Wetzel: SEC Circus

[Townhallsavoy]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news;_ylt=Aocmn7kIUVVpHGdKw0_nk94cvrYF?slug=dw-newtonsec111010

Tuesday afternoon TMZ reported the FBI, intrigued by the tales of Cameron Newton being shopped for $200,000, may now get involved in recruiting investigations. Tuesday night ESPN went with a story about an emotional Newton telling a source he only went to Auburn because “the money was too much.”


Auburn's Cameron Newton has become the center of attention in the SEC on and off the field.

(Nelson Chenault/US Presswire)
 Somewhere in between we imagine SEC commissioner Mike Slive felt like turning off his downtown Birmingham office lights, pouring himself a stiff drink and then burying his head in his hands.

 
And that was before a report circulated briefly Wednesday on Twitter that Newton was about to be suspended by the NCAA. It was a false alarm. He wasn’t. Or hasn’t been yet. Or never will be. Or who the heck knows at this point?

“Cameron Newton will be playing Saturday against the Georgia Bulldogs,” Auburn coach Gene Chizik said before refusing to answer any other questions about the swirling situation.

It’s been that kind of week down South. The SEC is coming apart at the seams. The league’s best player and most realistic BCS title contender is under siege from all sides, even from within the league.

Tuesday, while Chizik was assailing a report that Newton had committed academic fraud during his days at Florida as “garbage” (not that anyone was denying its validity), Gator coach Urban Meyer and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen were busy claiming they weren’t the ones that leaked the news to FoxSports.com.

Hours later there was a new ESPN report which identified “two sources who recruit for Mississippi State” relaying conversations with Newton and his father about being paid to play. Mississippi State can’t explain that one away easily since the only people allowed to “recruit” for the school are certain university employees.

It ought to take the NCAA about 15 minutes to pull everyone’s phone records and find out who spoke to ESPN recently. And how many Bulldog “recruiters” even spoke to the Newtons? Two? Three? Then the NCAA can compel any Mississippi State employee to testify. If you lie, you risk your job.

(And by the way, if you’re looking for a couple of three-letter acronyms no college administrator wants to deal with, FBI and TMZ, would probably top the list. IRS is also a contender.)

So now everyone is pointing fingers in every direction. Where the nation’s best football conference winds up when the ratting and bitterness (and alleged cheating, of course) stops is anyone’s guess.

 
Gene Chizik has a tall task keeping Auburn focused down the stretch toward a possible BCS title shot.


 Slive has long contended that the only thing that can stop the SEC is the SEC. The league’s proximity to talent, fan passion and institutional financial commitment to the sport should ensure a steady stream of national contending teams.

The league has won the past four BCS titles. So confident is Slive of the league’s ability to win on the field he’s pushed hard for a small playoff (a Plus One) to ensure at least one league rep gets a chance. (If Auburn stumbles, the SEC may be locked out of playing for the title, which should lead to endless cries for reform from the league.) Others in the league, including the president of Georgia, favor an eight-team playoff, in part because they imagine they’d wind up with an all-SEC final.

That’s the self confidence the SEC enjoys.

Slive figures that as long as it can avoid self-inflicted wounds – i.e. scholarship reductions from NCAA sanctions – it should cruise along at the top. The SEC, as a whole, doesn’t need to cheat to win. With its inherent advantages, it should dominate on a clean and level playing field.

In a global sense, this is correct. On a local one though, the schools compete with each other and coaches get hired and fired on their ability to land players. If a top recruit is choosing among three SEC schools then, for the league as a whole, it doesn’t matter where he goes. For those three schools however, it matters on multiple levels. Not only might you not get the player, you’ll have to compete against him.

Slive, a former judge, tried to clean up the “Surely Everyone Cheats” league when he took over in 2002. Under his predecessor, Roy Kramer, all 12 league schools had been put on probation. In NCAA history no league has been hit for more major infractions than the SEC.

“When I took over half our institutions were somewhere in the NCAA infractions pipeline,” Slive said a couple years back.

