On November 1, four days before Pat Forde, Chris Low and Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com broke the news that Cam Newton’s father Cecil Newton had solicited money for his son’s football services to Mississippi State, Cam and his father Cecil confirmed to Lars Anderson of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED that father Cecil alone made the decision for Cam to choose Auburn.

Last December the choice of which college to attend came down to two schools—Auburn and Mississippi State. Newton preferred Starkville because of his close relationship with Bulldogs coach Dan Mullen, who had been Newton’s offensive coordinator at Florida.

But Cecil thought his son should choose Auburn, which had an experienced offensive line (four starters were returning) and was only a two-hour drive from Atlanta.

Newton let his father make the final decision, and a few days before Christmas, while sitting at the dinner table in his brother’s house in Jacksonville, Cecil Sr. uttered two words that would radically alter the college football landscape: “It’s Auburn.”

Yesterday during an interview on ESPN television, Cam Newton said of that same decision: Read more…

While the NCAA has temporarily rendered Cam Newton eligible to play football for Auburn, the governing body has made (somewhat) clear that its investigation into Newton’s recruitment is ongoing.

(Dan and Megan Mullen)

Though there’s a good chance none of the controversy involving Newton’s recruitment ever would’ve come to light had Pat Forde, Chris Low and Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com not broken the news on November 5 that a third party, later identified as Kenny Rogers, solicited money from Mississippi State in exchange for Cam Newton’s enrollment at MSU.

Excerpt:

During the height of star quarterback Cam Newton’s recruitment out of junior college last year, a man who said he represented Newton allegedly was soliciting a six-figure payment to secure his signature on a national letter of intent, ESPN.com has learned.

Rogers later said that he had asked for the cash after he was directed to do so by Newton’s father Cecil. Rogers also subsequently noted that Newton made his solicitation known to Mississippi State coaches during an in-person meeting in November, 2009.

Less than a week after ESPN.com broke the Newton story, Joe Schad of ESPN.com reported the only story to date that points to Cam Newton having direct knowledge of the “pay-for-play plan” concocted by his father and Rogers for his football services.

Excerpt:

Two sources who recruit for Mississippi State said that Cecil Newton and his son, quarterback Cam Newton, said in separate phone conversations that his college choice would be part of a pay-for-play plan while Newton was being recruited late last year.

Mississippi State compliance officials relayed the alleged conversations to Southeastern Conference compliance officials in January, according to two other sources close to the football program.

The SEC office later disputed that it had been made aware by MSU of such phone calls.

In its ruling yesterday, the NCAA essentially confirmed the original Nov. 5 ESPN.com report that Cecil Newton and Kenny Rogers actively marketed Cam Newton’s football skills to Mississippi State. But the NCAA did not comment on ESPN.com’s story that Cam and his father acknowledged taking money in phone calls to two MSU recruiters.

Of course, if the NCAA were to find that those calls took place, Cam Newton’s college football career would be over.

Since the ESPN.com report of the alleged Newton phone calls, no one affiliated with Mississippi State has questioned the veracity of the report, but clearly Schad’s claim has gotten little to no traction from the NCAA and the media.

Why? Read more…

During my appearance on the nationally-syndicated Paul Finebaum Show today, Paul noted comments made by former college and pro football star Tony Dorsett about the recent allegations involving the father of Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.

Last week Friday Dorsett told Eric Barrow of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:

“I think it’s a witch hunt. It’s a modern-day lynching of an athlete. I mean come on. If there was something going on they would have had to know about it way in advance. Why all of a sudden the school gets some success and he’s successful, he’s one of the front-runners for the Heisman Trophy, then all of a sudden all this comes to the forefront?”

No surprise that ‘76 Heisman Trophy winner Dorsett also said he’s still dead-set on voting for Newton for the award despite recent claims by former Mississippi State football player Kenny Rogers that Cam’s father Cecil Newton talked of soliciting money in exchange for his son signing a letter of intent to play football at MSU.

More: Read more…

Friday night WSB-TV reported that Cam Newton’s father Cecil Newton confirmed, “having conversations with an ex-Mississippi State University player about the possibility of under-the-table money if Cam Newton signed to play football at Mississippi State, though he’s steadfastly maintained that no money ever changed hands and said no official at Mississippi State ever made such an offer.”

The WSB report was also careful to point out that, “Cecil Newton said his son’s hands are clean, and has made it clear that Cam Newton himself and his mother knew nothing about the money discussions, nor did Auburn University, with whom the Westlake High School grad from College Park eventually signed with out of junior college.”

