re: The Most Awesome Thread about CamGate

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It is clear now why he has never gone back to coaching after that experience.

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On December 31, 2008 it was announced that he would be the next head football coach at the University of North Alabama in Florence.

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I am amazed that he thought of such an incredible scheme

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got to be the longest thread on the SECr, ever

this is OT style

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I've been puzzled over the involvement of the FBI in the Cam Newton affair. Normally, the FBI would have nothing to do with policing NCAA investigations, and I have been perplexed about the legal theories of the FBI's involvement. Theories of extortion are commonly bandied about on this board, but I can't find a threat in this scandal (no report of Rogers threatening Bond, or of Cecil threatening a MSU coach for money, etc.). I also have problems with tax fraud and mail fraud, though I can see that as a possibility.

What about the Myron Piggie case as precedent? Pigge was a basketball coach--AAU I believe. In 2000 he pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for paying cash to high school players. This, of course, deprived those players of their amateur status and rendered them ineligible for playing college basketball. One of those players, Corey Maggette, was given a basketball scholarship to Duke.

Piggie ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud four universities, three athletic conferences and the NCAA.

According to an article on the Piggie case, "In his guilty pleas, Piggie acknowledged conspiring to defraud the universities of their right to award scholarships to eligible amateur athletes. Had the players acknowledged the payments on NCAA paperwork, they never would have been eligible to participate in college athletics."

Would not this same crime fit the actions taken by Cecil Newton and Kenny Rogers?

If Kenny Rogers or Cecil Newton took money, from a booster, for Cam Newton's commitment to AU, they thereby destroyed Cam's amateur status and "...defraud[ed] the universities (AU and all other colleges) of their right to award scholarships to [an] eligible amateur athlete." Moreover, the NCAA must require a prospect to verify his amateur status in the NCAA paperwork he completes; thus by paying a prospect for athletic participation, a person acts to defraud the NCAA if that person knows the prospect is not going to divulge those payments to the NCAA.

This would apply to conspiracy as well. If Rogers and Cecil discussed or planned soliciting money from boosters, and performed some overt act in furtherance of their design to collect money for Cam Newton's commitment, they essentially "conspired" to deprive a prospect of his amateur status.

This amounts to two (2) separate crimes--some manner of fraud against the university and a conspiracy to commit the fraud. The university then plays an ineligible player and suffers financial loss as it must return money it received from athletic events (I believe Duke had to return money it received from the NCAA tournament Maggette participated in). Moreover, the university is defrauded of money as an athletic scholarship (even one from Auburn) has value and the university loses the value of that scholarship when its player is declared ineligible. And this involves the federal authorities as all public universities receive federal funds.

I'd be interested in knowing anyone's thoughts on this possibility because I personally think the Milton McGregor theory is something of a stretch. Those of us in the legal community would likely have heard of some definite or substantiated rumor of such involvement in that case by now, but to my knowledge, no one has confirmed such a rumor.

Yet with the Piggie case as precedent, the FBI had reason to become involved once law enforcement authorities discovered Cam Newton was being shopped in a pay-for-play scheme. Perhaps that is why the FBI has been on this case, and perhaps they have been involved with this case for several months already.

Thoughts?

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