That changed, for awhile. At one point Slive thought the entire league would be off probation for the first time in years. It didn’t happen as the Arkansas track team got busted. By now there are scandals at multiple schools in both football and basketball.

Worse for Slive, frustration appears to be boiling over and manifesting itself into dropped dimes to the media.

 
Reports indicate that someone on Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen's staff has been talking to the media about Newtons' recruitment.

 ESPN’s latest report said that a Mississippi State recruiter (presumably an assistant coach) was told by Newton’s father, Cecil, that it would take “more than a scholarship” for Cam to play in Starkville. Another recruiter shared that Cam has told him that he wanted to play for the Bulldogs but Cecil had forced him to Auburn because of the money.

Is it true? Only time may tell.

The story also said the Mississippi State compliance office turned the information over the SEC last January. Eleven months later Newton is still eligible. Last week SEC associate commissioner Greg Sankey said the league received “specific information” on Newton in July (not January). He later said, “We don’t deal in rumor and innuendo. We deal in facts.”

The facts may say there is nothing to the stories of Cam and/or Cecil Newton being paid by Auburn. (The NCAA is currently looking into it). It stands to reason, however, that the unnamed sources in the ESPN report were not satisfied with the pace of the investigation. And taunted with weekly highlights of Newton racing up and down the field, they decided to make it public.

If nothing else, next year’s Mississippi State at Auburn game ought to be a doozey.

If Auburn did cheat for Cam Newton, then Slive should applaud the whistle blowers. If they didn’t, then he should be furious at the vengeance shown here.

If there’s nothing to the story, then this is a messy, unnecessary inside hit job. It’s the kind of soap opera that could distract Newton and Auburn, making the road to the title game even more difficult. The Tigers already face the most difficult remaining gauntlet of the unbeaten BCS contenders.

Auburn certainly doesn’t need added hurdles. They’re getting them though. It’s officially a circus down South, a feeding frenzy of scoops and sources and, who knows, even the FBI.

It’s up to Mike Slive to figure out how to steady the ship.

And he's absolutely right.  Where is Mike Slive in all of this?  Where is the SEC's official statement?  Very little is being leaked from any official administrative source.

[Snaggletiger]

Just sent the following to the SEC League Office.

With arguably the number one story in all of sports right now being the Cam Newton and Auburn situation, where is the SEC Commissioner in all of this?  Without a doubt, this story grows day by day and increasingly puts Auburn, one of its student athletes and the entire SEC in a bad light.  The only concrete things we know are that allegations were made and reported to the league office by Mississippi State back in January of this year and that Auburn University states that they and the SEC and NCAA were aware of these allegations and investigated them back in the summer. 

Supposedly, all this “Breaking” information that seems to come out daily is the same information that was known and reported back in January.  There simply is not that much to look into in an investigation like this and absolutely no reason for it to drag on this long.  Every day it continues means the reputation of this conference is damaged even further. I would think this would be the most pressing issue for the league office, would it not?  If Cam Newton and/or Auburn are guilty of violations, it needs to be announced and dealt with.  If there is nothing to the story and it has already been investigated, the SEC Commissioner needs to show some leadership and stand up for the conference, its member schools and student athletes.  Let’s move on and concentrate on enjoying SEC sports and put an end to the in-fighting and horrible publicity for this conference.

[AUsweetheart]

Egg-zactly. Why the fuck haven't we heard from Slive? And for all of the bammers, bulldogs, gators etc. enjoying our misfortune....they need to be worried about the big picture. Everyone outside the SEC would love to see it go down.
Right now? We go down....everybody in the South goes down.

[AUChizad]

Just sent the following to the SEC League Office.

With arguably the number one story in all of sports right now being the Cam Newton and Auburn situation, where is the SEC Commissioner in all of this?  Without a doubt, this story grows day by day and increasingly puts Auburn, one of its student athletes and the entire SEC in a bad light.  The only concrete things we know are that allegations were made and reported to the league office by Mississippi State back in January of this year and that Auburn University states that they and the SEC and NCAA were aware of these allegations and investigated them back in the summer. 

