence. The story broke at about 3:30 pm CDT, or about 1-1/2 hours into the Paul Finebaum Radio Network show. A finger in the eye?

This space was going to have a point-counterpoint column on the decision and its impact on the SEC and college football, but the red-eye team of Barrett Sallee and Pete Fiutak beat me to it with this excellent piece on CollegeFootballNews.com.

Here are the most salient points (to me) in that post:

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Barrett Sallee:

You will see comparisons to O.J. Simpson and Casey Anthony in regards to Auburn football getting off the hook. The NCAA wouldn’t have concluded its investigation if it felt that there is anything that could implicate Auburn University or Cam Newton. It had no reason to. If the NCAA presumed guilt - or presumed that guilt is an option - the investigation would have stayed open until the four-year statute of limitations expires. It didn’t, and that’s BIG.

The fact that the NCAA doesn’t have subpoena power should also be a strong indicator of where it feels Auburn stands in the violation pecking order. The organization doesn’t have the power of the United States judicial system, but it also doesn’t share the same burden of proof as the United States judicial system.

Don’t believe me? Just ask USC.

Pete Fiutak:

First of all, I can’t keep stressing this enough; you can’t prove that someone got a bag of cash. You can’t prove a $100 handshake. The NCAA, by saying it couldn’t find any violations, basically couldn’t find a paper trail, and it gave up. Remember, this wasn’t a criminal investigation; just because the NCAA didn’t find anything doesn’t necessarily mean that nothing happened. The NCAA doesn’t have subpoena power, and no, you’re not committing perjury if you lie in an investigation.

The NCAA got Reggie Bush and USC because there were pieces of paper that said he was getting paid by a marketing company. Ohio State got nailed because there were e-mails that proved Jim Tressel was covering up a controversy. There wasn’t anything here for the NCAA to prove that anything happened at Auburn in regards to the recruitment of Cam Newton and all the allegations surrounding the Real Sports interview, but again, that’s not the point.

The Cam Newton side of this wasn’t about Auburn, it was about the Newtons, and that ended a year ago when the NCAA inexplicably let Cam continue to play even though his father was the textbook definition of an agent. No, this isn’t a legal issue and this wasn’t a criminal investigation, but that the NCAA couldn't prove that money changed hands is irrelevant. A family member asked for money in exchange for a player. That should've been a slam-shut ruling.

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Sallee echoes the sentiments of every Auburn fan on the planet. They never believed that Auburn had done anything wrong in its recruitment of Cam Newton and the HBO Four were just sour grapes whiners. They feel vinidicated by the “not guilty” verdict from the NCAA and can now rest comfortably that Daniel Moore’s print of their BCS National Championship doesn’t have to be in pencil.

Fiutak echoes the sentiments of virtually every other college football fan who followed this story. There are a great many football fans who will never be convinced that the price to play at Mississippi State was 180 large, but the price to play at Auburn was no extra charge. That’s not just Bama fans, either. I had conversations last night with bloggers from or fans of Florida, LSU, Arkansas and even Notre Dame and all of them expressed the same “they got away with something” opinion.

It’s not likely that any minds will change but that doesn’t matter, now. The NCAA has closed the case, tied it up with a bow and sent it with a letter from Jackie Thurnes.

AUBurgeddon Avoided.

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Unofficial Visits: Auburn And The Black Hole Of College Recruiting

LINK: Cross posted at Business Insider Sports.

Two separate, seemingly unrelated stories have appeared in the last few days. The first was from the New York Times’ Pete Thamel on the potential for abuse in how unofficial visits play a role in recruiting. The second was a report from the Birmingham News’ Jon Solomon covering remarks Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt made in a speech before the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham.

In the Sunday Times report, Thamel reports that illegally arranging payment for travel and lodging expenses for recruits’ unofficial visits to college campuses is one of the most frequent violations of NCAA rules. Research indicates that he’s onto something: A search of the NCAA infractions database yields no fewer than 15 major infractions cases involving impermissible benefits associated with unofficial visits since 2001.

