fiver

Right, that's the ONLY reason why I'm accusing them of cheating...gimme a break. There's a WHOLE hell of a lot of smoke out there. But for someone who has followed SEC West recruiting for years, that Auburn class last year was mighty fishy to a lot of people when they signed all those studs from surrounding states. As soon as they got all those guys people were remarking on "how'd they pull that off?". As Truffle mentions, the class AU signed was huge in numbers but not necessarily elite quality (one top 40 recruit in Mike Dyer). You keep talking about AU getting the number #1 player from Mississippi and Louisiana, but getting Trovon Reed (Louisiana) and Shon Coleman (Mississippi) weren't exactly steals of the century. Trovon Reed was a QB in high school that every school wanted to turn into a WR. He wanted an opportunity to throw the ball on occassion, and he will get that opportunity as the wildcat player in a Gus Malzahn offense. He was redshirted this year...now, I understand you were pissed that Ole Miss didn't get Shon Coleman, but let's work with facts instead of your anecdotes, ok? Coleman, the 'best' player in Mississippi, was a 4 star recruit and was the 7th best overall offensive tackle in the country. Auburn has recruited more highly estemmed tackles than that in recent years, Lee Ziemba from Arkansas being one of those a few years ago. Marcus McNeil comes to mind..King Dunlap...Jonathan Palmer...Ben Grubbs...Tyronne Green...all are offensive linemen from Auburn that were on NFL rosters this season. Shon Coleman developed cancer, is battling for his life, and isn't on the AU roster, btw.

Hopefully, Cecil didn't attempt to solicit Auburn for cash after he was turned down by MSU.

I find it a little farfetched that his dad was doing all this stuff that he supposedly had "no idea" about burden of proof isn't on AU or Cam. There evidently isn't evidence that suggests that Cam knew about his father's dealings with Kenny Rogers and MSU coaches.

Auburn completed an internal investigation back in July, and they found no evidence of wrongdoing on AU's behalf. The NCAA has agreed with that assessment based upon the current facts of the case. This should silence those that believed AU was 'ALL IN' (gd, i'm tired of hearing that), and chose to play Cam in spite of evidence that proved he was ineligible. AU and the NCAA are only going to act on the facts of the case. New evidence could still make Cam ineligible retroactively.

I still worry that new evidence could be introduced, but this is a step in the right direction. If the NCAA was willing to confirm he is eligible to play, then I think the Milton McGregor wiretaps probably don't include anything that incriminates AU.

The NCAA found that there is no evidence that Auburn or Cam knew about Cecil Newton's shakedown of MSU. The investigation regarding whether Cecil received money from MSU or Auburn isn't closed though per my understanding.

I think TCU is close enough to Oregon and Auburn in the BCS rankings that TCU would get the nod if AU were to lose to South Carolina. TCU is substantially ahead of all of the other 1 loss teams.... I disagree...unless Auburn gets really hammered, I think they will make the Championship game why do you think the BCS would rate a 1-loss AU team so high? 1-loss Stanford is not close to TCU in the current rankings. I believe a one loss Auburn team falls behind Stanford and maybe even Wisconsin and Ohio St. in the Coaches poll...the computer polls could bail out AU I suppose.

Auburn is a 5.5 point favorite over South Carolina presently. Spurrier made a poor decision in benching Garcia in favor of Connor at the end of the first USC-AU game, and there has been no QB controversy since Connor's poor performance at the end of that game. Auburn's d-line held Lattimore in check earlier in the season, and I believe they'll be able to do it again. However, AU will only win this game if their d-line is able to put a lot of pressure on Garcia and causes him to make a couple of mistakes. Hopefully, Auburn isn't out-coached prior to the game and won't need to make big adjustments, come back from a 24-0 deficit.

I think TCU is close enough to Oregon and Auburn in the BCS rankings that TCU would get the nod if AU were to lose to South Carolina. TCU is substantially ahead of all of the other 1 loss teams....

If LSU beats Arkansas today, they probably will be the top 1 loss team. Do you really see Oregon St. beating Oregon next week? Cam was horrible in the first half yesterday. He had opportunities to throw the ball away several times instead of taking a sack. Bama's defense is very good, but yesterday had to hurt Newton's draft stock. He is held to a pretty high standard at this point, but he was errant on several passes, and he doesn't set himself well before passing the ball. Even the long touchdown pass to Zachery was thrown into double coverage. the Bama safety overran the ball instead of intercepting or knocking it down. Auburn was very fortunate to get the win with all of the opportunities Bama had to put the game away. Garcia is going to score a ton of points on the AU secondary next weekend...the Gamecock defense isn't as talented as Alabama's, however...should be another close game. Auburn's defensive line will need to put a lot of pressure on Garcia if AU is going to win.

