Two more sources come forward confirming Newton pay-for-play allegations

[BlacksburgHokie]

Two sources who recruit for Mississippi State said that Cecil Newton and his son, quarterback Cam Newton, admitted in separate phone conversations to a pay-for-play plan while Newton was being recruited late last year.

Mississippi State compliance officials relayed the alleged conversations to Southeastern Conference compliance officials in January, according to two other sources close to the football program.

Prior to Newton's commitment to Auburn, one of the recruiters said Cecil Newton told him it would take "more than a scholarship" to bring his son to Mississippi State, a request the source said the school would not meet. Cecil Newton also referred the recruiter to a third person that would provide more specifics, the source said.

After Newton committed to Auburn, another source said an emotional Cam Newton phoned another recruiter to express regret about his change of commitment from Mississippi State, stating that his father Cecil had chosen Auburn for him because "the money was too much."

The NCAA is investigating allegations surrounding the Newtons in regards to the recruiting process. Cam Newton, who is having a Heisman-caliber season for No. 2 Auburn, declined comment.

Cecil Newton, who previously has denied any wrongdoing, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment Tuesday night.

Auburn did not respond to a request for comment. The school has repeatedly said it looked into Newton's recruitment and that he remains eligible.

Earlier Tuesday, Auburn found itself defending Newton in the wake of allegations of academic cheating when he was at Florida. The Tigers' coach, Gene Chizik, dismissed a FoxSports.com report as "pure garbage" in an emotional 4-minute, 25-second rant.

"I'm standing up here on a very important week trying to defend something that's garbage," Chizik said. Auburn faces Georgia on Saturday.

FoxSports.com reported Monday that Newton was caught cheating three times and was to appear for a hearing in front of Florida's Student Committee facing possible expulsion during the spring semester of 2009.

Newton transferred to Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas, where he played last season. He declined to discuss the latest report, which came on the heels of former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond telling ESPN.com that someone claiming to represent the Newton family sought money during his recruitment by the school.

Sources told ESPN.com the man who said he was representing the Newtons was Kenny Rogers, who played in the 1980s for Mississippi State alongside Bond.

"I'm not going to entertain something that took place not three months, not six months, not a year but two years ago," Cam Newton said. "I'm not going to sit up here and say anything about it, whether I did or did not do it, because I don't want to beat a dead horse talking about it. It's not going to affect me any way, shape or fashion."

Cecil Newton talked about the allegations earlier Tuesday on Paul Finebaum's syndicated sports talk radio show in Alabama.

"This is a character assassination attempt," he said on the show. "Who is going to profit and why are they are going to profit? We sure don't.

"I think there's a group of people who have a hidden agenda and don't want to see him as a Heisman nominee, let alone winner," he said.

In Gainesville, Florida coach Urban Meyer said in a statement that neither he nor anyone on his staff leaked information on Newton's academic record, calling it a "ridiculous claim."

"For anyone to think that I or anyone on our staff may have leaked information about private student records to the media doesn't know us very well," Meyer said. "It's a ridiculous claim and simply not true."

Cam Newton said Meyer was a man of integrity.

"I would hope he wouldn't say anything like that," he said.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who also recruited Newton out of Blinn, said he saw "nothing at all" out of the ordinary during that process.

"Our recruitment of Cameron could not have been better, or was just fine," Stoops said. "I didn't notice anything and none of our coaches did as we were recruiting him.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5786315

[Mr. Hoopah!]

I'm at a loss for words right now. Until concrete evidence comes to light, instead of all of the hearsay going around, and until the NCAA brings charges, I'll maintain Cam's innocence. But if it comes to light that even a shred of this stuff is true, Auburn will look 1000x's worse than USC after the school, coaches, and fans have backed Cam.

This is a dark day for college football if any of this is true.

