re: Congrats Auburn!!!

Thanks for the congrats, Ellis.

Regarding Cam, everyone here has an opinion and most of us are so 100% sure, it's really hilarious. The fact is that none of us know so all we have is deduction. The problem with deduction from ambiguity is that it is very much in the eye of the beholder...in other words, with ambiguity, you pretty well have your answer prior to processing.

For instance, If I want to believe that Cam didn't know, AU didn't know and AU paid nothing, I look at the following:
1. Clearly, this Kenny Rogers character was an amateur and the whole thing went very poorly. Remember the whole "well how about $100,000 then??". He didn't know who to talk to so he sought out an old teammate that he knew could find the money....and failed. So this racketeering wizkid, then goes on to broker a 6 figure payment from AU? I don't think so.
2. Kenny Rogers went on the Dallas radio station and spilled his guts, who he talked to, what was discussed, the fact that Cecil was on the call, etc, etc...why the hell would he then hold back that AU had paid? He had already thrown the Newtons under the bus.
3. Exhaustive NCAA and FBI investigation, has yielded nothing thus far.
4. Cecil raises Cam in a very Christian houshold...but sits down his son prior to recruiting and says, "Cam, I gonna try to get us paid". Why? It would be shameful and would serve absolutely no purpose to tell him.

That's what I want to believe...but there is a lot to be said for the opposite argument as well. The only thing that is indisputable is that none of us know jack. I don't suspect it will ever be a problem for AU but that's just my gut. I won't feel really comfortable about it until a couple of years have passed with nothing.

I think that this was the first and only time that Cecil has tried to do this. You can imagine the types of things that Kenny Rogers would have told Cecil to encourage him and sell him on doing this such as "these people are like family to me....you have nothing to worry about...they'd never turn us in, etc...". Then, the conversation goes terribly, MSU booster recoils and basically just flat out says "no" and they get turned in. Cecil would have been very guarded and uncomfortable anyway and then this happen. Is it not possible that Cecil decided at that time that it was just a very poor choice and ended it? It blew up in their face but those who want to believe it think that Cecil wiped the egg off his face, either teamed up with Kenny Rogers or some other guy, tried not to worry about what MSU was going to do with that information, sold Cam to AU and then hid the money away ever since.

I don't think anyone can look at that situation and being honest, feel that clearly the Newtons got paid by AU. Maybe they did...but not based on what anyone on this board has.