re: The NCAA is ridiculous

Not to hijack this thread and make it about Cam, but I've been dying to hear an answer to this question from an Auburn fan.

Throw out everything and tell me your gut level opinion on this question: Do you honestly think that so many people would have put their national reputation on the line for something that was completely made up, such as Cecil soliciting money for Cam to attend either MSU or Auburn (highest bidder wins)? Don't you think that if it was truly a bogus story, that after the first wave of NCAA investigation that came out and said nothing was conclusive - all interested parties would have let it die down at that point?

I've done things in my past that I knew I was wrong in doing, it was investigated (a few times by police, other times by friends and family), and I guess I was sneaky enough to get away with it. I knew I was wrong and it the feeling was bittersweet for me that I had gotten away with it. OJ Simpson did the same thing. So when something is investigated and cleared, I'm not naiive enough to think, "oh well, that settles it..." I just don't really believe that you Auburn fans truly feel the way you do about the Cam Newton situation. And you can bet your orange and blue arse that had the tables been turned and it was Mark Ingram last year, you would feel the EXACT same way and don't you dare say otherwise.

It's pretty much set in stone that Cecil solicited money from Mississippi State, and anyone with a brain will tell you that Cam had to know something was going on when MSU suddenly stopped recruiting him, and common sense just tells you he knew he was being shopped.

But the fact that he knew wasn't proven, and under NCAA guidelines unless they enforced something that wasn't explicitly written then it would be reversed upon appeal. This is where people can become enraged at the NCAA, because their guidelines allowed for such a situation to develop, but I'm not exactly complaining about it.

I highly doubt Auburn becomes implicated in anything at this point. All parties involved have continually expressed how Auburn was involved in nothing, and the NCAA searched through phone records and found nothing.



So, it's not a bogus story in that Cecil solicited money and Cam may have known about it. People who think Auburn paid him are working on speculation, the same speculation I could easily attach to any high profile player in the country honestly. I have no doubt he has gotten some form of extra benefits, much like any other athlete for any other team gets some form of extra benefits.

What does it matter what anyone thinks about Cam?

Nobody here is in any position of knowledge or authority on this matter. That's what irritates me. It's not the people are making wild accusations or jumping to conclusions without so much as a shred of proof, it's that they are doing it with this attitude like they work for the NCAA and are sitting there holding a file with evidence.

You know why people thought OJ was guilty? Because they watched his trial. They heard mountains of forensic evidence for a month about how DNA evidence confirmed - to a 99.99% certainty - that his blood was at the crime scene, and the victim's blood was in his car and house. There were footprints of his size matching a pair of shoes that he owned and tire tracks matching his car

You don't have anything approaching that in the Cam case. You have Kenny Rogers and Cecil haphazardly asking for money from Miss St and being denied. That's it.

I don't know if Ridley cheated on classwork. I don't care either. It's just not even on my radar. It is my opinion that allegations of academic misconduct by a faculty member should be taken seriously and that if indisputable, or even probative evidence of cheating is produced then that player should be punished in some way, as would any student. But that's the end of it.

I'm not going to assume Ridley did anything wrong. I'm not going to assume this is just a tip of the iceberg in some larger conspiracy of academic fraud that permeates LSU sports. And that goes the same for the self-reported JUCO player who got extra benefits and the coach who was subsequently fired. I'm not going to sink to some fantasy trial in an internet kangaroo court based on speculation and innuendo.

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Nobody here is in any position of knowledge or authority on this matter.

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Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about the NCAA.