[SacFalcFan]

I'm at a loss for words right now. Until concrete evidence comes to light, instead of all of the hearsay going around, and until the NCAA brings charges, I'll maintain Cam's innocence. But if it comes to light that even a shred of this stuff is true, Auburn will look 1000x's worse than USC after the school, coaches, and fans have backed Cam.

This is a dark day for college football if any of this is true.

mdrake you really can't maintain anything. you don't know anything about his innocence or not. you can support him and your program, but really you saying you believe he is innocent doesn't really have any basis as someone who says they believe auburn paid for cam's services. the one thing we can maintain is there is a lot of smoke here and it's getting worse for cam and auburn not better.

[Dawgy]

I hate for this to happen and be so frikkin' drawn out. It's been 11 months since this was first reported, and the NCAA etc need to have figured it out by now. That level of laxness is just stupefying.

I saw that the FBI is involved now. If that is true, then I can bet that the 2 new sources are telling the truth. No one is going to lie in an FBI investigation of such a high profile. Much as one wants to be impartial, it seems likely to me that something did go on with Cam's recruiting. However, if the NCAA knew it's head from it's backside, all the speculation could have avoided all this by handling it appropriately.

[CrimsonKat]

Auburn fans are playing their violins, all the while the Titanic is sinking.

[RebFalc]

I read somewhere that there were recorded phone conversations as well. That could clear things up pretty quick.

[SacFalcFan]

This is not surprising fwiw to a number of guys who cover recruiting. Our guy on rivals heard this: I have heard from a number of folks that about 3 weeks before signing day, Newton was approached by associates at UT and offered $150 grand to play for the Vols. Another guy from another team's site talked to Cam a good bit and it was out there during cam's recruitment that whoever landed him would have to pay.

[Dawgy]

This all looks pretty bad for him. However one issue I do have is that Newton was pretty average at UF and did not wow anyone. Additionally, he had character issues. Why would anyone pay for him?

[SacFalcFan]

This all looks pretty bad for him. However one issue I do have is that Newton was pretty average at UF and did not wow anyone. Additionally, he had character issues. Why would anyone pay for him?

cam was the #1 juco recruit and he really blossomed in his year there. he was a bigtime target.

[aPureTerror]

To me an innocent person does not say this. A person that has done nothing wrong simply does not make these comments.

"I'm not going to entertain something that took place not three months, not six months, not a year but two years ago," Cam Newton said. "I'm not going to sit up here and say anything about it, whether I did or did not do it, because I don't want to beat a dead horse talking about it. It's not going to affect me any way, shape or fashion."

What took place?? Chizik is saying it's "garbage" but Cam is saying he's not going to entertain something that took place. Someone should have asked him what took place. You don't want to be a dead horse?? If these allegations are false how could it be seen as "beating a dead horse"?

Wikipedia states that:

beating a dead horse is an idiom that means a particular request or line of conversation is already foreclosed or otherwise resolved, and any attempt to continue it is futile; or that to continue in any endeavour (physical, mental, etc.) is a waste of time as the outcome is already decided.

LOL LOL

Is Cam saying it's old news and he doesn't want to talk about it anymore?? IMO Cam's comment seem to clearly be an admission of guilt.

Edited November 10, 2010 by aPureTerror

[richham]

This story get uglier and uglier. I don't really care for any of the character assassination stuff like posting his driving records or his school records, but there are some serious allegations being directed at the Newton's.

After going through the AJ Green stuff for just selling a jersey, I would be scared to death if I was an Auburn fan based on what is being said. If this stuff is true it will destroy this season and the penalties could be severe for years to come.

[KeepItDownHomeCuz]

The AP included some things that Joe Schad may have "missed"

Newton has denied doing anything wrong in his recruitment. A person familiar with the situation has told The Associated Press that the university has received no letter of inquiry from the NCAA and that an internal review of phone and e-mail records showed no contact with Kenny Rogers, whom ESPN.com cited as the man who approached Bond.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the matter, said the university also found nothing improper in the personal and church bank records of Newton's father, an Atlanta pastor.

