Mississippi State: The Narcs of the West?

Message boards are blowing up, talk shows are teeing off, and all eyes have suddenly focused a cold, unsavory stare upon the Plains. Did Mississippi State blow the lid off one of the most ground shaking stories to hit college athletics? On the interwebs, we are now forced to endure the unending stream of clichés including the lovable “where there’s smoke there’s fire”, and the oh so witty “if Auburn paid 200,000 then they got a deal.” Let’s try and take a step back and see if we can approach this Newton thing with a fresh point of view.

The first thing I question is the timing of it all. Why did Bond choose to release this information now? He reported this to the NCAA over a year ago! Why are they just now choosing to release it to a New York Times/ESPN story? From what I can gather, one explanation puts it that the Birmingham News and Clarion Ledger were going to break the story first. The only difference is that their story was going to paint Mississippi State not as the white knight whistle blowers, but as a school that had a rouge alumnus and former player going around asking for money. State had first dibs on the deal of the decade when they got the offer for 180,000. They reported this to the NCAA alright, but only after their counter offer of $80,000 and a free t-shirt was turned down. Whatever the reason, the release of the information has created some disturbing links to Cecil Newton. It also raises several questions that have to be answered in order for me to change my vote to guilty.

The first and most obvious question is where did Cecil Newton get the money to renovate his church? It must have taken a good chunk of change to bring his church back from the brink of demolition. There are some red flags waving that might take this in a bad direction for Auburn. One rumor is that Newton hired a sports agent as a contractor for the project. This is documented in the town hall minutes when Newton appeared before the city council. If this turns out to be true, it would only lead to more questions. It is entirely possible that Newton received legitimate donations from people and organizations who actually had a vested interest in saving this church from destruction. Until it can be proven otherwise, I will assume this is true.

The other question that must be answered is what exactly Newton’s relationship with Kenny Rogers is. Was this just a guy offering to use his influence to help them get him to Miss. State? Did he ever contact Auburn or anyone related to Auburn? This Rogers guy is looking more shady every minute this story develops and if it is discovered that Auburn did have contact with him, then it would turn this situation into a very hairy one for Auburn.

According to the blogsosphere and several reporters, we shouldn’t even be having this discussion. Auburn and Cam Newton are guilty as accused. I like Everyday Should Be Saturday, but Spencer Hall’s soap box was a little too tall for me today. Kirk Herbstreit is on the radio predicting doom and gloom for Auburn and, at the very least, all this attention is really sucking the excitement out of a great season. It has been speculated that Cam’s Heisman race is over. There are some douchebags out there who have written him off, but most voters have taken a wait and see approach. I’m glad there are still some rational people out there.