Potential College Football Scandal

[Dave in Green]

I happened to stumble across an LSU sports fan website that is sweeping the internet for all data related to the Cam Newton situation at Auburn. It's all rumor and hearsay at this point. But some of the data is breathtaking in scope, and the level of detail is extremely fine. If this all turns out to be untrue, then some people obviously have incredible imaginations to dream it all up. I'll include one brief summary quote that represents a small fraction of the total data posted, and also a link to the site for anyone who's interested in digging deeper into the details:

The FBI has been investigating Colonial Bank and Louder for a number of possible violations in the financial market crash which are unrelated to AU. Part of the investigation involved gambling fraud between McGregor and Colonial Bank. Something called the Rico Statute allowed the justice department to set up wiretaps on Colonial Bank. On the wiretaps the FBI found major AU recruiting infractions involving Louder, McGregor, Dye, Trooper, boosters and others.

Here’s what they say the FBI has on tape and can prove AU did:

• The people above are on tape explaining who they paid and how they did it.

• It involves many AU players.

• Providing unmarked Colonial Bank ATM cards to players to withdraw money from secret accounts.

• Giving “slot machine cards” to the players, which now involves the Alabama Gaming Commission.

• Provided improper loans to some of the families in our last and current recruiting class.

• The NCAA “strongly” recommended that AU sit Cam for GA. game because of the mounting evidence.

• President Grogue wanted to sit Cam but was overruled by Louder and the Board of Trustees.

• Coach Chizik knows none of this and has been lied to by Jacobs.

• The people named above know the S%#& is going to hit the fan “big time” and have decided “we’re going down” so lets win the title even if they take it away later.

• Slive knew about this early and sat on the information and is also in the “crosshairs” of the FBI.

• The corruption is so deep at the highest level (trustees) that AU will be evicted from kicked out of the SEC.

• This will be revealed by the end of the week.

TigerDroppings.com Link

[Blue & Gold]

Lord, have mercy!

Sounds like AU may get the dreaded "Death Penalty," ala, SMU?

Thanks for summarizing this, DiG. I hope you keep on top of the story for us - I just don't have time to dig through all that info.

Also, it makes you wonder what goes on at many other "top" programs.

[UAZipster0305]

Lord, have mercy!

Sounds like AU may get the dreaded "Death Penalty," ala, SMU?

Thanks for summarizing this, DiG. I hope you keep on top of the story for us - I just don't have time to dig through all that info.

Also, it makes you wonder what goes on at many other "top" programs.

What is the story with SMU, Blue & Gold?

I bet things like this happen much more often than anyone would expect.

Could Auburn leaving the SEC trigger another conference shakedown?

[Blue & Gold]

Lord, have mercy!

Sounds like AU may get the dreaded "Death Penalty," ala, SMU?

Thanks for summarizing this, DiG. I hope you keep on top of the story for us - I just don't have time to dig through all that info.

Also, it makes you wonder what goes on at many other "top" programs.

What is the story with SMU, Blue & Gold?

I bet things like this happen much more often than anyone would expect.

Could Auburn leaving the SEC trigger another conference shakedown?

Ahh, sorry - I should have taken the time to be more precise. The SMU "Death Penalty" happened yeeeears ago - when I was a little kid, maybe before I was born, Idk. I do know it was way before I knew anything at all about college football. But SMU used to be a perennial national power. However, they were cited for multiple & serious recruiting violations & had a ton of schollies taken away - almost killing the football program.

[ZachTheZip]

Lord, have mercy!

Sounds like AU may get the dreaded "Death Penalty," ala, SMU?

Thanks for summarizing this, DiG. I hope you keep on top of the story for us - I just don't have time to dig through all that info.

Also, it makes you wonder what goes on at many other "top" programs.

What is the story with SMU, Blue & Gold?

I bet things like this happen much more often than anyone would expect.

Could Auburn leaving the SEC trigger another conference shakedown?

Ahh, sorry - I should have taken the time to be more precise. The SMU "Death Penalty" happened yeeeears ago - when I was a little kid, maybe before I was born, Idk. I do know it was way before I knew anything at all about college football. But SMU used to be a perennial national power. However, they were cited for multiple & serious recruiting violations & had a ton of schollies taken away - almost killing the football program.

NCAA's death penalty is like what recently happened to USC football, except to the entire athletic department and every sport.

If it happens, you can kiss being relevant goodbye for 30 years, and a full recovery is almost impossible.

