Here you go Auburn fans......

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As it's been relayed to me, Mississippi State actually paid Cecil Newton $48k in December 2009. It was the first of two payments to be made -- the second one coming after Cam signed with MSU.

The money came from Bill Bell through J.C. Patton's office to Melvin Smith to Ken Fairley to Cecil Newton. Somehow (I'm still not sure how he fits in) Fairley is caught up in the Victoryland mess over in Alabama and that's how the FBI connected dots back to MSU. My understanding is the FBI has physical transaction records between Bill Bell and J.C. Patton and text records between Patton and Melvin Smith telling him to come get the money and get it to the Newtons.

Smith was pulled off the road to give MSU a bit of cover. And that's when the MSU recruiting class started to fall apart. Smith is responsible for getting money to Alvin Kidd, a volunteer assistant coach at Philadelphia High School. Kidd distributes the money to various players -- both on the MSU team -- and potential recruits in central MS - basically all the schools east of I-55, north of I-20 and south of US-82.

When Smith was pulled off the road, the money dried up -- both for current players on the MSU team and potential recruits in east and central MS.

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