Thamel interviewed ESPN Basketball Analyst Dave Telep and former Florida Head Football Coach Urban Meyer—now an ESPN Football Analyst—and both men indicated that the problem is pervasive in the two biggest revenue generators in college sports.

“Behind the scenes in college basketball, people will tell you that the unofficial visit is one of the bigger problems facing recruiting right now. It’s a place where things can be easily manipulated by third parties. At the same time, I have no idea how you can fix it,” Telep told Thamel.

Said Meyer: “I’d ask my assistants, ‘Why is this kid not visiting us?’ They’d say, ‘Coach, we’re not paying for his trip.’ ”

In the Birmingham News story, Nutt is reported to have complained that a prized recruit was “stolen” from him by Auburn Tigers Coach Gene Chizik. “Gene Chizik came in and stole my man, Jermaine Whitehead,” Nutt told the audience. Nutt claims to have had a handshake agreement with the prospect, in which Whitehead told the Rebels’ coach he was coming to play in Oxford. But something changed Whitehead’s mind and on National Signing Day 2011, he signed with Auburn. When Nutt finally reestablished contact with Whitehead, he described the conversation this way:

"Jermaine: 'Coach, I gotta go to Auburn.'"

"Why? Why would you go to Auburn? They already won their title. They already have the crystal ball. They don't need you. I need you."

"Coach, it's business."

"Business? You shook my hand, man! You said you were committed to me!"

"I know, Coach. I'm sorry."

Whitehead’s official visit to Auburn occurred over the weekend of the 2010 Georgia game, played on Nov 13. At the time, Auburn was in the midst of controversy surrounding its recruitment of then Quarterback Cam Newton.

But according to the Birmingham News story, Whitehead had made several unofficial visits to the campus as well, including the 2010 Big Cat Weekend. Others making the Big Cat Weekend trip were Kiehl Frazier,  Kris Frost, Reese Dismukes, Greg Robinson, Erique Florence, Brandon Fulse, Jonathan Rose and Gabe Wright. All signed with Auburn in February.

While there is currently no evidence showing that the Auburn program provided impermissible benefits in connection with these unofficial visits, various news reports indicate that the NCAA has at least some of these players’ recruitment on their investigation menu, including recruits from Louisiana and South Florida. Many of these players made several unofficial visits to the Auburn campus.

Perhaps this explains why the seemingly interminable NCAA investigation into Auburn’s recruiting practices is now dragging into its 12th month without so much as an official Notice of Inquiry. If you’re familiar with the Anatomy of an NCAA Investigation, you understand that this can be a long, drawn out process despite changes to investigative procedure in the last decade. Auburn is still in the review phase and that has no official timetable.

As it stands now, we have a report that unofficial visits are a major focus of NCAA enforcement. We have a bare allegation by an embattled rival head coach that Auburn “stole” a prized recruit. who explained to the coach that his decision to sign with Auburn was “business.” And we have pretty good information that the NCAA is looking into a lot more than a pay-for-play scheme unearthed by the New York Times and ESPN nearly one year ago.

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Auburn fans continue to stalk Alabama TB Trent Richardson

Last month, IBCR exposed what was clearly the beginning of a criminal conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon when we reported that a group of Auburn fans were discussing plans to cause a vehicle collision with Alabama's junior Tailback Trent Richardson.

Follow the link for details.

It hasn't stopped. The same God-fearing, Christian Auburn Fambly members of the Bunker--Auburn's super secret fan message board on rivals.com--are now apparently driving around the home Richardson resides in with his mother and his two small children, taking pictures, snooping around and stalking private citizens who happen to be associated with a football program that has obsessed them for decades.

These people are so weird that welcoming the strangely cultish Texas A&M fan base into the SEC will be an improvement. At least Texas A&M has some tradition to go with the psychosis.

Here's a partial screenshot of the Bunker thread in question. Click the image for the full resolution version.