As for Cam's response to the allegations I love it...

"Am I hurt? No. Am I curious? A little bit, but it really doesn't get to me that much. I'm a blessed individual."

It's been shown time and time again that there is nothing more than hearsay and that is all ESPN has provided AGAIN.

As for Cam and Auburn not commenting on the situation, its because they have been instructed not to.

Edited November 10, 2010 by millejb

[Mr Pickle1]

Mill, my man....

Just cause it is hearsay, doesn't mean it isn't true. There is an awful, awful, awful lot of smoke going down.

Why? Why just make all this up? I don't get that.

My take: AU investigated and didn't find anything(or at least, didn't find anything that could be proven against them), so they gave the thumbs up to play him.

Now, the Feds and the NCAA are coming in on it, and may find something that escaped AU and the SEC. We'll see.

My personal opinion is that's he is pretty guilty, but that they will have a great deal of difficulty proving anything, and AU will survive.

[Statick]

Just wow...@ all of this.

I think him, Auburn, UT and all the other schools involved are going to be in major trouble over this eventually. It's gone too far not to have any repercussions.

[KeepItDownHomeCuz]

Mill, my man....

Just cause it is hearsay, doesn't mean it isn't true. There is an awful, awful, awful lot of smoke going down.

Why? Why just make all this up? I don't get that.

My take: AU investigated and didn't find anything(or at least, didn't find anything that could be proven against them), so they gave the thumbs up to play him.

Now, the Feds and the NCAA are coming in on it, and may find something that escaped AU and the SEC. We'll see.

My personal opinion is that's he is pretty guilty, but that they will have a great deal of difficulty proving anything, and AU will survive.

Well everybody seems to agree with you, but what evidence is there that he is guilty? Other than smoke of coarse, I had no idea that the world operated on "where there's smoke there's usually fire"

Everybody believes the unnamed sources yet Bob Stoops says nothing illegal went on with their recruitment of Cam EVERYTHING is unsubstantiated, not to mention ALL unsubstantiated allegations have come from the same source which is MSU. I could understand if multiple sources have come out against Cam Newton but that is in fact not the case, its actually quite the opposite multiple sources have come out FOR Cam while ONE source has come out against. Thats what leads me to believe its BS.

[Mr. Hoopah!]

Mill, my man....

Just cause it is hearsay, doesn't mean it isn't true. There is an awful, awful, awful lot of smoke going down.

Why? Why just make all this up? I don't get that.

My take: AU investigated and didn't find anything(or at least, didn't find anything that could be proven against them), so they gave the thumbs up to play him.

Now, the Feds and the NCAA are coming in on it, and may find something that escaped AU and the SEC. We'll see.

My personal opinion is that's he is pretty guilty, but that they will have a great deal of difficulty proving anything, and AU will survive.

"Well, that's like, your opinion Man."

[Mr. Hoopah!]

mdrake you really can't maintain anything. you don't know anything about his innocence or not. you can support him and your program, but really you saying you believe he is innocent doesn't really have any basis as someone who says they believe auburn paid for cam's services. the one thing we can maintain is there is a lot of smoke here and it's getting worse for cam and auburn not better.

I misspoke, or you misinterpreted me, neither way matters. I'll stand behind him until he's declared ineligible.

[KeepItDownHomeCuz]

KScar with another gem!

Then again where theres smoke theres fire so Cam must have taken money.

As for Schad's sources I hope these aren't the same sources that told him Texas, TT, OU, and Okie St. were going to the Pac 10!

[SacFalcFan]

I misspoke, or you misinterpreted me, neither way matters. I'll stand behind him until he's declared ineligible.

gotcha..

