Two immediate conclusions I drew after reading the Cam Newton-academic-cheating-at-Florida story:
- I take back my skepticism about the Gator program having a hand in the Newton rumor-mongering. There’s no way this story surfaces without somebody working for Meyer getting it out… which means that, well, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about that. I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but that’s a bullshit move on Florida’s part. This is a different deal from the pay allegations in that there’s nothing on the academic front that suggests Newton’s eligibility is in question. This is all about blackening a kid’s reputation. Shameful.
- Cecil Newton’s a piece of work, isn’t he? “I wasn’t there,” the elder Newton said. “I cannot confirm or deny. At a time like this, I’m taking a defensive posture.” The odds of Cam Newton returning for his senior season at Auburn have dropped precipitously. If you’re an Auburn fan, you’d better hope that’s the worst of it.
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UPDATE: Corch: I did not have sexual relations leak confidential academic records with that woman to the media.
Get The Picture 
I agree this is a bush league move by UF but the more distractions for Cam Newton and Auburn the better.
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Corch: It depends on the definition of “leak.”
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Could the ‘source’ possibly be doing it without Corch’s knowledge? Sort of a disgruntled White House staff member. To know that stuff, it has to be someone in Florida’s football office or academic dean’s office.
My opinion of Corch is well known, and he may be capable of defiling someone just to cure his anger at his own lost opportunity, but these things are often done by someone who does something childish on their own.
Pray tell, did the writer try to get confirmation on any of the accusations?
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Also: Sounds like they have a strict honor code down there don’t they? I think Cam Newton would still be in Gainesville if they could have kept the campus or local cops out of the computer theft.
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BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Um… pardon me.
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I know my thought sounds naive, but I can see some young idealistic jackass doing this without telling anyone higher up.
Most likely, the cabal at Florida worked this to give Corch deniability. Iran Contra & all that.
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if it were any coach but meyer (or a few others i can think of), it would not be unreasonable to surmise that the “leak” came from and was initiated by persons in the athletic academic advising operation there. every campus has an athletes’-horror-story rumor mill emananting from the in-house academic advising programs in athletics.
but, yeah, this is meyer’s m.o.
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There’s no way. If UF takes FERPA half as seriously as UGA, then someone could be in deep doo doo for discussing a former student’s academic record with someone who doesn’t “need to know” (i.e., a reporter).
At Georgia, this info would be in the hands of Judicial Programs/Dean of Students and, probably, the academic support staff of the athletic department. Of course, the player’s coaches would know since it would affect their eligibility. Knowing a lot of student affairs types, this didn’t come out of their academic people. There’s just no way. Even the most idealistic student affairs person would recognize that it’s career suicide.
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Might the source be someone at the junior college? I would think applicants have to list all pending academic actions against them.
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I guess we now know why Corch couldn’t at least try to let Cam back on the team. Unlike Rainey and the AK-47 dude, it wasn’t up to Meyer alone.. but the University as well.
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😆
Meyer really is a Machiavellian genius, is he not? He knew, KNEW he might have to face Newton in the SECCG, so he timed the press release perfectly.
Plus, everyone knows that Meyer controls the media.I mean after all, he has treated them so well in the past they have no choice but to be in the tank for him. He fed them the information and they printed it, just like he trained them to do.
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Well, there’s always the possibility that Corch is a schmuck and is doing this out of sheer spite. 😉
Why don’t you tell me how you think this info got out?
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There is a story going around quietly that all of the Newton stories had their genesis in the mind of Urban Meyer.
“I miss Timmy so vewy bad, it makes me do vewy bad things.”
And that the Mind of Urban Meyer has a tenuous hold on reality.
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That might be one explanation. It would certainly be one his rivals might attribute to him, absent any real facts one way or the other. I mean after all, he has never shown any indication he can be vindictive.
Wait, he did order those time-outs, so maybe he can be a bit vindictive. Course in that case, unlike the actions to which he was responding, the time outs were well within the rules and garnered no penalty or official rebuke.
Finally, the above accusation of vindictiveness comes from the same rival base where some originally insisted the “choke” sign from Grantham was just, you know, a defensive signal.
😆
All woofing aside, I guess it is possible that Meyer might have wanted to set the public record straight regarding how the Newton saga was handled, given all the overt and covert criticism he was getting after Cam left Florida and enrolled in Auburn, on the way to becoming a superstar.
But to blame Meyer for the actions of both Cam and Cam’s father strikes me as bit, well petulant. Then again, I guess from the Georgia perspective, this is really a two-fer. The Georgia fans get to excoriate Auburn for signing Cam, knowing everything they knew about Cam at the time. And they get to excoriate Florida for making the whole sordid mess public, assuming that is what Florida actually did.