The author of the post (you can give her your feedback on Twitter @BettyCrocked) had also posted some interesting and recent imagery, indicating that someone has indeed been hanging out around Richardson's home.

Not only is that kind of creepy, it's also probably illegal. Stalking is a crime in Alabama.

But as creepy and as illegal as it is, it's also right in character with what Paul Finebaum described as the "Lunatic Fringe" of the looniest fan base in the SEC, if not the country.

Maybe you remember the story of John “Stump” Thrower, a man once described by former AU Athletics Director Navid Nousel as “an Auburn zealot.” Thrower’s zealotry went so far that, according to WJOX’s Herb Winches, he personally paid thousands of dollars to former Alabama player Gene Jelks to tell stories about his time in Tuscaloosa. His motive? He was outraged that former Auburn player Eric Ramsey had tape recordings of conversations with Pat Dye and other coaches on the Auburn staff. Those recordings—related to thousands of dollars in improper benefits to Auburn football players—led to the SEC’s most penalized school getting put on probation again. There wasn’t a crimson fingerprint anywhere near Eric Ramsey’s tape recorder, but By God Alabama was gonna pay for this.

Thrower died in November 2009. Alcoholic, broke, disgraced, divorced and badly behind in child support payments.

Maybe you also remember the little radio rant by former Auburn AD Nousel himself, wherein he compared the University of Alabama to Nazi Germany. No, really. He actually did. Go see for yourself.

Maybe you remember Mark Green, who is also dead. Mr. Green and a group of message board posters from Inside the Auburn Tigers--another lunatic fringe message board--decided to launch “Operation Red Dog,” a plot to get Alabama the “death penalty” by getting its football players in trouble for receiving extra benefits in 2009:

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1) This started when JH went to Alabama at the last minute instead of AU. A coach of his had ensured AU staff that he was headed to AU and not Alabama. He was aware of what AU had offered JH and his mother stuff and possibly knew that JH mom had taped AU's offer. He still felt AU was his choice. JH put on the Alabama hat and the crap hit the fan at AU. Our staff called the coach and asked him what happened and he said he did not know but would have to guess that Alabama "countered" AU's offer. He never said he knew that Alabama had cheated but that he guessed that took place. After this, he asked JH why he went to Alabama and he said that if he went to AU he thought his eligibility might have been revoked if the NCAA found out about AU's offer. JH said Alabama and MSST both played it straight with him and his mom and that is why he went to Alabama.

2) This incident led the AU staff to believe that they lost out on the bidding for JH and they told people that Alabama had cheated. At this point, the coach could not get the corrected story out there fast enough. Irontiger knows this coach and was told the first story about how the coach thought Alabama cheated. Later, irontiger was told that Alabama did not commit infractions but he had already started his own rumors and his reputation grew as well as his imagination.

3) Irontiger then brought in a few of us to help spread the rumors- myself (ITAT name withheld) sherpa88, troopT and a few others and then koury. I dropped out about three months ago when I found out they had hired a PI that might have broken some laws and when I confronted iron about it he said they would send the information anonymously and no one could trace it back to him. The problem is his big mouth and he could not stop talking about it - then everyone found out about operation red dog and who was in it. After I dropped out koury joined the inside board back in March of this year as the repeat and sounding board of irontiger. The plan was simple: irontiger would start the thread and a few of us would join in and then someone would come back and verify everything irontiger has said was truthful- that is koury's job now.

4) During the past 16 months this has been going on. The MO was to stay the same in every area. Charge that recruits got new cars- Mobile was escalades and Gadsden was chargers. Start new rumors along the way about booster infractions, enticements and other benefits as much as we can. The most effective thing that irontiger came up with was that when any Alabama player does something immediately tie it to an infraction. If julio and mark goes fishing a booster paid for it- it was really simple. If KK got a car immediately say a booster paid for it even though in this case they knew for sure it came from his mothers college fund for him.

Now everyone knows how this happened. Now to the why.