[Mr Pickle1]

Well everybody seems to agree with you, but what evidence is there that he is guilty? Other than smoke of coarse, I had no idea that the world operated on "where there's smoke there's usually fire"

Everybody believes the unnamed sources yet Bob Stoops says nothing illegal went on with their recruitment of Cam EVERYTHING is unsubstantiated, not to mention ALL unsubstantiated allegations have come from the same source which is MSU. I could understand if multiple sources have come out against Cam Newton but that is in fact not the case, its actually quite the opposite multiple sources have come out FOR Cam while ONE source has come out against. Thats what leads me to believe its BS.

Evidence: The statements reported by the MS recruiters, etc. All of that IS evidence. Even in a court of law, most things aren't "substantieted/proven" before they can be used as evidence. Whether is it "proven" is largely up to the opinions of a jury.

If you had a trial and you got the MSU recruiters up on the stand, and they said what has been reported, Cam /Cecil could be found guilty. If there are any sort of questionable records with Cecil, it becomes almost a slam dunk.

Putting Cam up on the stand and saying "I didn't do it" would be great, cause it would be his word vs. the words of the others...but the Jury is still free to take their word for it, and dump on Cam.

In particular(ignoring any sort of rules regarding the records, I don't know them), you could easily impeach Cam's credibility as a witness by citing to the 3 incidents of academic dishonesty, as bad acts goign to the truthfullness of the witness.

IF you could get people to say what they're currently saying in a court of law, that might very well be enough to convict him(there isn't a charge/crime for taking money from an agent, just trying to show that from a legal perspective, this could be "proven" based on little more than what is already out there).

[KeepItDownHomeCuz]

Evidence: The statements reported by the MS recruiters, etc. All of that IS evidence. Even in a court of law, most things aren't "substantieted/proven" before they can be used as evidence. Whether is it "proven" is largely up to the opinions of a jury.

If you had a trial and you got the MSU recruiters up on the stand, and they said what has been reported, Cam /Cecil could be found guilty. If there are any sort of questionable records with Cecil, it becomes almost a slam dunk.

Putting Cam up on the stand and saying "I didn't do it" would be great, cause it would be his word vs. the words of the others...but the Jury is still free to take their word for it, and dump on Cam.

In particular(ignoring any sort of rules regarding the records, I don't know them), you could easily impeach Cam's credibility as a witness by citing to the 3 incidents of academic dishonesty, as bad acts goign to the truthfullness of the witness.

IF you could get people to say what they're currently saying in a court of law, that might very well be enough to convict him(there isn't a charge/crime for taking money from an agent, just trying to show that from a legal perspective, this could be "proven" based on little more than what is already out there).

Yes if they would "take the stand" my point is no one has "taken the stand" alledgely two MSU coaches have said this to someone, but they haven't come out and said it, to continue with your analogy if this was a case in court it would not hold up at all if I came to court and said "Cam Newton is guilty because two anonymys coaches say this happened". And again the more we learn about the "academic fraud" the more it looks fishy as rumors are coming out that he was never taken to the dishonesty committee or whatever UF's regulatory board is.

The FACT is NOBODY has come forward with the exception of John Bond who completely RUINED his credability when he came out and said "well actually I heard it from a guy that heard it from a guy".

Not to mention the more we learn about ESPNs first story the more inconsistencies we see, such as Mr. Newton's church requiring $250,000 worth of repairs, which actually turned out to be $50,000 worth of repairs and was completed by Cecil Newton HIMSELF!

[Mr Pickle1]

As far as Bob Stoops, that doesn't exonerate Cam.

1. You need to believe that Bob isn't lying. Why would he lie, you ask? Well, if he has heard something about pay for play, then he probably would keep it to himself, given OU's issues recently with Rhett Bomar. By saying "Everything was above board when we recruited Cam" you arent' saying that just to help Cam out, you're saying it cover your own butt.

2. Assuming you do find that he's telling the truth(which is no more likely/less likely than the MSU sources, although you can see a clearer reason for BOB lying than MSU guys lying), then you also need to assume that this was something involving the coaching staff, and not a booster. Perhaps it was discussed with a big daddy sooner, and Bob was out of the loop?

