http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2011/7/20 ... n-finebaum
"Paul Finebaum had the USA Today's Danny Sheridan on as a guest this afternoon, and Sheridan says the NCAA thinks it has found the bag man who helped Auburn pay for Cam Newton. I didn't catch the whole thing and the replay's not up yet, but this is news big enough to post it now and update later."
Most of what I have to go on right now is a series of tweets from Finebaum's Twitter feed. Here are the bullet points:
The NCAA investigation of Auburn ramped up after the Destin incident. Be careful what you wish for, Gene Chizik.
This is a quote from Sheridan: "As I understand it, the NCAA is trying to get an alleged 3rd person or bag man to come forward."
Sheridan reports that the investigation is all about Auburn and not about Mississippi State.
If the NCAA can put it all together, major sanctions will come along with vacation of the national championship and Heisman.
Sheridan closed by reiterating that the NCAA thinks it knows the "third party" who put up the money to pay for Newton's signature.
Obviously this is huge news. I'll try to update this as soon as Finebaum's web site posts the audio from the interview.
http://podcasting.fia.net/6960/4807908.mp3
"The total amount is approximately $180-200K, with $20-30K having gone to the church. Sheridan has "no idea" if this is true."
Sheridan closes by saying the "they [the NCAA] think they know the third party, and they think they know the party that put up the money." That means the NCAA is looking at two entities here: someone who allegedly financed this alleged deal and someone who allegedly carried out this alleged deal. If the NCAA can remove the four "allegedly" instances out of that statement, Auburn's in deep trouble.
UPDATE 2
In a later segment, Sheridan calls the alleged financier of the deal a "wealthy supporter of Auburn." That means someone the NCAA will define as a booster, and that means (if true) we're in Albert Means territory at the least.
I actually hope nothing comes of this...
