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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Mississippi State acknowledges it contacted SEC office regarding Cam Newton's recruitment

Mississippi State released a statement today confirming it contacted the SEC officials regarding Cam Newton's recruitment. Here is in full:
Mississippi State University acknowledges that it contacted the Southeastern Conference office in January of 2010 regarding an issue relating to its recruitment of Cam Newton.

Shortly after the initial call, the SEC office requested specific information to include interviews with involved staff from MSU.

Due to MSU dealing with ongoing and time-consuming eligibility issues involving non-football matters in the winter and spring of 2010, the specific SEC request went unfulfilled. Some additional information was provided to the SEC during July of 2010. Once the NCAA enforcement staff became involved, Mississippi State University cooperated fully with its investigation. MSU is confident the SEC office has managed this process consistent with its established procedures and the university is committed to the conference’s ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with SEC and NCAA rules.
What does this mean? Not much that we didn't already know, but it does account for why the timeline begins in January but doesn't pick up until July.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did the SEC allow MSU to drag their feet for almost six months??

Unknown said...

"an issue" - either the person who wrote this didn't major in English or they are only talking about a singular incident. This seems contradictory to the idea that John Bond and two additional "recruiters" can be part of a single issue.

Melissa said...

Here's my conspiracy theory: MSU offered Cam money but he decided to go to AU for nothing other than a scholarship. Think back to his recruitment, we didn't know his abilities and many thought we didn't need to sign a JUCO QB, but given that he could enroll in Dec, coaches decided to roll the dice since he could fall into the previous year's class. Why would we pay 200K for him??

MSU is leaking these supposed quotes to cover themselves. Meanwhile, AU remains silent as the NCAA and FBI investigate. There's a reason Cam remains eligible.

Anonymous said...

So when did Auburn find out? Did they know in Winter/Spring time frame to be able to do necessary investigating, or did they only have the summer? Changes things a bit...

Unknown said...

I agree. If there had been a smoking gun (like a video or a tape of these alleged conversations) then the SEC/NCAA would have ruled him ineligible pretty quickly and started a formal investigation into Auburn. They haven't done either of those things.

However, using logic when dealing with the NCAA isn't always appropriate.

RW said...

Our Family...I think you are right on target. Miss. State's behavior has been very odd during this entire situation. While the perception is that Auburn is in trouble here, I think the MSU coaches are in panic mode right now.

Anonymous said...

@Our Family -

I'm praying you're correct. Thankfully it corresponds with what we've seen so far. None of the breathless news alerts have indicated anything different that what the NCAA and SEC appear to have known since Jan. And MSST dragging their feet should be a newsflash in this whole thing. They're looking guilty as hell in my book.

MikeP said...

There is no such position as "An MSU Recruiter". No college can have that. They are either assistant coaches, the head coach or they aren't recruiters.

So, there is no more to the "recruiters" story than the rest of this garbage.

The only reason MSU would be allowed to drag their feet that long is because the SEC office decided all the gossip was nonsense from jilted fans.

Anyway, Cam was going to either Auburn or Oklahoma. Who in their right mind would pick MSU when he had offers from those two?

WDEwg said...

Our Fam-
I like your version of events for sure. I think further- Cecil's quote about "needing more than a scholarship" could easily mean "other supporting offensive weapons, senior-laden O line, and maybe even true mentor/coaches as opposed to more of the same Urban protege Mullen".

However, if this is true- then why did MSU let it get out in the first place? If it all eventually comes crashing back down on them, why would they bring it out?

I'm presuming that either Urban or Mullen (based on others supposition) leaked it.

JC said...

Hey Andy, do you have any idea why MSU released this official statement that tells us all what we already know?

Looking forward to the live chat! Should be a good one...

Jeremy W said...

Andy - Why do you think MSU would put this out if there was chance it would get them busted for having someone other than a coach doing recruiting?

If the story has teeth, why is just now coming to light? It doesn't make sense, and seems more like a smear campaign every hour of the day.

Jim Rome said...

The reason they drug their feet from Jan to July is they wanted to see if he would come to MSU. Innuendo and rumors from 4th hand sources mean nothing.

Anonymous said...