We all knew that CTT and staff were not going to be effective against Miles, Saban, Richt and Meyer. We had to negate one of them and the easiest one was to hit Saban. We choose him due to his proximity and volatility of our rivalry with Alabama. We all really thought CNS was cheating a little (secondary type stuff) and thought if we can keep enough rumors churning we could get the NCAA to investigate or at the least keep a few recruits away from Alabama. Irontiger knew this would work and said, "the idiot masses on ITAT will believe any rumor we put out about Alabama because they want to believe it"! I was skeptical until I saw the masses believing every rumor even as our gang accidentally got the rumors incorrect many times- types of cars, colors and amounts of cash. Each time we told the rumor it seemed to grow and our fanbase kept believing every one of them until Michael14 and Austudent22 caught on to us and called us out for it.

You will see more revelations about this coming from multiple boards as they have started figuring out that 4-5 posters on ITAT started all these rumors. Once it went so far I told irontiger that coaches at these schools were being implicated as cheaters from the AU fanbase and that we should call it off and he said those Alabama coaches were a-holes and he did not care if they got called cheaters. I told him that they weren't cheaters and that they had started calling into AU's athletic department complaining about. When the PIs and reporters showed up and questioned these high school coaches about cheating for Alabama they wrote AU off. This really hit the fan around March of 2009 and that is when I left irons group. I know for a fact that irons rumors cost us 2 recruits last year (one four star and one 5 star) because the coaches at there school were called cheaters by the rumors started on ITAT. Our 2009 recruiting efforts were dramatically hurt by these rumors and 2010 is looking just as bad for instate recruits.

I stayed on the fringe until last week when the PTB at AU sent word to me and irontiger that it had to stop. Irontiger stopped for a day or so and then started rehashing it all over again. He has troopT and koury doing the heavy posting now and he just "supports" the rumors instead of "initiating" them. If our own posters knew just how stupid irontiger said they were they would not follow his rumors any more.

Now, I have completed the task I was advised to do. Once PF gets to the bottom of this and the package that iron put together it will turn litigious."

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Not only is teh Auburn fambly obsessed with Alabama football players, they also seem to have a strange fascination with automobilies, despite the fact that the University of Alabama Compliance Department has one of the strictest protocols for vehicle ownership and documentation in the country.

I see your Harvey Updyke and raise you one Stump Thrower, one Mark Green and a BettyCrocked.

Oh, remember the Mark Ingram/Julio Jones fishing trip and the Jerrell Harris laptop incidents? All caused by Operation Red Dog, using Curtis Anderson, a man who’s family “roots for another SEC school.”

Exit question: Guess which “other SEC school” Anderson’s family roots for?

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AUburgeddon: NCAA looking for lack of institutional control

The four most dreaded words in the NCAA enforcement lexicon are “lack of institutional control,” and the NCAA is now looking for evidence of that, according to statements made by Auburn University Athletic Director Jay Jacobs.

You can sugarcoat and spin this all you want, but the full fisted anal exam of the Tigers’ athletics program is still in high gear. It’s not dormant, it’s not inactive and it’s not stalled. And, if the NCAA is already on the institutional control page of the playbook—without delivering the formal notice of inquiry—it doesn’t bode well for teh fambly.

Yesterday after delivering comments at the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Jacobs spoke with reporters about the ongoing NCAA probe into the school’s compliance with NCAA regulations and had this to say:

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"The Cam one is the one that started this entire thing," Jacobs said. "But the way the process works is once they begin to look at one thing, they look at everything around your program, whether it's a coach in another sport having too many text messages and you filed a secondary report. They look at all of that.

"They're making sure we have institutional control, and there's been nothing to indicate to me or to them otherwise. So when you say how many facets, it's basically everything that may come up in a normal operation of a year -- this year, last year or two years from now. They take a look just to make sure they're not missing anything."

Jacobs said Auburn has not complied with open-records requests from The Birmingham News out of respect for the NCAA's process. Over several months, The News has requested documents related to Newton's recruitment and all of Auburn's recent NCAA secondary violations.

