PREGAME OPEN THREAD - 11/27/10

and it was appropriate.

He has still been nasty in this game just not dirty.

I will not say it won’t happen. I will say Auburn’s OWN athletic website has a listing for a Compliance Director and that is FACT. Proof here

 I also know your new friends the Auburn fans at TET and at other websites all over have spouted from the beginning that Auburn’s Compliance Director would not let them play Cam if he was ineligible yet according to the post on the web site they have been looking for a new Compliance Director since November 4th. That same Compliance Director your friends the Auburn fans claim is so holy and would never do such a thing has not gone on record one way or the other if he is even still at Auburn on any site yet the Auburn faithful claim he told them and Auburn that Auburn was clear back in July/September/or November depending on which faction of fans you listen to.

There is not just SMOKE made up by Urban Meyer/UF/MSU/Dan Mullen/ESPN/New York Times/The entire world that is not Auburn like your friends want to claim. I call BS on their all in until the investigation is over. And it is a FACT multiple news agencies were told by their sources Auburn was told they play Cam at their Risk and that there is an eligibility issue with him …. Yet Auburn fans claim they have never been told Cam was not eligible. The NCAA does not tell you someone is ineligible they inform you there is an eligibility issue once Auburn was informed Auburn had to decide if it was worth the risk to play him. Just like UNC had to and Georgia and OSU last year and tons of other teams had to for years. The difference is those teams SAT the players in question even when the players later were found innocent and why? Because the NCAA does not hand slap when you do not sit someone they tell you has an eligibility issue.

Oh and Auburn’s last defense that if they did not know their clear. Ask the USC Trojans how that defense worked out.

I didn’t say anything in my article about a super secret phone call; I laid out the interesting timing/statements regarding the Bruce Pearl suspension.

Slive made it clear that he has and will wield investigatory and disciplinary powers independent of the NCAA.

He then suspended Pearl for 8 SEC Games that will not be played for another 6 weeks, all while Tennessee is playing in the pre-season NIT.

Why not wait until that tournament was over and suspend him next week or six months ago when he admitted to his violations? No ‘new’ information came forward or became ‘known’.

What changed, IMO is that Slive is getting pressure from the SEC Presidents to act on what IS known, as they empowered him to do this past spring when they beefed up his authority in recruiting enforcement.

Therefore, he laid the ground work with Pearl and will have less explaining to do when he takes action on Cam/Auburn.

With that said, I do have a contact who works in the AD, who claims that LSU has tentative travel plans for next weekend and I have reasons to believe that the FB Program is operating under the assumption that tomorrow’s game might have greater implications.

It may or may not happen, but it is a very real possibility. IMO, it should happen. What is know in the Newton case is MORE than enough to disqualify him and I’d prefer the SEC not win a Title that they will have to immediately vacate due to cheating.

But at this point the logistics alone I think make this an impossibility.

I completely understand the skepticism but tell me when it will be convenient to deal with this situation?

Would it be easy to wait until after the season? Sure it would, and if the impact was only to Auburn then I’d buy that.

If I’m the president of LSU or Arkansas or any team in contention for the BCS or with a HT candidate I’d want the SEC to do its job. The SEC Presidents specifically gave Slive greater powers this past off-season precisely to clean up this type of behavior.

Now you think the SEC wants the type of reputation and black-eye that will come with knowingly allowing an ineligible cheat to win the HT and National Title. I don’t think so.

I could be totally wrong but I’m still of the opinion something is going to shake.

I will also say that Jonno makes an excellent point about the logistics, however, your point about the promotion of the SEC Championship Game – I haven’t seen it. I’ve seen no commercials, etc… Beyond ESPN promoting the games as currently structured, which is the only thing they can do.

Like I said, I’m reading the tea leaves and there ARE several signs that point to a back up plan for the SECCG but we’ll just have to see what happens in the next day or two.

We need OU to lose the Civil War

or USCe (or Mike Slive) to lay the wood to War Cam Eagle

And of course we need to roast the piggies today!!!