Auburn's Issues Sound Familiar

As you no doubt know by now, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumble will air a report tonight that puts at least 4 Auburn players on record as having received payment from Auburn and other schools. SportsByBrooks has transcripts from the TV show, and an updated article with more color about Auburn's potential next steps.

Clearly there is blood in the water.

Before you watch tonight's broadcast, I highly recommend watching this 60 Minutes Special from 1991 regarding Eric Ramsey's tapes. Those tapes lead to Auburn being banned from TV and Bowls in 1993 as they proved Ramsey was paid to play football at Auburn. The entire pay for performance program described in this video sounds fairly similar to the upcoming HBO story.



Remember -- none of this has anything to do with Cam Newton. Except that a lot of people who hate Auburn are looking for a reason to kick the hell out of the Tigers. If they can't bust them for CamGate, they'll bust them for something else.

Here is what I believe to be true:

1. Auburn was alleged to have paid kids up to $1,000 per month during the 1989 season and prior. They were also put on probation for violations of that exact nature. Many of the same boosters referenced in that 60 Minutes video are still around the AU program.

2. $1k/month is obviously $12k a year. If you would give a kid $12k a year for up to 4 years in '89, then giving a kid $50k up front in 2010 isn't tough to put your head around. It's actually a good deal by comparison.

3. It's not the easiest thing in the world to give someone $50k in cash. To move that sort of money around...as was alleged by Mississippi State in regards to Newton ...takes a proven infrastructure. People don't just that kind of cash to kids without knowing for damn sure that it'll land in the right spot AND that their risk of being implicated (barring a confession) is minimal.

4. You can't logically expect that an alumni group powerful and successful enough to invest $150k or more in a single player wouldn't protect that investment with additional investments of $25k-50k in ultra high quality players to surround him.

5. If Newton's dad thought he could get $180k from AU, there's no way he stopped asking after the first bidder said no.

6. If Newton's dad had asked for only $50k, Mississippi State would've been the 2010 SEC Champs and Gene Chizik's tenure in Auburn would be on life support.

Auburn may never get pinched for the Cam Newton debacle. Fine.

But it's becoming more and more clear that the money movement infrastructure that Auburn created and leveraged to turn around their program in the late 80s is back in business today as alleged by the 4 former players and the HBO special. And it's even more clear that certain other members of the SEC have passed the tipping point in their tolerance for Auburn's shenanigans.

So the question is simple. Will the NCAA finally attempt to cripple that infrastructure? Because it's not about Cam Newton now. It's way past that.

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Most impressive sign for S&C

My reaction was the exact same as Blutarsky's when I saw the pic of Kwame Geathers in the Banner Herald.  And that reaction was..."wow."  Or more specifically, "Who is THAT dude."

I haven't posted about Spring Practice until now, and I'll tell you why.  Because every Spring it's always the same.  "This is the best Spring we've ever had. Team chemistry is at an all time high.  We've got such great leaders. Last year, we had too many distractions.  Too many selfish guys and not enough participation in our conditioning drills / off season workouts  This year, we're working hard and participation is almost 100%.  The off season workouts were the best ever.  Man, oh man, we're in shape and ready to GATA."

I put nothing into the sound bytes this time of year.  But...but that photo of Geathers is no joke. It gives me pause.  If he's building endurance for that body, he'll be something.

It's hard not to get intrigued when you see that.

PWD

Don't blow this

UGA announced yesterday that they are relaxing tailgate restrictions on North Campus. Most of the changes make sense ... allowing you to tailgate for 5 hours instead of 4 and bringing tents and tables back.

But I still don't get why they haven't banned Styrofoam coolers. If they allow disposable equipment on campus and continually fail to provide adequate trash cans, why are they shocked that drunk people make such a mess? I'm not justifying the mess. I'm just saying...they aren't playing to the strengths and weaknesses of their target audience.

Also no word on trailers being allowed back on campus. Here's hoping that eventually gets resolved.

PWD

Mark Bradley proves my point

There's a ton of talent in this state for basketball.

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The Door is Open...just walk through it

Nothing accelerates a change in the power structure within a conference like coaching changes...regardless of the sport. There's only so many wins to go around. UF fans point to Spurrier's arrival as their defining moment, but it didn't hurt that Dooley retired, Dye went on probation and LSU fell off a cliff.

