re: The Most Awesome Thread about CamGate

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How do I go about getting one of those certificates? Fo real....

I read this thread in 3 installments and am completely gassed.

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damn, i'm left off on page 26 or 27 this morning, have we solved the case yet?

Is McGregor a trustee? The Tuskegee article implies he was the bagholder and lost $13 million in 2 months, and Colonial was investigated shortly after for deliberately misleading investors. Did he have a connection to Auburn outside of getting screwed by their board? It sure does sound like that Tuskegee article is implying he has been blackmailing Auburn.

Given the massive losses sustained by the people at the top, the inevitable decline in their influence over the program after their seat gets reappointed, and their history of blatant disregard for NCAA rules and regulations, I wouldn't be surprised if their actions are much worse than the usual, unethical shiite they pull.

An interesting thread on the money board in August '09: TBW Thread.

I read into the wee hours and then woke up early to read some more. I had always heard things about AU but wow.

In case you didn't click on the link on top of this page, here is the interview with Terry Bowden about what happened down on the Plains:

Interesting interview with Tater if you have time to read it:

Interview with Terry Bowden April 24, 2001, at his Loachapoka ranch.

Also present was Paul Davis. After our interview, Bowden was expecting a visit from Dr. Muse that same day at his ranch. Former Auburn University football coach Terry Bowden says the program he inherited in 1993 included an elaborate system of paying star high school players up to $15,000 to sign with Auburn and $600 per month while on the team.

In a lengthy interview from the ranch he still owns in Loachapoka, Bowden alleged that the “pay-for-play” system was orchestrated by powerful AU Board of Trustees member Bobby Lowder and carried out by former assistant coach Wayne Hall.

Bowden said the corruption extended to former head coach Pat Dye, and included $30,000 to Atlanta attorneys for Gene Jelks in order to sustain the former University of Alabama player while he leveled charges of wrongdoing in the Crimson Tide program.

Bowden said he learned of the major NCAA infractions within days of being named Auburn ’s head coach, but kept quiet while trying to clean up the program from within.” I broke the rules,” Bowden said. “I told Wayne Hall to pay it off to the players we already had and it will never happen again.

I was hiding a dirty secret.” Bowden said the payment of players can be traced to Lowder, who Bowden said is the unquestioned leader of the AU athletic department.” Nothing was done without Lowder knowing.” Wayne Hall and Pat Dye paid $30,000 for lawyers in Atlanta to keep Gene Jelks talking.

This came from the money that had been used to pay Auburn players.In 1991 when I was at Samford, Wayne Hall called to ask about a job for Katherine Lowder at Samford. Bobby Lowder then called and he said he would contribute money to Samford equal to Katherine’s salary as long as we didn’t tell her where the money came from. Katherine and my wife became good friends.

Then the Eric Ramsey thing hit. One day Katherine sticks her head in my office door and says, “Dye is leaving and my dad wants you to be coach at Auburn .” Dye resigned a week later. Lowder made him resign because Lowder was sure Auburn was going to get the death penalty if he didn’t resign.

I met with Lowder, Mike McCarter and Ruel Russell at Ruel’s office in Birmingham . They asked me all the questions, and I thought it was a job interview. Then they said, we need to get you an interview. They got John Montgomery Sr. to officially recommend me to be interviewed. The night before the interview, Lowder told me “here’s how the interview will go.”

This was three hours on the phone like a lawyer prepping his client. There were six candidates - Larry Smith, Mack Brown, Dick Sheridan, Pat Sullivan, Wayne Hall and me. Everyone agreed that whoever the coach was going to be, the decision had to be unanimous. I think Lowder wanted Wayne Hall, but he knew he couldn’t get him approved. I was the backup.

I was the last to interview, then the committee immediately took a vote that day. Somebody was opposed to every candidate until they voted on me last. That’s how I got the job. Lowder said he wanted me to hire Wayne Hall as an assistant.

Tommy (Bowden, Terry’s brother and a member of the Pat Dye staff) told me that if you wanted anything done you gotta go through Hall. My second day on the job (athletic director Mike) Lude said “you can’t hire Hall.” But then I understand Lowder called and said that if I couldn’t hire Hall we will find a new president.

So I hired Wayne Hall. One week on the job, Hall came in with a ledger of players who have been paid, who paid the money, how much money and when it was paid. He said we’ve still got 9-12 players that we’re paying $600 per month.

We paid then $12,000-$15,000 to sign. We sign about four every year that we pay.(Former assistant coach Rodney) Garner paid most of the players. He was paid when he was a player at Auburn.(Stacey) Danley is the assistant compliance guy, and he was paid when he was a player. I broke the rules. I said pay it off, and it will never happen again.

Hall said “OK, but you will change your mind.” Katherine came to Auburn as

my assistant, but she worked for Colonial. We were real close. I told
Lowder “We have cash all over.” Lowder said “I told Wayne not to collect more than we had to have to pay the players.” Wayne had a safe in his house wherehe kept the money. Within two weeks of me being hired they told me about paying Jelks.

Nothing was done without Lowder knowing. I will go under oath
and say that Lowder looked me in the eyes and said, “I didn’t want Wayne to collect more money than we needed to pay the players.” I was hiding a dirty secret. We were paying (star running back and current Washington Redskin) Steve Davis and his cousin the fullback.

damn.

holy snaps

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Lawyers tend to use a comma routinely before "and" to remove ambiguity as to the the relationship of the items in a list, indicating that each item in the list is separate and not paired with the preceding item. It is certainly a correct usage to use the comma in that manner, but it is not as common a usage in non-legal writing.

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it's called an oxford comma and it's used pretty regularly, in and outside of legal writing.

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it's called an oxford comma and it's used pretty regularly, in and outside of legal writing.

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Yeah, I always put a comma before an "and" when listing things. To me, it just seems right, and it's how I was first taught way back in grammar school.

Also, this thread is quite an interesting read. If any of these dots get connected like some are speculating it would not be good.