3. Assuming he wasn't out of the loop and was telling the truth, that just gets you to the point where you can believe that OU and Cam didn't have any sort of underhanded stuff going on. That doesn't extend to AU/ MSU. Yes, it makes it more believable that if he iddn't do it at OU, he didn't do it for AU/MSU. However, this is mitigated by the fact that Cam is from the south, and MSU/AU is staffed by people who are regional, and perhaps have an in with Cam and his family. That seems much less likely to occur with OU. The local programs you can get down and dirty with, but programs outside the south? Not so much, at least to me.

As for multiple sources:

You have mroe than 1 MSU recruiter talking about this. You have people who have said it has been turned over the SEC. You have the FBI investigating. You have the ABI investigating. You have the IRS starting to get cranked up. You have the NCAA investigating.

As for why there aren't more guys saying "Yeah, he told us we needed to pay too" I point again to the regional aspect of doing it with AU/ MSU, and not others. Those were the 2 main teams pursuing Newton, so it wuold make sense that they were the ones who would be offered the deal. AU guys aren't talking for obvious reasons, but MSU is.

NOTE: I'm not saying he is guilty. I'm just saying that (1) I perosnally believe he was payed to play and (2) there is a reasonable basis to entertain that opinion.

I respect AU riding Cam down. They're going all in, and that kind of ballsiness and "F U NCAA" attitude is fun to watch. However, I do feel that if this is suitably proven to the NCAA, that AU may well get something close to the death penalty. That also makes me happy, purely in terms of reduced competition in the SEC for UGA.

[kingjamez]

Things don't sound good for Cam. Auburn fans can support their guy all they want, and I encourage them to do so, but this doesn't look pretty. I don't think Cam or his father have said the right things and these unnamed sources could be huge in this investigation.

[Mr Pickle1]

Yes if they would "take the stand" my point is no one has "taken the stand" alledgely two MSU coaches have said this to someone, but they haven't come out and said it, to continue with your analogy if this was a case in court it would not hold up at all if I came to court and said "Cam Newton is guilty because two anonymys coaches say this happened". And again the more we learn about the "academic fraud" the more it looks fishy as rumors are coming out that he was never taken to the dishonesty committee or whatever UF's regulatory board is.

The FACT is NOBODY has come forward with the exception of John Bond who completely RUINED his credability when he came out and said "well actually I heard it from a guy that heard it from a guy".

Not to mention the more we learn about ESPNs first story the more inconsistencies we see, such as Mr. Newton's church requiring $250,000 worth of repairs, which actually turned out to be $50,000 worth of repairs and was completed by Cecil Newton HIMSELF!

We don't know whether they could/would "take the stand" at the moment or not. It is up for debate. At THIS point, they'd be talking to the NCAA/FBI, and NOT the media, if they knew what was good for them.

That's true, if you went up there and said that, and offered it to prove that Newton was payed to play, then it wouldn't come in as hearsay. However, you would have the option to subpoena the MSU witnesses, and they would have to go testify.

True on Bond...but again, that doesn't mean it's not true. And it does nothing to explain where/why the whole rumor started, if it was completely fabricated.

Here is what is NOT fishy about the cheating: Newton doesn't deny it. At all. Just says he doesn't want to talk about something that happened years ago. If that isn't the most blatant admission/non-admission you can make, I want to see what is.

If someone was accusing me of cheating 3 seperate times, and it wasn't true, I'd be shouting from the rooftops "F to the NO snitch, I didn't, and I can prove it/and challenge you to prove your side", furthermore, I'm looking to find who did it so I can pursue my own civil cause of action for Libel, in addition to whatever federal charges are coming on who leaded the info.

He's pretty much doing the opposite of that. That is VERY strong indicator that he did cheat.

[Mr Pickle1]

Even the AU director says the accusations are : "sad" "That he's done everything we have asked him to do".

Notice a complete and utter lack of denial.