"Generally, when the NCAA says it isn't over with, we don't release them," Jacobs said. "They'll even look at things we may or may not have gotten a reply from the NCAA yet just to see if there's any history there, anything that jumps out to them because they've looked into things. I would think in the near future we'll be able to share everything you need. But we're not going to do that until they tell us it's OK to do that."

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Jacobs is whistling past the graveyard and so is anyone else who interprets his comments to mean that this all a standard part of the process and that everything is going to be just fine.

The NCAA does not investigate potential lack of institutional control unless it has found evidence of rules violations. If the enforcement staff truly is reviewing Auburn’s institutional control procedures, it means that they have already discovered and documented violations of league bylaws and are now in the process of determining whether these rules violations are consistent with the charge of lack of institutional control.

A review of the NCAA’s database of major infractions cases shows no cases where a school was charged for lack of institutional control without also being cited for numerous other violations that rose to the standard of “major infractions.”

People will try to spin this as a “normal operation” in which the NCAA hasn’t really found anything and is just having a quick look-see at institutional control procedures. Don’t believe them. The league’s enforcement process doesn’t work that way. There’s no reason to engage in a review of institutional control procedures unless there’s something to suggest that it’s lacking. The enforcement staff has all but set up a satellite office at the local Hilton Garden Inn, racking up Hilton Honor points and documenting that “something.” Bet on it.

The most ominous takeaway is that determining that there has been a lack of institutional control is a totally subjective judgment. You have to document violations of recruiting and impermissible benefits legislation. The call on whether those violations rise to the standard of lack of institutional control depends on the mood of the Enforcement Staff and the Committee on Infractions.

Exit question: Is this why Jacobs suddenly has “lot more respect for them today?” It probably makes sense to suck up a little bit now, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: Capstone Report has an excellent angle on Auburn President Jay Gogue’s comments in the same story linked above.

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Also from the Birmingham News: “I’ve never heard anything about it other than what I read in the newspapers,” Gogue said. “I have not a clue what’s going on. I haven’t heard anything. I just see it’s a constant story.”

That begs the question. What else is Gogue in the dark about involving Auburn’s Athletic Department?

Does Gogue supervise the athletic department? Or does it supervise itself? Does it tell the president what he should know, or does it tell the president want it wants him to know?

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In the context of a news story on a review of lack of institutional control, to have the President of the university express cluelessness as to the nature and progress of the investigation is at best embarrassing and at worst damning.

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This is what passes for “professional journalism” at the Birmingham News

This is laughable. 

One expects blatant homerism from columnists writing for Rivals, Scout and 247 sites. One also expects those writers to rely on questionable, unnamed sources to drive the narrative in a light most favorable to the program they’re covering. It’s what they do.

But if you expect a major daily newspaper in the state of Alabama to be an objective observer and provide an unbiased look at a news story affecting one of the two SEC programs in the state, you will be sorely disappointed—maybe even embarrassed—by Kevin Scarbinsky’s column in the Wednesday editions of the Birmingham News. If there is a bigger Auburn crybaby anywhere in the state, you’ll need to look up Phillip Marshall or Jeffery Lee.

Scarbinsky is whining about ESPN’s decision to send Urban Meyer to cover Saturday’s Auburn vs. Clemson matchup in Death Valley. Meyer, former Florida Head Coach and two-time National Championship Winner, knows a little about football and is expected to provide insightful color and technical commentary as the game unfolds.

But the Auburn fambly isn’t happy about the decision, as Meyer has been pointed and specific in his criticism of major college athletics recruiting practices and includes Auburn among the programs he thinks stretch the rules too far.  Auburn fans also deeply believe that Meyer was one of the “wizards behind the curtain” who orchestrated a media conspiracy to wreck their 2010 championship run by exposing the Cam Newton pay for play scheme, a scheme that Cecil Newton admitted to participating in. Newton was briefly declared ineligible as a result of the scheme, only to have his eligibility reinstated by the NCAA, which then took the unusual step of explaining the loophole Auburn used to spring the one-and-done wonder from the NCAA doghouse.