...slow, big guy that most teams forget about...very dependable hands though.

agree...wasn't happy with this decision.

I think the flag on Fairley was very questionable in the first half. He must have said something pretty crass, because his actions didn't merit a flag.

The past few have been the most impressive, too. Let's see, there was Troy and Georgia Southern. Which other powerhouses were on the list? Victories included in that statistic against teams in the top 50 of the Sagarin Predictor (15 of the 34 games mentioned) include Clemson, Penn State, North Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas A&M. The SEC East was down some this year, and the west teams' non-conference schedules weren't what I'd consider strong. Even so, the SEC West has been pretty good this year.

one lawyer's take on why the NCAA would not rule Cam ineligible retroactively based upon what we can call facts today.... http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2010/11/23/1832997/cam-newton-investigation-ncaa-eligibility-sec

The top 5 teams in the SEC West have a combined record of 34-1 when not playing against each other. The one loss was Alabama's loss to South Carolina.

Joe Paterno to return next year... http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5842639

usa today is reporting that he will announce his decision to attend iu tomorrow evening. they cite 'multiple sources with knowledge of the decision'. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/bigten/2010-11-23-yogi-ferrell-indiana_N.htm

Auburn and LSU are both 4 point dogs on the road this week against Bama and Arkansas....should be two great SEC games. Oregon and Boise State are both big favorites in both of their games. ..nothing new on the Cam Newton front over the weekend. The author of the tigerdroppings.com posting that most considered so insightful thought that their 'insider information' would come to light by the end of last week. that didn't happen. They were also evidently wrong about the Milton McGregor FBI wiretap containing info about Cam as multiple sources close to the investigation contradicted that on Friday, saying the wiretaps do not link McGregor to Cecil nor Cam. I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic about this unless proof of AU wrong-doing emerges.

I perceive this to be a step backwards...any ideas about who we may target?

what school's fan base wants to be portrayed as supporting a reckless bunch of money-grabbing cheaters? i mean other than Southern Cal. I don't think most fans want their school to be portrayed that way. I am not sure most fans are really against it though if it will help the team win. I can tell you firsthand that I'd rather be rooting for a borderline top 20-25 team this year than rooting for a team that could potentially win the national championship and then have those wins vacated. The Auburn offense has been even more fun to watch than the '04 team's offense. However, I'd rather be dreaming of the future and what could happen next year rather than looking over my shoulder and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Having a cross state rival whose fans are generally obnoxious isn't something that helps in this type of situation either. Even if Auburn is miraculously cleared of wrongdoing, I haven't been able to enjoy the season.

sources say that the McGregor FBI wiretaps don't link him to Cam Newton. That would shoot a gaping hole in that middle of that tigerdroppings post. I have no clue what will eventually be found one way or the other. Per my understanding, there still is nothing out there that is a known fact that will even cause Cam to be ruled ineligible retroactively...although that could change at any moment...and this is the most smoke I've ever seen associated with a sports scandal. http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/11/sources_wiretaps_dont_link_mil.html

I feel for you man, but that was an extremely thorough piece that guy wrote. He pretty much put together every piece of information that is out there and put it in narrative form. I really think y'all are screwed. I'm not sticking my head in the sand. Lowder has no place being on AU's board of trustees. However, when you say this posting on a forum puts together 'every piece thats out there', you aren't alluding to just pieces of journalism that can be validated as being factual. Some of the guys bullet points come from the piece of journalism he references in that particular section, but some of his bullet points are speculation on his or his source's behalf. Thorough does not necessarily equal accurate in this scenario. ...but yeah, if only half of this is true, then AU is going to have some major problems. If only half of this is true, I can tell you there are thousands upon thousands of Auburn alumni who would be appalled and hurt. This isn't how we want the university to be portrayed. This wouldn't be representative of 99.9% of AU alumni's moral fiber. I'll continue to wait and see what is proven.

Best read yet on the situation. I see that they also hit on what I was talking about a while back: I'm sure there are some facts included within the ramblings, but to call this the 'best read yet on the situation' is absurd. I can see how alumni from other SEC schools would find the musings entertaining. I will say that I'm not a fan of Lowder's, and if AU does go down in flames, then I will not be giving another dollar to the university until AU adminstration eliminates Lowder from the board of trustees and stops accepting donations from people associated with him.

Bama plays Georgia State tonight. My undergraduate alma mater, The University of South Alabama, began playing football as an unclassified NCAA program in 2009, will become an FCS independent in 2011, and complete its FBS transition in 2013. They beat Georgia State earlier this year. Bama can cry all they want about having so many teams schedule an open date before playing them, but they have indirectly scheduled an open week before playing Auburn.