You could argue the same with Richt's arrival in Athens. It didn't hurt that Spurrier resigned, Bama was in disarray and Fulmer was wildly erratic.

In hoops, Coach Fox has a massive window of opportunity.

• Georgia Tech's in state recruiting machine is on hold with the departure of Coach Hewitt.
  
• Tennessee is in purgatory pending their NCAA verdict, and they just lost arguably their most successful coach in history.
  
• With the exception of Mike Anderson at Arkansas, the coaching in the SEC West is average at best.

Sure...Calipari has Kentucky rolling, Donovan isn't going anywhere, and Stallings is the model of consistency. But there's enough wins to go around to deal with the rest of the league.

And we geography on our side.

The 2012 recruiting class has overwhelming in state talent. The Rivals Top 150 for 2012 has 14 in state players as well as two more Georgia natives playing at Oak Hill in Virginia. 10 of those 16 kids are ranked in the Top 100.

As a point of comparison, these states have the following Top 150 counts:

14 - Texas (High Major schools in state: 4 + TCU)
12 - California (High Major schools in state: 4)
7 - Florida (High Major schools in state: 4)
5 - PA (High Major schools in state: 3)
5 - OH (High Major Schools in state: 2 + Xavier)
5 - MI (High Major Schools in State: 2)
3 - Illinois (High Major schools in state: 2)
3 - NY (High Major schools in state: 2)
2 - NJ (High Major schools in state: 2)

The reason I picked those states was based on their population rank: (Per Wikipedia as of '08)

1. California - 37.1 million
2. Texas - 25.1 million
3. New York - 19.3 million
4. Florida - 18.8 million
5. Illinois - 12.8 million
6. Pennsylvania - 12.7 million
7. Ohio - 11.5 million
8. Michigan - 9.8 million
9. Georgia - 9.6 million

With less than 1/3 the population of California, we have more in state talent. Now...someone will shoot back "Yeah, but everyone recruits Georgia." Well...no kidding. Everyone recruits NY, NJ, CA and Texas, too.

Some of our biggest competition for in state talent the past few years has been Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Alabama. We have invested more in facilities than those guys ($45 million in basketball over the past 5 years). Our coaching staff is at least as stable if not more so than those. And our basketball team advanced as far or further in the tourney last year.

Get them to sign on the line that is dotted.

By the way -- I'm hearing good things about our chances with Kevin Ware, the former Tennessee signee who is ranked #56 overall in the 2011 recruiting class by Rivals.com, and he's a Top 15 guy at his position (Shooting Guard). The Vols, with the SEC's encouragement, will likely end up giving him a full release the way UGA gave Mohamed Abukar a full release to sign with UF after the Harrick saga.

Additionally, our chances are decent to land Ari Stewart as a transfer from Wake. Stewart is a 6'7" 205 lb sophomore forward who averaged 8.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game last year. He's transferring after finding life miserable on the 8-24 Demon Deacons. His points and rebounds were a little higher until things went sour in Feb. with his coach. Coming out of HS, Stewart was the #52 ranked prospect in the nation. He would have to sit out a year if he transferred.

As far as scholarships available, Georgia looks to have 1 scholarship available for 2011 signees as Connor Nolte (Jr.), former walk-on, is most likely on a year to year deal. Plus, we may get Trey and/or Travis scholarship.

If we needed an additional scholarship for 2011, we have a transfer candidate in Vincent Williams. Williams averaged 5.7 minutes in 20 games of our 33 games. Williams only played in 10 of 23 games against High Major teams plus Temple and Xavier. Kids are pretty smart. If they think you're recruiting way over them, they know what to do.

For 2012, we have scholarships from Conner, Gerald, Dustin, Trey and Travis, and that assumes no additional attrition.

The point ... the door is open. We no longer have a facilities excuse, a university commitment excuse, a rodeo excuse, or an excuse related to the tenure of our own coach vs. that of our rivals.

Now is the time to close the deal on a monster class. Separately...I hear great rumblings towards William "Shaq" Goodwin (PF Ranked #20 nationally by Rivals), Jordan Adams (SG/SF ranked #55 nationally by Rivals) and Evan Nolte (SF ranked #59 nationally by Rivals). Those guys would form the core of a very good class, but we'll need a Center and a PG, too.

PWD

Jay Rome and Malcolm Mitchell Video

More Isaiah Crowell Video

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