Supposedly, all this “Breaking” information that seems to come out daily is the same information that was known and reported back in January.  There simply is not that much to look into in an investigation like this and absolutely no reason for it to drag on this long.  Every day it continues means the reputation of this conference is damaged even further. I would think this would be the most pressing issue for the league office, would it not?  If Cam Newton and/or Auburn are guilty of violations, it needs to be announced and dealt with.  If there is nothing to the story and it has already been investigated, the SEC Commissioner needs to show some leadership and stand up for the conference, its member schools and student athletes.  Let’s move on and concentrate on enjoying SEC sports and put an end to the in-fighting and horrible publicity for this conference.

Good letter.

However, it should be pointed out to them that not only does this look bad on Auburn. It looks bad on MSU and Florida too. Until Slive comes out and "sets the records straight", it is definitely damaging to the SEC's reputation.

[AUChizad]

Egg-zactly. Why the fuck haven't we heard from Slive? And for all of the bammers, bulldogs, gators etc. enjoying our misfortune....they need to be worried about the big picture. Everyone outside the SEC would love to see it go down.
Right now? We go down....everybody in the South goes down.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Snaggletiger]

I think names should be named.

[Tiger Wench]

This guy gets it...

Newton bombshells just the start of an uncivil war
 By Ray Ratto
CBSSports.com Columnist
Nov. 10, 2010

This Cameron Newton story has legs, lots and lots of legs -- and it's sprouting more every day. With any luck, it will run off and lead everyone on a merry chase that ends badly.

If you can't keep up with the things Newton is alleged to have done (or not done) on the odyssey that took him to Auburn, you'll have a fairly difficult time sorting out the suspects who are leaking all those things.

But he allegedly cheated academically at Florida, and he allegedly asked for money to sign with a university, and he allegedly broke a commitment to attend Mississippi State. He did lots of very bad things, depending on who you listen to, or nothing bad at all, if you listen to Auburn fans.

We don't know what exactly he did or didn't do. We do know what happens next, though, because in the SEC, messing with players means war, and this is war.

You're going to see more and more leaks about more and more players from more and more schools in the next few weeks and months. Recruiting rumors are their own cottage industry, and if there's anything more fun that trying to figure out where 18-year-olds are going, it's in finding out who did what to get them to go there.

In other words, the Cameron Newton story, wherever it leads, is going to take a lot of people with it -- coaches, players, athletic directors, fans. Chaos will reign. Let the fun bloom unconfined.

Right now, the Newton leaks seem to be a Mississippi State-based initiative, although that is connecting dots that have not yet manifested themselves. You know, sort of like the information in the leaks themselves.

But true or not, this is a declaration of war in SEC country, and declarations of war quickly become reciprocal. Even if the schools themselves don't engage in it, enterprising young camera-spies, co-conspirators, entourage members and former entourage members will, and before long, the stories that emanate from this story will not be easily controlled by SEC commissioner Mike Slive, or any of the schools that will eventually become involved.

Recruiting, you see (and of course you do, because you're smart folks who pay attention), is no longer the secret society it once was. Too many folks with too many gadgets, too many tales to tell and the wherewithal to get them published. And since any good recruiting story begs telling and retelling and embellishing and re-embellishing, the industry is in danger of being exposed as never before.

And when you throw in the added prod of revenge, you see the problem as we are all going to see it in the near future. Omerta has been broken, and there will be retribution.

There will be some resentment of those who broke the stories, the pesky media folks who enjoy a good provable leak. But eventually the trail will lead back to the leakers, and that is when the war will truly be fought.

And it will go on until someone (Slive, perhaps, or coaches and administrators who have the clout) exerts the force and persuasion needed to make everyone play nice again.

Whether Cameron Newton will escape the collateral damage from this impending bloodbath remains to be seen. What is provable is often different than what has been alleged, and there are plenty of potential scenarios for him and for Auburn.

But if he goes down, if Auburn goes down, then Auburn will not go down alone if its fan base has anything to say about it.
And frankly, we'll bet that it will.

Ray Ratto is a columnist for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.