Auburn, Cam Newton, and the FBI
National Football League
Draft King Analysis
November 18, 2010
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
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The investigation into allegations of pay-for-play at Auburn University, and claims of payouts going to top recruits dating back twenty years, becomes more and more complex as more facts and claims come out. The public word started with Cam Newton, an easy lightning rod as the highest profile football player in the college game today. But the FBI is involved, and the FBI doesn't care about Cam Newton per se, but the bigger picture of multiple players being shopped around to the highest bidder.
The FBI also cares about extortion and money laundering and bank fraud. The FBI cares about people like Milton McGregor, who the feds reportedly had a wire-tap on for more than a year; McGregor is a person described in this epic post on an LSU message board as "the dirtiest multi-millionaire in Alabama", which is an incredibly bold statement. The FBI cares about Colonial Bank and the FDIC.
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Cam Newton is having a fantastic 2010 season. (Icon SMI)
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This article published today on al.com asserts that the FBI's wiretaps of McGregor "contain no conversations" connecting McGregor to quarterback Cam Newton's recruitment to Auburn. But there is clearly some reason that the FBI felt compelled to talk with former Mississippi State player John Bond on Tuesday. Bond's agent reportedly said that the FBI told him, "We are interested in whether young men are being shopped to colleges."
It's a shame in many respects that Cam Newton is involved in all of this, guilty or innocent or in-between (and remember, he hasn't been convicted of anything). Newton is easily the highest-profile player in college football today and was in that spot before the scandal rumors first broke. He has played phenomenally well for Auburn in his first season playing for the school, setting himself apart far and away as the top prospect to win the 2010 Heisman Trophy.
Even when news first broke about investigations involving him and "pay for play" at Auburn broke, Newton stayed focused on the field and maintained a high performance level, which in some ways actually helped to boost his NFL stock showing how he can perform under mental pressure. His Tigers are unbeaten going into a huge game in Tuscaloosa against their arch-rivals, the Alabama Crimson Tide. Whether he plays in that game remains to be seen, though at this point Auburn appears ready to suit him up to play on the day after Thanksgiving.
In the newest 2011 NFL Mock Draft to go up here, Cam Newton has made his debut at #18 with Miami. It's probably more realistic that he will fall into the 20-25 range and a team needing a quarterback will trade up to get him, but with Jeff Ireland being in charge now in Miami (and thus not saddled with the ghosts of past drafts) he can use a first round pick on a QB without being criticized directly for the team having used second round picks on quarterbacks in 2007, 2008, and 2009 (with only Chad Henne remaining on the roster of the three). Newton could go back to Auburn in 2011, but that seems highly unlikely. If I was him, I'd head to the NFL after the season and never look back.
Regardless of Newton's decision, the first Auburn player to be drafted in 2011 will likely be defensive tackle Nick Fairley. A junior college transfer who debuted for Auburn in 2009, Fairley is playing defensive tackle at a high level, though he has been criticized for what many have perceived as dirty play on Georgia QB Aaron Murray. Despite his actions (which drew retaliation from Georgia) in the game, Fairley remains a top-tier defensive tackle prospect, and some might even perceive what happened against Georgia as Fairley "playing with a mean streak".
