The Goat Pen

It's over.

The wide ranging media campaign to smear Auburn and Cam Newton and discredit our national championship has failed.

To the Miss.State boosters who tried to buy Cam, and failed, and then tried to shift the blame to Auburn...

To those who said the cell phone records would produce texts proving Auburn coaches paid Cam...

To those who said the financial records of Cecil's church would show big deposits traceable back to Auburn...

To Scott Moore, who said he would play "secret tapes" on his radio show, which would prove Cam knew about Cecil's sales pitch...

To those who said the FBI had wiretaps of Milton McGregor would caught him in the act of paying for Cam, and assured us all that he would blow the whistle on Auburn cheating to save his own hide..

Ditto for Bobby Lowder...

To HBO, whose TV special paraded ex-Auburn football players claiming to receive cash for their services, which everybody said would doom us with the NCAA...

To the writers of numerous ESPN and NYT articles which assured everybody that the NCAA had all the evidence they needed to keep Cam from playing in the Iron Bowl, and then the SECCG, and then the BCSCG,...

To the same ESPN and NYT articles that said Auburn shouldn't bother unpacking the trophy because we'd have to give it back in a few weeks...

To Bama grad and Vegas bookie Danny Sheridan, who claimed to have an "inside source" in the NCAA, which told him the NCAA had "identified the bagman" who paid Auburn players, and he would name names as soon as his lawyer gave him permission...

To the NCAA representative, addressing a meeting of all the SEC coaches, who allegedly snapped at Chizik saying "We'll let you know when our investigation of Auburn is over, and it's not over," thereby proving impending bad news for Auburn...

To Paul Finebaum, who made sure everyone within the sound of his voice got a steady diet of all the above every day, saying where's this much smoke, there must be fire"...

To all of the above assorted scumbags...

NCAA Staff Report Clears Auburn Football

http://auburn.scout.com/2/1116728.html

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A preview of this Sunday's sermon Prof?

I caught part of the Tim Brando radio show earlier today (which is horrible, BTW) and Paul Finebaum was on as a guest (I already said it was horrible). He said that Alabama fans are pissed that Auburn didn't get slammed and that they need to get over it and realize that it's better that an SEC team isn't getting punished. I laughed when I thought of all of those Bama fans up in arms. I could just hear them whining about how the NCAA is so unfair and how they've suffered and everyone else should, too.

Yes, the imaginary Bama fans in your mind are up in arms!

Anytime the SEC gets put on probation it makes us look bad and makes it easier for the NCAA to justify overreaction and increased scrutiny in the conference.

Glad it's over and nothing worse than being drug through them mud happened.

The alleged comment by the NCAA rep wasn't alleged. Too many sports media outlets had that one as opening lines.

I really couldn't care less if Cam got paid. There should be some sort of stipend in place (not necessarily 180 large) for all student athletes. After all, they can't even get a part time job, and that's not fair. I know they get room and board, tuition, books and meals. They also bust their colllective asses on the field/court and in the classroom to maintain that scholorship.

My only issue with the whole scenario lies with the SEC and NCAA...Representative of said person(Dad) asks for any extra benefits(big dollar signs) they are deemed to lose all eligibility. It's a rule. Don't like it? Get it changed.

Once Cecil went all honest and admitted to asking for money to steer Cam to whichever school, AU or not, his eligibility is over by SEC by-laws.

and Paul Finebaum was on as a guest (I already said it was horrible). He said that Alabama fans are pissed that Auburn didn't get slammed

I laughed when I thought of all of those Bama fans up in arms.

Yeah, I hear there was a wave of wife beatings and dog kickings in trailer parks across the state of Alabama last night.

I almost forgot:

WE...ARE... BULLETPROOF!!!

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Time to shoot tiger.

Nah. I'm just... how did you put it?..."using my leverage while I still can?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

WE...ARE...BULLETPROOF!!!

Professor Tiger wrote:

and Paul Finebaum was on as a guest (I already said it was horrible). He said that Alabama fans are pissed that Auburn didn't get slammed

I laughed when I thought of all of those Bama fans up in arms.

Yeah, I hear there was a wave of wife beatings and dog kickings in trailer parks across the state of Alabama last night.

Just to be clear, it was this Finebaum character who said Bammer fans were up in arms -- not me. I live in Oregon, so I wouldn't have any first-hand knowledge of how they are reacting. But it strains credulity to think that some Bammer fans aren't disappointed, especially when you consider how much they whine about the unfairness of the NCAA.

1) Finebaum? The Tennessee alum?

2) Bammer? Clever for a Tenerse Val! (hahah, cracks me up!).

3) There is no doubt that the NCAA has a checkered past on how they treated southern teams. Very disparate. That is not conjecture or opinion, it is fact and was proved in a case-by-case comparison of punishments meted. That said, there is decent evidence that the NCAA has reversed that trend because of the three high profile cheating cases (Tennessee, LSU and Auburn), 2 teams were treated fairly and 1 was cleared- which is certainly good news for this confernce as a whole.

Today's "Who Sucks Less Bowl" between AU and UF will be interesting. The first question is who has the worse QB? Florida's true freshman, with zero game experience, playing his first game on the road in the SEC? Or Barrett Trotter, a junior with adequate game experience, but reminds me of Rex Grossman as a Chicago Bear, throwing to receivers who couldn't catch a cold.

Florida's defense is clearly better than ours. (Although we have moved up from #106 to #105 in the country). They certainly don't have to respect our passing game, so they can load the box and be the first team to stuff Dyer this year. I don't see us scoring many points.

Florida 17 Auburn 10

"who sucks less bowl". Heh.

That was a satisfying win.

I'm glad that the coaches sent in Mosely. It was time. He did a pretty decent job.

Our defense is improving rapidly. It didn't hurt that we were playing a team that can't pass, just like us. But we are tackling much better and starting to put real pressure on the QB.

I am proud of this team for winning two games in October. The coaching staff and players stayed within their capabilities, played mistake free football and found a way to win.

Now that we have five wins, we are within reach of a better bowl than Shreveport. I figure we beat Ole Miss and Samford. Maybe even Georgia. A 7 or 8 win season would be a big achievement, and might sneak us into something like the Music City or Peach.

I see Auburn as 8-4. I think you drop LSU and Bama (in a close game) but win the rest. Considering what Chizik lost from 2010, that is phenomenal. He can coach.

I agree we'll lose to LSU and Alabama, and we'll beat Samford and Ole Miss.

Georgia is the question mark. They are a team of very talented but unmotivated head cases. If they get their act together against us, they will beat us soundly. Or they could just remain in a stupor and we'll win. Revenge for Fairley's abuse of Murray last year could cause them to spontaneously focus.

8-4.

Book it.

I hope you're right. I love beating Georgia, especially in Athens.

Congrats, you have a QB that can hit an open receiver downfield, and offense that can at least occasionally run the ball.