Scarbinsky writes:

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In the spring of 2009, after Auburn hit the road in its Tiger Prowl recruiting limos, Meyer told the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun that the NCAA should investigate. He also took a few shots at Auburn's tires.

"We're trying to sell graduation rates and academics and trying the sing and dance routine," he said. "The Florida coaching staff will not be riding around in limos or ripping off our shirts."

That shirt reference was a shot at Lane Kiffin and his Tennessee staff, but still. Even two years later, Meyer trying to drag his program onto the high ground, despite its arrest record, remains a shining example of hypocrisy.

He didn't stop there. In December of 2010, Meyer was the only SEC coach with a vote that didn't put Auburn No. 1 on his final regular-season ballot in the USA Today poll. He put Oregon first and Auburn second.

But those slights pale next to the role Meyer may have played as a wizard behind the curtain of the Cecil Newton-Kenny Rogers story last fall.

According to multiple news reports, before that story broke, Meyer had vowed on a three-way call with his protege, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, and former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond to tell it to The New York Times and ESPN.

Who broke the story of Newton and Rogers asking for money from Mississippi State boosters, Bond included, to send Cam Newton to State? The Times and ESPN.

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For those of you keeping score, the NCAA is still investigating the whole “Prowl” affair, and is investigating it as an institutional affair rather than a series of individual secondary violations. But the real laugher is the reference to “multiple news reports” regarding a three-way conference call between Meyer, Mullen and Bond.

His source: A single blog post by the most obtuse Auburn homer on the planet. The blog post is behind 247Sports.com’s paywall, but trust me—as a news source it’s about as credible as my Aunt Tootsie’s pool boy.

The alleged three-way call—which at least one of the participants said never happened—had Meyer telling the other two that he was going public with the pay-for-play scheme and tipping off the New York Times and ESPN.

This is what passes as a credible source for the Birmingham News? When was the last time this blog ever ran a story citing a single, unnamed source and passing it off as credible journalism? When the credibility standards of a part-time blogger exceed those of Alabama’s largest newspaper, it’s no wonder that the News’ circulation is circling the drain.

The Scarbinsky column also comes in light of the righteous indignation from the Auburn fambly over the appearance of nationally syndicated talk show host Paul Finebaum at last Saturday’s game between Auburn and Mississippi State. Finebaum’s show—the Paul Finebaum Radio Network—has come under intense fambly indignation over the appearances on the show of Danny Sheridan, the USA Today Sports Analyst. Sheridan has said he has knowledge of the identities of key players in the Newton pay for play scheme. The fambly has begun mounting an email, letter and fax campaign insisting that Auburn University revoke Finebaum’s media credentials.

It also comes in light of last Spring’s events when another radio talk show host—Scott Moore—told his listeners that he had heard recordings that implicated both Cecil and Cam Newton in the pay-for-play scheme. When Moore indicated that he was willing to share that evidence on the air, the fambly rose up and hounded the radio station until Moore was forced off the air. Never mind that, regarding the existence of the recordings, Scott Moore was telling the truth.

The implications here are as chilling as they are crystal clear—bother to tell the truth about a football program under intense NCAA scrutiny, and the fambly will do everything in its power to shut you down. There will be no airing of the fambly’s dirty laundry, whether that airing is on a local radio talk show, a nationally syndicated radio talk show, or even ESPN.

Exit question: Mr. Sheridan, could you give me the odds on Auburn issuing me press credentials for the Florida game at Auburn?

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AUburgeddon: The NCAA blew it with Sheridan statement

Sometimes, in the heat of an angry moment, it’s best to step back, take a deep breath and think things through before lashing out at the source of your frustration. That’s what the NCAA should have done last Friday following the appearance of USA Today Sports Analyst Danny Sheridan’s with Paul Finebaum on ESPN’s Outside the Lines.