If the WSB report is accurate, by no means does that mean that the NCAA cannot conclude that an NCAA violation took place in that instance. That will ultimately depend not on if Cam knew anything, but who Cecil Newton talked to about extra benefits for signing at MSU.

If Newton talked to former Mississippi State player Kenny Rogers, who has already claimed that Newton told him his son would need money to sign with MSU, a NCAA violation in that particular case would depend on if the NCAA determined Rogers was a representative of MSU’s athletic interests.

What isn’t disputable though is what Rogers said on the record last week on Dallas radio about a meeting between two MSU coaches and Cecil Newton on Nov. 27, 2009.
Read more…

In an interview today on Dallas radio station KESN-FM, former Mississippi State player Kenny Rogers accused the father of Auburn quarterback Cam Newton of seeking upwards of $180,000 in exchange for Newton signing a letter of intent to play football at Mississippi State.

(MSU AD Scott Stricklin recognized Bell at an alumni event last June)

During his comments, Rogers, who is accused of soliciting payment on behalf of Cecil Newton, added that he had sought such financial compensation for Newton from former Mississippi State football player and current booster Bill Bell.

Bell, president of Bel-Mac Roofing company in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., has since confirmed that Cecil Newton indeed placed a price on his son’s services as a college football quarterback.

From Pat Forde, Mark Schlabach and Chris Low ESPN.com late Thursday: Read more…

Last week former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond released a statement in which he alleged he’d been contacted in 2009 by a former teammate at MSU who claimed he represented the interests of Cam Newton.

(John Bond: Phone records show Rogers repeatedly lied)

That former teammate, Bond said in the statement, was seeking money in order for Newton to sign with Mississippi State. While Bond didn’t initially identify Rogers in his statement, ESPN did report that Rogers was the former MSU player Bond was referring to. (Bond later confirmed on WCNN-AM in Atlanta that Rogers was indeed the person who contacted him while claiming to represent Cam Newton.)

Last Friday though, Rogers vehemently denied having spoken to Bond for the past “20 years or more” during an interview with Ian Fitzsimmons on KESN-FM in Dallas:

I have not talked to John (Bond) or seen John in over probably 20 years or more. Probably 20 years or more I have not talked to John or seen John.

Today, Rogers was back on KESN-FM in Dallas with Fitzsimmons, once again denying he’d spoken to Bond in the past two decades:

“Last Thursday, my name came out as being the person that talked to John Bond. And then Friday came, and John’s attorney wouldn’t even go back and tell them it wasn’t me.”

During his second denial of a phone conversation with Bond today, Rogers cited the alleged misinformation about that exchange as what primarily motivated him to go back on KESN-FM in Dallas today:

“So I just said, you know what, let me call Doug (Rogers attorney) and I’m going to get this off my chest. So that’s when I called you (Fitzsimmons).”

So Rogers is claiming the entire premise for going on the radio today to claim that Cecil Newton told him it would take $180,000 to sign son Cam to a letter of intent - perhaps ending Cam’s collegiate career - was an earlier, alleged inaccurate claim that he had called Bond.

That’s a great story so long as Bond doesn’t have phone records of the conversation … that he’s about to turn over to the FBI. Read more…

If there was any doubt who leaked the most recent, and damaging story about Cam Newton and his father Cecil to ESPN earlier this week, there isn’t now.

Wednesday ESPN’s Joe Schad reported:

Two sources who recruit for Mississippi State said that Cecil Newton and his son, quarterback Cam Newton, said in separate phone conversations that his college choice would be part of a pay-for-play plan while Newton was being recruited late last year.

Thanks to information provided by Mississippi State Head Coach Dan Mullen on the record to the media yesterday - and if Schad’s report is true - those sources have been indisputably verified as Mississippi State football coaches.

NEMS360.com Mississippi State beat reporter Brad Locke Tweeted this yesterday during Mullen’s media teleconference:

Mullen, when asked if anyone besides coaches are registered recruiters for MSU: “No.”

Brandon Marcello, who also covers the daily Mississippi State football beat for the CLARION (MS) LEDGER, was the one who asked Mullen the above question. He also noted:

An ESPN.com report cited “recruiters” as sources late Tuesday night. Those recruiters say, according to ESPN.com, that Newton and his father, Cecil Newton, admitted to a “pay-for-play plan” in separate phone conversations with MSU recruiters.

The term “recruiters” raised questions and I asked Mullen today if anyone besides his assistant coaches were registered as recruiters with the NCAA. His answer was a short and pointed “no.”

