No News May be Bad News for Auburn.

All quiet on the western front.  It seems the daily flow of news coming from the Cam Newton investigation has stopped.  So where do we stand?  Has the investigation stopped?  The truth as usual is not as black and white as we would like. 

First we don't think the investigation has stopped.  In fact if anything we believe it is probably gaining momentem. When the NCAA comes knocking at your door , or the FBI for that matter, it's not always something you want to publicize.  Also all sides in this affair have now lawyer-ed up. Which will limit the amount they talk to the press.  In the short time this means that everyone has stopped talking.  In the long run going to be good for the investigation.  All of the lawyers will be doing what they think they need to do for their client.  If that means selling out one of the other parties involved so be it. We also feel its ominous that no one has spoken out to proclaim innocence.  When this investigation started Cecil Newton called it all a bunch of lies.  The last we heard from him was from his lawyer.  His lawyer said Cam was innocent and never took any money.  He repeated this fact several times.  He never once said Cecil was innocent.  Auburn will only state that Cam is eligable.  And what more would you expect of them?  They know they can't win out this year without Cam; and they also know that the NCAA is porbably going to hammer them.  What do they have to loose?

 The truth is that this investigation will take time.  We think the NCAA , FBI and ultimately Auburn know that Cam will eventually be ruled ineligible.   But from an Auburn stand point they have already made their bed.  And from an NCAA and FBI standpoint Cam may not be that big of a fish.  Next year Cam is going to the NFL.  All of his troubles from this year will be just a memory as he moves on to the pros.  What more can the NCAA do to him?  For the NCAA catching a booster, school, or trustee is much more important.  They will be back next year.

So why would the FBI be involved?  The FBI could be involved for any number of reasons.  The most likely is a violation of Tax code and the RICO act.  The RICO act was originally created to combat organized crime and racketeering.  RICO is like many Federal laws a very open ended and wide reaching piece of legislation. If money is involved you can almost always find a way to charge a RICO violation.   If any money did change hands it would be dangerously close to money laundering if its origins were disguised.  Also the obvious problems with receiving money and not telling the IRS about it.   The help of the FBI may be a way the NCAA is looking at going after rouge boosters, agents, and maybe even parents of athletes; rather than just the offending schools. 

So whats the outcome of all this?  We really don't see how any of this can be done before the SEC championship game.  The NCAA's unwillingness to sit a player until after an investigation has concluded has left them in a dangerous situation.   We believe that the NCAA really thought that Auburn would sit Cam and that would solve the issue.  But since they haven't it puts the NCAA in a bind.  The NCAA has no rules to allow it to make a ruling in the middle of an investigation; they must finish the investigation.  So that means that Auburn will play in the SEC championship and perhaps the national championship.  Then NCAA better hope that nothing comes out before then.  If the bowls have been set and then something damning leaked to the press it could get very ugly for the NCAA.  What would they do if everyone found out something damnabout about Auburn but knew Auburn was going to play in the national championship anyway.  It would be very ugly indeed.  Personally we think that the season will go ahead without to much more coming of this.  Then come spring it will all come flooding back to the front.  And we will see then who the real winners and losers of the 2010-11 football season were.