Sheridan was on the show to discuss comments he’d made during earlier appearances on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network, in which he said that sources “inside the NCAA” had given him the name of the person they believed was responsible for payment to Cecil Newton during Auburn’s recruitment of the eventual Heisman Trophy and National Championship winning Quarterback, Cam Newton.

Those statements led to the NCAA enforcement staff requesting an interview with Sheridan last week, an interview that both Sheridan and the NCAA have confirmed. But in the heat of anger, the NCAA released the following statement a few hours after the OTL segment ended. I’ll explain later why I believe that move was a mistake, but here’s the statement again:

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Danny Sheridan continues to make vague, unsubstantiated claims without backing them up with proof. Contrary to his claims of having an inside source with details on the Auburn investigation, the NCAA has not provided information to Sheridan or anyone else.  As a matter of due diligence, the NCAA spoke with Sheridan this week to determine if he had any facts pertaining to the investigation. Sheridan, however, did not provide any information to the enforcement staff and certainly did not provide a name. Instead, he unsuccessfully attempted to gather information for his own use.

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Sheridan’s detractors seized on the statement as a crushing blow to Sheridan’s credibility. No one’s mind will be changed by what I write here about Sheridan’s credibility and there don’t seem to be any fence sitters on that matter.

The Mobile Press-Register’s Randy Kennedy then reported on Sheridan’s response to the NCAA statement with an equally terse retort:

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"The NCAA statement about me is total propaganda and an absolute misrepresentation of the facts. For the record, I do have sources at the NCAA and that's why the organization has chosen to shoot the messenger.

"The NCAA called me through my attorney and requested an interview. I spoke with two NCAA investigators last Wednesday for almost an hour. I was consistent with them as I have been with the media and the public in refusing to divulge my sources.

"I also politely declined to share the name of the individual I have been told gave money to Cecil Newton. For the NCAA to claim I did anything else is specious, deceitful, disingenuous and completely false. I will be happy to take a polygraph test on these specific issues and challenge them to do so as well."

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No one’s mind will be changed by what I write here about the NCAA’s credibility and there don’t seem to be any fence sitters on that matter, either. But if you’re keeping score, right now it stands Sheridan 1, NCAA 0.

The NCAA statement is the league’s first on-the-record acknowledgement that there is an active and ongoing enforcement investigation of Auburn University. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The statement doesn’t mention any other schools and it doesn’t limit the scope of the NCAA’s probe of the school to just the Newton case. Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News notes today that there are at least two other matters being probed by the league, and sourced media reports described an additional matter being looked into down in South Florida as late as June. IBCR has confirmed at least one other matter that was being looked into in Montgomery just last month.

So why was it a mistake for the NCAA to issue that statement? Anyone who’s familiar with the anatomy of an enforcement investigation knows that the league does not publicly comment on ongoing investigations as a matter of NCAA policy. The statement itself—including the key phrase “Auburn investigation”—is a violation of that policy and it has opened the door to a response from the Auburn Defense Team. The school can now publicly demand that the league either issue a Notice of Inquiry or drop the matter, because it is the league—not the school—that has violated a policy intended to protect the integrity of the investigation.

For all intents and purposes, the six-month clock between official notification of an investigation and delivery of a Notice of Allegations (or termination letter) started Friday afternoon. It’s anybody’s guess as to whether the school and its legal team forces this to a head, but it sure seems like an opportunity to push the issue.

The question is, would the school get the outcome it wants?

Exit Question (and answer): Why score it Sheridan 1, NCAA 0? Because Sheridan has forced the hand of the league. He got someone in a position of high authority in the NCAA to lose their cool and step beyond the bounds of the league’s longstanding veil of silence policy.

Whether you believe him or not, you must give him credit for moving the chains on a story that has been closely followed by fans and media in the state, the region and the country for the last 10 months. The story is far from over and the outcome remains in doubt. It’s sure been a source of free blogging here at IBCR.

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