Pete Fiutak may have a point here.
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“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
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Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
Wasn’t much of an uproar from the AU crowd. Fans, conflicted I am sure, at least those that can think somewhat beyond the wins and loses. But isn’t this more of a case of the numbness many feel toward the scandals in college football? You know even the standard “everybody does it” reins rather bland anymore. There is so much scandal at AU, maybe those that should be speaking out a whistleblowers, just think “why?”. Until the NCAA and the SEC get serious, Auburn being so institutionalized in it’s moral failures, this pay for play has to continue.
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On the flip side, there were much more talented players at Auburn than those guys (Ronnie Brown, Takeo Spikes, etc.) who haven’t said a word about pay for play. These guys don’t seem to have any proof except their own word. Auburn’s response is interesting though.
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Maybe the guys like Ronnie Brown and Takeo Spikes aren’t saying anything because they are still playing football. They may think there may be some liability if they come clean. Or maybe it is just sour grapes on the part of McClover and his contemporaries. If so, I don’t see what they stand to gain by trashing their school. The silence of the outrage and denial coming from the plains is deafening.
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That’s what I don’t understand either. Doesn’t really look like anything to gain for coming out against Auburn unless there is some unknown ax to grind or it really happened. Why should Auburn be worried? It’s not like the NCAA will do anything about it.
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The NCAA would have to do something major even if it didn’t want to if a smoking gun surfaced (tape recording or video of a payment being made) or a boatload of ex-Aubie players came out and said it was true. There have got to be plenty of former Tigers who were on the pad who are not playing pro ball now and might be pissed off at the school for some reason (never got a degree, working as a janitor, etc.). Auburn has to play this carefully because it is dangerous for them right now. There are already 4 guys backing up each other. How many more would it take before the thing gets damn near indisputable? 3? 4? 10?
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All four of these players could be serial rapists (which isn’t really all that far from the narrative some of the Auburn faithful are pushing, actually) and that wouldn’t disprove their allegations. Tony Cole was unquestionably a complete piece of human filth, but that didn’t mean the things he had to say about corruption in the Georgia basketball program were untrue.
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To cheat, there must be willing participants. It doesn’t matter if there were more talented guys. Maybe those guys didn’t want shady money. Maybe they had a little money from family. Or my guess, maybe they got paid so much they are happy not to talk. None of this proves these other guys weren’t paid.
Makes you rethink why the University went out of there way to get an “Auburn guy” even those his resume’ stunk. Maybe they knew he wouldn’t disrupt the apple cart?
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Has everyone forgotten about Patrick Ramsey and what Terry Bowden was openly saying until Lowder paid him a handsome fee to sign a confidentiality/anti-defamation agreement just a decade or so ago. THe same power players are in charge at Auburn now. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Auburn just doesn’t care. To those good ole’ boys down there, academic intergity means nothing in comparison to hoisting a football trophy. By and large the AU fanbase has just moved on to the ‘everybody does it’ defense as justification of their program. They are free to take that position, just as everyone else is free to consider them a dirty program and their BCS championship tainted.
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And get the death penalty, which is what that program deserves.
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well, I suspect the HBO special got a few wheels in motion at the Barner that we may never hear about.. I bet it got some money flowing again and these four men are going to have a fuzzy memory on details when it comes time to chat with NCAA officials.
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“athletics had become a culture unto itself, one rampant with escalating coaches’ salaries, blatant commercialism and a “winning-is-everything” ethos that threatened the true mission of institutions of higher learning.”
saved the quote not the author…..sorry.
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No reason to protest loudly. Make your initial denial. Attack the attackers. Then ignore it. Deflect. Like Judo. Talk about the guys who weren’t paid (as if that matters). If you jump up and down, you only encourage the attacks and media stories.
The media is already doing stories like, “maybe NCAA should start paying poor hungry players.” Which is all fine and dandy, but a totally different issue. AUBURN IS PAYING PLAYERS! That’s the story! Geeze reporter guys! Go out and find a few more. They are out there. And they will be more willing to talk since all this will support their story. Unless you really believe this is the extent of the corruption.
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Mo Money, Mo Money. Mo Luv, Mo Luv. Some players may really feel they are still owed and they have not gotten enough honey as promised.
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Some players may also be upset they never got anywhere near $180,000 promised or not.
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I agree with the premise of the blog post. Auburn should start expressing outrage openly or they should just put up billboards flaunting the “perks” of playing football there.
But be careful about accusing a rival school of paying recruits, especially when your school had a lot of success recruiting against that rival. Were all those kids so noble and unmotivated by money… or did Auburn just not want them.
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The only AU player I have heard defend the program is the white fullback from the Saints. He called them liars but then went on to say he did not know for sure. The best explanation I have heard is that Auburn only paid you if you asked for it. Even then it was the boosters that handled it. Some coaches got a little sloppy and actually acted as the go between (Rodney Garner for sure). If the player didn’t ask for money then they didn’t get paid. The real problem is keeping it quiet so all the players aren’t after money.
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Maybe AU is being quiet because they know it’s going to get much worse. No sense in putting a fire out in the kitchen when the whole house is ablaze.
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Coz, everything you say is correct.
Auburn isn’t going to go after these former players who called them out because they are almost certainly not fabricating the entire thing. At some point, AU might piss off one of their present or past NFL players by calling these other guys liars. When one of those guys spills the beans, the media shitstorm will really begin.
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It’s hard to build up a lot of outrage when you know that nothing is going to happen to them. And how do we know that? The NCAA could have uncovered these Auburn guys just like they could have uncovered the Tressel cover-up at Ohio State and they could have uncovered all of this stuff about Cecil Newton’s doings. Who actually uncovered it all, and in the case of Cecil, did most of the legwork on it? The media. Reporters with no more powers of subpoena or discovery than the NCAA. Reporters who have no hammer of penalties or probation with which to threaten member institutions of the NCAA. The NCAA didn’t find out because they straight don’t want to know. That’s why nothing’s going to happen to Auburn outside of what the media can force the NCAA to do for PR damage control. So why get angry about it?
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