NCAA investigating Cam Newton

The guy from Fox was supposed to go on a Birmingham radio station at 9 this morning to discuss the story. Callers were raising points all morning about the author -- a lot of this was the usual "Shoot the messenger" crap that papers go through when they break news like this (See Free Press comma Detroit).
A lot had validity tho -- such as a former academic advisor from a D1 school who talked about the person now under fire for this should be Bernie Machen because this stuff is a student's right to privacy and the writer's having it means Florida can be in deep shit. Other callers wanted to know if the writer has seen the actual report or was he going on hearsay of his sources.
I stopped listening at 9:30, but Thayer Evans still hadn't called in.

My two cents: Follow the smear trail and it leads back to Urban Meyer.

 

Agreed.

 

I can't believe everyone thinks its okay that he may have cheated in numerous ways.

It isn't about whether or not he is making money for the University and deserves he should get paid. It's about the fact that he may be breaking the rules. The rules may be flawed, but he is still breaking them. Change the rules, but don't let him get away with breaking them.

 

FULL STATEMENT FROM AUBURN AD JAY JACOBS

"In the past 24 hours, a lot of allegations have surfaced that date back two years ago and further. These allegations and rumors about Cam Newton are unfortunate and sad because they seem intent on tearing down the reputation of a young man who has done everything we've asked him to do. Cam has been and continues to be completely honest with us. Cam is, by all accounts, a great kid. Any discussion of academic records is a clear violation of federal privacy laws. We will not go down that path or stoop to that level as others have apparently done. We will, however, emphatically say that Cam is eligible to play football at Auburn University both academically and athletically. I am proud of this young man and the progress he has made to be a better football player and a better man. We are truly blessed that Cam is a part of the Auburn family, and we support him 100 percent."

 

If the story behind his real reason for leaving Gainesville is true, UF kicked him out of school for cheating so he didn't get away with it.

And there is no evidence he's been paid yet. Just a lot of smoke. Doesn't mean that smoke should be ignored though.

 

I don't know if it's been mentioned but this stuff starts in prep sports. My wife has seen good players leave her school that consistently underperforms and go to the county over where they do better yearly.

They don't live in that county but use a different address to register there.

And I'm sure this is common all around. But the players are accustomed to being treated different, along with their parents.

 

This.

In 1990 I was a young naive lawyer just out of law school and I was discussing on a business trip with a partner this very issue (ironically we were on a job in Birmingham, Ala.) and I said, college sports is a business, the kids are making huge $$ for the universities, they should get a cut of the pie. His response, was "why does college sports have to be a big business?" It seemed so obvious then, sports is huge, we're never going to roll it back. After a while, I realized that I agreed with him, roll back the sports to where it is supposed to be, actual student-athletes. Let the Cam Newtons play minor league football somewhere else.

Admittedly, I did not go to a big D-1 school (but we did produce Ken O'Brien). Big time athletics is not necessary for a university. Why the charade? Its ridiculous. UCLA basketball players got cash. Kentucky hoopsters (hello Chris Mills). Oklahoma football players (Switzer era.) USC football (Bush.)

 

BTW, how is his tenure at Fla. relevant? He transfered from the JC. If I was Newton, I'd look long and hard at an invasion of privacy claim against whoever leaked that information because I'm sure that in Fla. he has a right to keep his academic record private.

 

Past tense, not one but two schools ago; not present tense, where he's clean -- so far.
Again, if I'm Bernie Machen, I'm trying to find out who released it and trying to release them. But as the former academic advisor/caller opined -- "It has to be some one r-e-a-l-l-y secure in their job to leak that out."
Hence, Urban Meyer.

 

I'd bet money that no one at UofF is secure enough to get away with leaking any facet of a former student's academic history. I am a tenured professor at my D1 school, and that would DEFINITELY fall within the realm of a "for cause" dismissal.

 

What I don't understand is if he was accused of 3 instances of academic misconduct, even if they weren't fully adjudicated, how was he able to transfer out enough credits to Juco and earn enough credits while in JUCO to keep him on pace to be academically eligible? The academic progress rules are pretty tough on JUCO transfers as it is.

 

Multiple instances of misconduct can occur within the same class. I've had to deal with these.