[MDZip]

SMU was indeed a very big player on the National Stage, with Eric Dickerson and Craig James as the "Pony Express" they contended for a National Championship I think around 1984. By 1986 some major recruiting violations had occurred including verifiable proof that players were being paid. SMU promised the NCAA they had cleaned things up, but in reality they were still paying players. When the NCAA found out, they gave SMU the "death penalty". Basically, that means that whatever sport is being punished (not every athletic program) doesn't exist for whatever length of time the NCAA decrees. For SMU, they had no team in 1987 and had no scholarships for quite a while. They have never fully recovered that level again.

[Dave in Green]

For anyone interested in digging deep into the history behind the current situation at Auburn, ESPN in 2006 actually had quite a nice investigative reporting piece on the highly unusual situation that exists in Auburn's board of trustees:

ESPN Story

[Zipmeister]

Lord, have mercy!

Sounds like AU may get the dreaded "Death Penalty," ala, SMU?

Thanks for summarizing this, DiG. I hope you keep on top of the story for us - I just don't have time to dig through all that info.

Also, it makes you wonder what goes on at many other "top" programs.

What is the story with SMU, Blue & Gold?

I bet things like this happen much more often than anyone would expect.

Could Auburn leaving the SEC trigger another conference shakedown?

Ahh, sorry - I should have taken the time to be more precise. The SMU "Death Penalty" happened yeeeears ago - when I was a little kid, maybe before I was born, Idk. I do know it was way before I knew anything at all about college football. But SMU used to be a perennial national power. However, they were cited for multiple & serious recruiting violations & had a ton of schollies taken away - almost killing the football program.

I believe rather than presenting a precise explanation you have demonstrated that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

[UAZipster0305]

So when is this story going to break? Can't be soon enough so that I can see TCU slide into the #2 spot!

[Dave in Green]

The story is gradually breaking into mainstream media:

Williamson Herald Link

And those who have suggested that Terry Bowden would be a good candidate for UA might want to read what shows up about his time at Auburn in the following:

SportsByBrooks.com Link

[GP1]

SMU was indeed a very big player on the National Stage, with Eric Dickerson and Craig James as the "Pony Express" they contended for a National Championship I think around 1984. By 1986 some major recruiting violations had occurred including verifiable proof that players were being paid. SMU promised the NCAA they had cleaned things up, but in reality they were still paying players. When the NCAA found out, they gave SMU the "death penalty". Basically, that means that whatever sport is being punished (not every athletic program) doesn't exist for whatever length of time the NCAA decrees. For SMU, they had no team in 1987 and had no scholarships for quite a while. They have never fully recovered that level again.

Good summary. Your last sentence explains exactly why the NCAA will never issue the "Death Penalty" again. SMU has yet to recover from it. Therer isn't a school in America that could recover from it.

[GP1]

Also, it makes you wonder what goes on at many other "top" programs.

Everything you see here is going on at other programs. It is out of control and there aren't enough babysitters at the big schools to keep track of the players 24/7. It's so bad the NCAA is considering amnesty to any school that comes clean with all of their violations and reports fully on what they know to be true and what rumors are under the surface.

The NCAA would not have come down as hard as they did on USC had USC just confessed what they knew and punished themselves somehow.

The NCAA needs to allow for payment of players either through the schools or via agents "retainers" paid to players in order to secure that player for when he is a professional. For example, Newton could sign with an agent for whatever money he wants to and he is required to pay back the money out of his professional earnings. A player can only sign with one agent during his time in college. If a player never earns a dime professionally, then the agent is out of money and he took a rish he should not have taken. Any player not signing with an agent receives $200 per month until he signs with an agent. Let the market decide. If a player is worth the money, an agent will sign him, if not, the school can pay them.

If hidden money is the problem, get the money out in the open so everyone understands what is going on. Sunlight is the best antiseptic.

[Hilltopper]

I have a letter written to my grandfather from a kid he taught in high school in WVA in the 1930's. The kid was a star athlete and was recruited to play football at Tennessee. UT was a powerhouse program at the time. In the letter he describes how demanding the football coaches were and how he wished he was getting Paid more than he agreed to for all this hard work. He even related that the baseball coach wanted him to come out for the team but he wasn't willing to pay him enough to make it worth his time. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ict_Axi_0...p;q&f=false

[GP1]

I have a letter written to my grandfather from a kid he taught in high school in WVA in the 1930's. The kid was a star athlete and was recruited to play football at Tennessee. UT was a powerhouse program at the time. In the letter he describes how demanding the football coaches were and how he wished he was getting Paid more than he agreed to for all this hard work. He even related that the baseball coach wanted him to come out for the team but he wasn't willing to pay him enough to make it worth his time. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ict_Axi_0...p;q&f=false

Great post!

What people don't understand is "corruption" in college athletics used to be far worse than what it is today.

[tbozeglav]

In case nobody else has noticed, ESPN is doing a 30 for 30 film on the "Death Penalty" handed to SMU called "Pony Excess" and think it could be a good watch. ESPN Films usually do a good job with these things.