I’m still attempting to contact MSU to see who is registered as a recruiter with the NCAA. My phone calls have, so far, gone unanswered.

That information could easily be had via a Freedom Of Information act, as Mississippi State is a publicly-funded state institution, but there’s no need. Mullen already confirmed it himself.

So now that we’ve established that MSU football coaches leaked the information about the Newton phone calls to Schad - if his ESPN report is correct - then why did John Bond, who is not a member of the MSU coaching staff, officially report the information about other alleged recruiting impropriety involving Newton to Mississippi State - and then front the story on MSU’s behalf for ESPN?

As a refresher, here’s the original headline from ESPN.com from ESPN’s first report about possible Newton recruiting impropriety: “Cam Newton offered for cash in exchange for signing letter of intent, ex-Mississippi State quarterback said - ESPN”

That headline makes it sound like Bond was the source of the complaint to MSU against Newton, but from what we know now - including Bond confirming there “were two people” between him and alleged middeman Kenny Rogers - was he really?

In Bond’s original, on the record statement to ESPN last week about alleged impropriety involving the recruitment of Newton, he himself did not name Rogers as the middleman allegedly soliciting money on Newton’s behalf.

Instead it was ESPN, in that same initial report, that identified Rogers as the alleged go-between. (Without Rogers being named, ESPN really had no story.)

So how did ESPN get the information that Rogers was initially involved?

Now that we indisputably have verified - if ESPN’s report is accurate - that the MSU coaches leaked the Newton phone call info to ESPN, and that Bond said there were two people between him and alleged middleman Rogers, and Joe Schad’s source for the ESPN Newton phone call story was “two sources who recruit for Mississippi State“, is it unreasonable to think that the same coaches leaked the info about Rogers to ESPN for its first report?

And that those same MSU coaches then proceeded to hide behind Bond as the public front for the initial, ESPN breaking story about Newton and Rogers?

And what of ESPN in all of this? Why did Pat Forde, Chris Low and Mark Schlabach author the first story about Newton and then have Joe Schad report the second? Read more…

Friday I reported former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond, who is not a “registered recruiter” for Mississippi State, claiming that the only reason he released a statement about possible impropriety involving the recruitment of Cam Newton was that ESPN was going to report the story “with or without me.”

(MSU used media as attack dog on NCAA, Bond to deflect blame for leak)

From Bond on WCNN-AM in Atlanta on Friday:

All I know is ESPN was going to put the story out there, with or without me. They wanted to know what I had told the NCAA and that’s exactly what I told them. I don’t know why they decided to bring it out now. Like I said, I talked to the NCAA a couple several months ago.

Former star MSU quarterback Bond was the credible, on the record source that ESPN needed to buttress its otherwise anon-sourced claims about former Bond teammate Kenny Rogers soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars for the acquisition of Newton’s services.

Bond was also not an official MSU football staff member and/or registered recruiter, initially removing the connection of any Newton allegation to an officially MSU-affiliated person. (That changed with ESPN’s followup story- keep reading, bruh.)

Bond put a game-changing face on the allegations about Newton, but it was something the former quarterback said after his initial, prepared statement that called into question his motivation in coming forward. Read more…

ESPN is reporting today:

Two sources who recruit for Mississippi State told school compliance officials in January that quarterback Cam Newton and his father each admitted in separate phone conversations that his college choice would be about money.

The sources said that prior to Newton’s commitment to Auburn, Cecil Newton said it would take “more than a scholarship” to get his son to that school and that a third party could provide specifics. Newton was told the school would not meet such a request, according to the sources, who say the information was relayed to SEC officials.

An emotional Cam Newton is said to have later called another Mississippi State recruiter to express regret over changing his commitment to the school but that his father chose Auburn because “the money was too much.”

So according to ESPN, SEC knew about phone conversations which nailed Cam Newton on a pay-for-play scheme?

Let’s revisit what ESPN reported about the SEC’s response to its first report last week about possible impropriety involving Newton’s recruitment: Read more…

Last December, former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond reported to the school that his former teammate at MSU, Kenny Rogers, had contacted him and identified himself as a representative of quarterback prospect Cameron Newton.

Bond also alleged to Mississippi State officials that Rogers told him Newton would need to be paid $180,000 in order to sign to play football for the school. The NCAA has since reportedly began an investigation into Bond’s claims.

Both Bond and Rogers appeared on radio shows Friday to discuss the alleged impropriety involving the recruitment of Newton.  During their separate, on-air appearances, the former Mississippi State football teammates had distinctly different accounts of the exchange Bond claims took place between the two in December. Read more…