So I guess it is all good. And fun
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Except that it wasn’t Newton doing the criticizing, was it?
Bottom line, it’s a crappy thing to do to the kid. And being thin-skinned about media and fan complaints isn’t a valid justification for that.
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Well, Cam kinda was being critical, don’t you think? I mean Cam and his father recently insisted the only reason Cam left Florida was due to him having to sit behind Tim, and maybe Brantley.
And finally, a Georgia fans thinks a Florida coach might have done a crappy thing or two? Imagine that.
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How is whining about PT (by the Newtons) being critical of UF? The kid chickened out cuz he couldn’t unseat the starter and wanted the fast tract to the NFL (so he could pay for a church in Newnan). Did Georgia fans whine about John Dewberry, Nate Hyble & Daniel Cobb transferring to other skools to play? I don’t recall any such crying.
Do you grasp how thin skinned this is? Yer team has 2 natties in the past 5 yrs and you’re in a huff b/c a GEORGIA BLOG SITE makes fun of Corch and implies he MIGHT be behind a leak of information.
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Not quite in a huff. Just enjoying good conversation.
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Oh doody, doody, all my fans are coming to the Defense of Urban Meyer, proving once again that in the Mind of Urban Meyer, I am not a weasel.
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“But to blame Meyer for the actions of both Cam and Cam’s father strikes me as bit, well petulant”
Who did that?
I think the Senator is saying its bush league to besmirch a kids academic performance when such information is 100% completely private. No?
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FERPA violation. Look it up.
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Or, they’ll simply cluck about it afterwards.
Either way, he wins.
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Lucky for the Gators they didn’t get burned again.
Burned? Oh, guess Diaz is referring to Mr.Rainey.
Newton might have been eligible for the Georgia game.
S’what happens when you lie down with weasels.
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Mike I think Meyer is capable of this, or at least assenting to it. He’ll just do anything for an edge.
The messy details are left to others. Cam Newton is already on the front page so it doesn’t take much to get this story big play.
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Has anyone ever had their eligibility hampered by issues with academics at Auburn?
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Ask Brent Fullwood.
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Jamez Brookz can’t even spell “eligibility”.
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Meyer a scumbag? Who knew?
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The University of Auburn is a great place and a hard school.
Sincerely,
Jamse Broosk
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Time to die?
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Is releasing that info not a violation of FERPA?
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As I understand things, yes, I think it is a violation of FERPA.
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Ah… beat me to it. If it can be traced back to someone in Meyer’s inner sanctum, Florida could find itself in some hot water.
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At Coach Meyer’s age, I recommend having his inner sanctum examined once a year.
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The inner sanctum is only accessible through the outer sanctum by use of a large catheter. As Corch’s entire body is one giant d!ck……..well, you get the picture.
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Let’s not skip step one here. Senator, would you ever print accusations like that based solely on the word of one source, who wasn’t willing to attach his or her name to it?
The whole story comes down to whether you trust the judgment of Thayer Evans and Fox Sports.
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That would violate the Journalistic Code of Ethics, Senator.
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I wouldn’t. But that’s not the way the world works these days, unfortunately.
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Did I miss something? Was the story about Urban Meyer himself encouraging the people at Mississippi State to spill the beans about Newton being shopped around not true? I thought we already knew that Meyer was behind some of these stories.
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I’m shocked and appalled that you would make such an accusation to the integrity of the Florida program Senator.
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Respect my authoriti! I would have never let go the GPOOE II (or would CN have been III? IV? whatever…) if not for HIS own doing. The kid screwed-up and you all need to know this. I’m the best at talent evaluation ever!!! His leaving was a bad deal…he was a bad person, and this is going to stay with us for a long time.
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After reading other websites, there are some alternative explanations being offered of who leaked this. Here is the theory.
First, who has the most to gain by smearing Cam? Well, those rivals that play Auburn every year have the most to gain. That would not include Florida.
Who knew about the academic cheating? Mostly people who worked for Florida.
So it had to be a Florida person right?
Well maybe. But Dan Mullen and Greg McGarity both worked at Florida when this all occured. Both almost certainly knew about it. And they now both work at programs that play Auburn ever year. Unlike Florida. Hmmmmm……
So the new theory is that either one or both of those two guys leaked all of this.
Just saying.
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Grassy knoll…
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Tell me what UGA has to gain by smearing Cam.I can’t wait to hear this.
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More than Florida?
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Florida, the institution has nothing to gain, but your coach does. In his own Mind.
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Mullen. Former assistant at FLA during the time in question. Had to know inside information. HC at program spurned by Newton. Still in the hunt for SEC West (if Auburn loses to UGA and Bama plus some other stuff happens). Elementary.