[Buckzip]

In case nobody else has noticed, ESPN is doing a 30 for 30 film on the "Death Penalty" handed to SMU called "Pony Excess" and think it could be a good watch. ESPN Films usually do a good job with these things.

Ironic of when it is being shown too.

[tbozeglav]

Ironic of when it is being shown too.

Im pretty sure that they only made it in light of the Cam Newton "scandal"

[tbozeglav]

Not sure if anyone else watched it, but this was probably one of the better, if not one of the best, ESPN films I've seen. Its a very well-done documentary on SMU's rise, fall, and resurgence. Definitely a very worthy 2 hour watch.

[GP1]

Not sure if anyone else watched it, but this was probably one of the better, if not one of the best, ESPN films I've seen. Its a very well-done documentary on SMU's rise, fall, and resurgence. Definitely a very worthy 2 hour watch.

There was also one on Saturday afternoon on ABC Charlotte that was about Marcus DuPree (sp?). Great segment. Those films are really well done.

The best point I heard about it was E. Dickerson talking about why the NCAA selected SMU and why nobody else was selected for the Death Penalty. SMU had the nerve to beat Texas and that is when the NCAA gets upset because part of the good old boys club was beaten. The investigation of SMU started the next day. The NCAA was going to test the Death Penalty out on a small school to see how it worked. Had SMU bounced back in 4-5 years, more schools would have gotten it. Since it took them 25 years, the NCAA is not going to destroy another program or even close to destroying one in the good old boys club.

I've never understood why after all of these years, a good lawyer didn't sue the NCAA for damages against SMU. The NCAA clearly acted in a discriminatory manner and SMU was harmed by their actions. I think there is a case there and it should have been filed years ago. The NCAA really can't do anything at this point to SMU so why not.

The best thing about these 30 for 30 shows when they do one on college athletics is shine light on how corrupt the NCAA and how dirty college athletics have always been. People created a fantasy for themselves years ago that big time college football and basketball was all about the "student athlete". Sort of the 1950s mentality I always make fun of. That's all a bunch of crap and it always has been. The NCAA and big time sports are about money. If a sports fan can just accept that, it makes watching college sports easier.

[Dave in Green]

A review of 35 Division I football and basketball programs hit with NCAA penalties for major violations between 1987 and 2002 found that those teams on average actually won more often after penalties were imposed. This has the NCAA considering how to make penalties more effective in discouraging cheating. A change to tougher penalties could be coming in time to catch Auburn, which is still under investigation for the Cam Newton pay-to-play scheme, which Newton's father has admitted using to try to get $180,000 from Mississippi State.

More about Auburn is expected to come out in the scheduled April 2011 trial of 11 defendants indicted in the gambling bribery and corruption scandal. One of the cell phones tapped by the FBI in the gambling bribery and corruption case also reportedly produced information involving the NCAA football pay-to-play case. So apparently the NCAA will have access to FBI wire taps that may clarify whether Auburn was guilty of paying Newton to play there instead of Mississippi State. Interestingly, one of the defendants recently dropped his criminal attorney and replaced him with an attorney Auburn uses to handle its sports-related cases.

NCAA mulling tougher penalties 2 years after panel's recommendation

[Dave in Green]

I've continued to follow on a daily basis the thread in the LSU sports forum about the Alabama gambling/political corruption/Auburn football/Cam Newton FBI investigation. This is no small challenge, as the thread is now over 11,000 posts and contains a massive amount of data. Much is speculation, but there is also a lot of damning evidence piling up.

The New York Times has reportedly had several investigative reporters in Alabama, and is close to breaking a big story. There's speculation that the scope of the investigation is huge, with Cam Newton and Auburn football being only a tiny part of it. The whole thing is deadly serious. Several Alabama political operatives loosely connected to the case have met violent deaths in the past year, including two who allegedly died of "self-inflicted" gunshots to the head and one who was found at the bottom of a golf course pond encased in a large plastic bag (kinda hard to do that last one all by yourself).

There's no way I could even begin to cover all the crap that is getting ready to hit the fan. This is going to be a huge national news story. But I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how easy it would be for a wealthy booster who owns gambling casinos to arrange to have football players or corrupt politicians paid off by rigging gambling machines to pay off jackpots when the players or politicians played those machines.

Below is a link to a Birmingham News story that ran in March about how a local politician was likely paid off by the owner of a gambling casino. A check of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford's 2006, 2007 and 2008 Alabama state tax filings shows that the good Mayor claimed earnings of $1.5 million from winning 555 (that's five hundred and fifty five) jackpots at one casino. Go figure the odds on that one.

