Some Rumors And Some Facts Regarding The Newton Family...

I don't know if anything will come of the recent rumors surrounding Cam Newton and the NCAA investigation but lets take a look at the facts and rumors. First off, the rumors swirling around on the net. I'm not going to repeat whats already been said in Flint's previous post, but here are some things swirling around that maybe you haven't heard yet:

For those of you that don't know, Cam Newton's father is Bishop Cecil Netwton.

1. Bishop Cecil Newton's church, The Holy Zion Center of Deliverance, was not up to city code last year and was in danger of being shut down unless renovations were made to bring the building up to code. Funding was eventually found for the renovations and there is a lot of speculation that the funding came by way of a "donation" by Auburn University.

2. Bishop Cecil Newton also owns a small trucking company that has recently expanded. The expansion of the company is also rumored to be the product of a "donation" by Auburn University.

3. I've even heard a rumor about a meeting between Urban Meyer, Dan Mullen, and former Mississippi State QB John Bond regarding whether or not to go public with the news about Kenny Rogers shopping Cam Newton around. According to the rumor, Mullen wanted to keep it quiet because he knew how bad it could get for everyone involved. On the other hand, Urban Meyer wanted the story to go public.

Of course all of these are rumors. There is nothing to confirm whether or not any of this is true. However, there are a couple of facts that sort of coincide with a couple of the rumors:

Fact 1: In 2009, Cecil Newton was struggling to keep his church open due to the fact it was not up to snuff on the building codes. There was a point in time that the city came very close to closing the church down. However, suddenly in September 2009 (the same month and year John Bond reported the allegations), Bishop Cecil Newton told the city that he could have the church up to code within six months. Newton signed with Auburn in January 2010. Make of that what you will.

Fact 2: On November 1st Sports Illustrated broke the story that Cam Newton actually wanted to attend Mississippi State, but ultimately let his father make the decision for him. Obviously, his father chose Auburn. Here is what was written in SI:

Last December the choice of which college to attend came down to two schools—Auburn and Mississippi State. Newton preferred Starkville because of his close relationship with Bulldogs coach Dan Mullen, who had been Newton's offensive coordinator at Florida. But Cecil thought his son should choose Auburn, which had an experienced offensive line (four starters were returning) and was only a two-hour drive from Atlanta. Newton let his father make the final decision, and a few days before Christmas, while sitting at the dinner table in his brother's house in Jacksonville, Cecil Sr. uttered two words that would radically alter the college football landscape: "It's Auburn."

Here's an interesting question that Flint pointed out:

Why did the SEC sit on this story for a year? John Bond reported all of this in September 2009 but the SEC didn't notify Auburn until July 2010. Why the long wait???

Undoubtedly there will be more rumors and facts that are uncovered on Friday. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes out of any of this. From what we know so far, there is nothing to prove that Cam Newton or Auburn University did anything wrong. But this morning we were not aware of an ongoing NCAA investigation of Cam Newton either.

A lot can change in a day. The next few days will be interesting.