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Except neither of those two have anything to gain by leaking it. Mullen has already played Newton, and Newton was likely gone next year before this came out. Since this won’t actually hamper Newton’s eligibility this week and Newton/Auburn already has distractions galore with the recruitment thing, McGarity has nothing to gain.
No one has anything to gain except to besmirch this kid’s character and to give a plausible excuse for why he isn’t dressing out in Florida’s version of blue and orange this year… which, not to speak for the Senator, but I think was the point all along. Nothing is gained by this coming to light except to denigrate Newton which is the bullshit move.
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Chris Rainey.
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Seems right about 2-3 games ago is when folks started to openly say “man, wonder if the Corch is hating letting Cam go now!”.
Maybe he felt he was being tarnished if he didn’t let the world know???
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I’d say that is pretty close to the bone considering it is, after all, The Mind of Urban Meyer who will never forget the celebration in the end zone.
FWIW….no administrator or coach is unaware of the privacy rules about kids’ academic records.
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The story does, at the end of the day, very much have the ring of truth to it, though it seems equally clear that those who put the reporter on to the story acted illegally and unethically.
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Florida Gators, so classy, except for when they aren’t.
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If he was caught cheating at UF, HOW IN GOD’S NAME COULD HE BE ELIGIBLE?
I mean, this is ridiculous
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From what I read, his academic performance at Florida has nothing to do with his academic eligibility at Auburn. If that is true, then that is truly odd
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People, it only takes one person with access to the records and a phone to get this story out. There is no way that you can credibly claim that it “had” to come from Meyer when there were numerous people who would have had their hands on this file and been familiar with the accusations. If but one of these people thought Cam got off clean and wanted to see their version of justice served, it could easily happen.
I can’t exclude Meyer as the source. But the evidence that he is the source is still a bit weak IMO.
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Didn’t say Meyer was the source. I’m simply skeptical he had no idea about this being leaked.
The question you’ve got to ask about whoever winds up being the source: why now?
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If it’s someone in the academic department, I doubt Meyer would know. And there probably were a half-a-dozen people there who would have been aware of the allegations. As to “why now,” well, with the story about the cash and then the subsequent denials, perhaps that was the tipping point for someone that just thinks Cam is a bad kid. Whoever did it is putting themselves at risk, so I would think that something had to reach a tipping point for the person to take the risk (although the risk is actually relatively small because it’s next to impossible to find out who actually leaked the info).
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Why so? Most head coaches worth their salt know exactly what’s going on over on that side. There’s too much at stake eligibility-wise not to.
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Meyer may know what transpired. But that doesn’t mean he knows what some person would have done in terms of leaking that info. Literally, there could be half-a-dozen people who were aware of the pertinent facts. It only takes one person who thinks that this guy got off too easy to go running to the media. And if that happened, Meyer would almost surely not know about it.
It’s also possible that some member of the staff would have heard it from Meyer and yes, that too could have been the source. Or the staff member could have told a HS coach somewhere (though query whether Fox would run with the story without more of a basis than that).
All I’m saying is that it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see a scenario where someone at the University of Florida leaked this information and Meyer would not have been a part of it. And that person could very easily be someone outside the athletic department altogether.
I’m reasonably confident that UGA has a person in the compliance department who posts about all things Dawgs-related every day over at Rivals. Now, that person is on the athletic side, but there are plenty of people on the academic side that are still big football fans. Think one of them might have spilled the beans?
It’s certainly possible.
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And when I say that Meyer would have known what transpired, I mean in terms of the initial proceeding against Cam. I think it’s quite possible that he’d have no clue whatsoever if someone involved in the investigation/presentation of that case leaked the details to the media.
Lots of big mouths in the world.
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“I’m wasting my time addressing allegations that blow my mind that they’re even out there, because there’s federal privacy laws that dictate that these things don’t get out in public.” Chizik said.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/40090619/ns/sports-nfl/
Shorter what Gene thinks when FERPA violations occur:
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“I’m wasting my time addressing allegations that blow my mind that they’re even out there, because there’s federal privacy laws that dictate that these things don’t get out in public.” Chizik said.
Note, please, he does not deny the allegations are true.
It is Tuesday, not long till it is too late, where is the freaking NCAA when you need them….where is the Auburn academic compliance department….oh, wait it is Awbun….never mind.
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What do Auburn’s academic compliance folks have to do with this? The problem as alleged was at UF. If Cam’s transcripts were in order when he enrolled at AU, that’s the end of the story.
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Question, if he was going up against the Student Judicial Committee, I would imagine that that is a part of the public record. At least the fact that he was to be judged, and certainly what the ruling is had been heard. A would just think all these things would be in an official record of the proceedings that given the public university, would be public.
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