The Birmingham News

[UAZipster0305]

A big part of why I enjoy following the Zips is that they are big enough to "compete" (cough football) with the big boys and play big name opponents but not so big that this level of corruption is running rampant. I hope we never get to be so big that we welcome huge money, power, and corruption on campus.

[GP1]

I've continued to follow on a daily basis the thread in the LSU sports forum about the Alabama gambling/political corruption/Auburn football/Cam Newton FBI investigation. This is no small challenge, as the thread is now over 11,000 posts and contains a massive amount of data. Much is speculation, but there is also a lot of damning evidence piling up.

The New York Times has reportedly had several investigative reporters in Alabama, and is close to breaking a big story. There's speculation that the scope of the investigation is huge, with Cam Newton and Auburn football being only a tiny part of it. The whole thing is deadly serious. Several Alabama political operatives loosely connected to the case have met violent deaths in the past year, including two who allegedly died of "self-inflicted" gunshots to the head and one who was found at the bottom of a golf course pond encased in a large plastic bag (kinda hard to do that last one all by yourself).

There's no way I could even begin to cover all the crap that is getting ready to hit the fan. This is going to be a huge national news story. But I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how easy it would be for a wealthy booster who owns gambling casinos to arrange to have football players or corrupt politicians paid off by rigging gambling machines to pay off jackpots when the players or politicians played those machines.

Below is a link to a Birmingham News story that ran in March about how a local politician was likely paid off by the owner of a gambling casino. A check of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford's 2006, 2007 and 2008 Alabama state tax filings shows that the good Mayor claimed earnings of $1.5 million from winning 555 (that's five hundred and fifty five) jackpots at one casino. Go figure the odds on that one.

The Birmingham News

Good post. Just a couple of things.

In terms of political scandal, the SMU case had all of that as well. At the time, the sitting Governor of Texas was involved in the SMU scandal.

In terms of casinos, people getting killed, etc., it is interesting this is going on in the south. If this went on in the north, nothing would happen and people wouldn't pay attention. But why GP1? In the south, the mafia is a new thing. Southerners belive the "good old boy network" is the mafia. It isn't. The good old boy network is when 5 or 6 guys get together and decide to do business with only one another and then they spend the rest of their lives trying to screw one another over. Nobody gets killed by the good old boy network. The mafia is organized crime that is frequently violent. As the mafia moves south, southerners don't know what to do and don't even recognize it. I've had to have talks with a couple of customers about some of the new general contractors around the Carolinas who are owned by Russians. I'm not saying all Russians are in the mob, but there sure are more of them and crime follows where they go. I'm just saying. Ever notice the Russian strippers came over to visit their Uncle Vladimir before going to graduate school? I'm just saying, there sure are a lot of Uncle Vladimirs out there? Uncle Vladimir must have 500 siblings because every one of them has an Uncle Vladimir who is taking care of them. I'm sure those nice Russian girls dancing in Myrtle Beach are only strippers and not hookers....girls in graduate school just dance to make money to pay tuition....ya, that's it...they aren't hookers.

I'd be very careful when linking Newton to gaming crime. Just because Newton took money from a guy who bribed a politician doesn't make him involved in bribery because the guy was bribing a politician.

[GP1]

I hope we never get to be so big that we welcome huge money, power, and corruption on campus.

I do. As little as the ABJ pays attention to UofA sports, it would never get uncovered.

Interesting thought. What if we were SMU? Would you take 10 great years for a pile of crap to follow knowing you could get good again? I'd welcome the 10 great years. Would the 20 years of sucking to follow be worth the 10 great years? Some on this board love the sucking and 20 more years of it wouldn't hurt them...they would just throw their hairshirts on and attend every game like they always do. They don't mind the losing to BCS teams...it gives them something to go with their hairshirt.

[Dave in Green]

..... I'd be very careful when linking Newton to gaming crime. Just because Newton took money from a guy who bribed a politician doesn't make him involved in bribery because the guy was bribing a politician.

Just to be clear, I'm personally not connecting anyone to anyone else. I'm just trying to summarize thousands of posts made by many different posters with links to hundreds of different stories in an already big and growing scandal.

Those who do try to make a connection between Newton and the gambling scandal point out that Newton's father admitted to trying to get $180,000 for his son to play at Mississippi State before his son signed with Auburn, Auburn has a history of serious NCAA violations, some of the people involved in past Auburn violations are still connected to Auburn, and one of them is the wealthy booster who has already been indicted by the FBI for bribing Alabama officials to support gambling in Alabama.

So the Cam Newton connection to this case is currently purely hypothetical, and the public won't know for sure unless the case expands. Interstingly enough, a breaking news story today confirms that the case is going to expand, although the exact direction of the expansion has not yet been revealed.

Court Papers Indicate Alabama Gambling Probe Growing