WDEwg...

Cecil Newton's comment could also have meant that it would be a cold day in hell before his son would play for MSU! I can SO picture myself saying something like that to a coach whose program I didn't like! What no one knows is the TONE of the conversation, the context in which this was said, and WHO the hell it was said to!!! Same goes for Cam's comment "the money was just too much" ... what ... too much to comprehend, too much of a spoiler to the ethical Newton family? Like I said, it's context, tone, and the proverbial elusive WHO!!! Until these WHO has the guts to show their face and share their name, I'm calling "BULLSHIT" !

Moose said...

Andy can you speak any further on this or add to it what you think? It seems like, along with Auburn or Cam possibly being further implicated, that Mississippi State might now find itself under scrutiny as well?

Anonymous said...

Chizik isn't worried. Cam isn't worried. Auburn did its due diligence. Auburn's compliance staff is very strict. You don't mess around with this kind of thing. I'm confident it will be cleared up soon in Auburn and Cam's favor.

postermom said...

The statement said MSU was working on some other time-consuming stuff related to non-football recruiting. Was there something in the news in the spring or summer regarding MSU being investigated for recruiting stuff in another sport? If so, that probably would have been mentioned, so I guess whatever it was is still being investigated or was cleared up.

Clint Richardson said...

A buddy of mine said he heard Pat Dye on Finebaum say that this whole thing could be solved and released as early as the end of the week. Don't know exactly what that means, but if that is true, I feel a little better about all this. I'm not too worried that the NCAA will find something at fault with all these allegations, but that they will find something else, say an old lady paid for Cam's dinner when he was at Blinn or something like that. This is the NCAA after all.

postermom said...

Well, if anyone should know how the NCAA works, it's Coach Dye! ha ha ha

Tar Heel Tiger said...

postermom - a MSU basketball player was being investigated for improper benefits, subsequently ruled ineligble for the very end of last season and early part of this season.

Read about it here

Anonymous said...

BS-- football coaches can provide info to the SEC because compliance is handling a basketball case?

Bond's "report" to the AD BEFORE Christmas went unreported and they kept recruiting Cam-- then, once he signed elsewhere, they "report it." But then fail to provide ANY request evidence for over 6mos b/c they're too busy? As Seth Meyers might say, "Really?"

Syl said...

Our Family... I think you are right about your theory and I think they leaked it now in an effort to try to cast allegations onto the Newtons as a way to cover-up for it. That it also is a blow to Cam's reputation was just a bonus for them. It's no wonder Cecil Newton wanted to get Cam away from there. There is a story that sort of supports this idea, but read with a grain a salt. http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/bond-msu-pawn-forcing-ncaa-to-act-on-cam-29227

Anonymous said...

If the Newtons aren't guilty, then why aren't they screaming it from the rooftops?

Anonymous said...

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/2010-11-10-cam-newton-mississipppi-state_N.htm

"SEC spokesman Charles Bloom confirmed MSU's account. He also said there was no mention of the reported conversations in either of the school's reports to the league. He declined to comment further."

This seems huge and no one is talking about it.

So, MSU left out the most damning evidence in both the January and July reports?

Andy Bitter said...

That is an interesting detail to the situation that should be noted.

I'm not sure if that means those conversations didn't exist or just that they weren't in the initial report from MSU.

I wonder if these alleged conversations are something that could have come out upon further investigation by the NCAA. Possibly. It's unclear.

It seems very bizarre.

Anonymous said...

Either way, under the "recruiters" = coaches logic, it seems an egregious omission if the concern is being raised by the MSU athletic department. For it only to come out in the NCAA investigation would mean that MSU was holding back information from the SEC.

Andy Bitter said...

I agree. Something very strange about this whole ordeal.

I don't know if I've ever seen a school release a statement like it did the other day. Not about ongoing investigations.

Anonymous said...

now that cams father has admitted asking for extras but cam newton knew nothing about it is all hog or should i say tiger wash!! why is every one over looking the dinner in starkville during the egg bowl where cam, and his father attended and money was brought up in front of every one and the un-named msu coach said i dont need to year any of this. cam was there and yet dad says son dont know any thing about it