Auburn Tigers Football: 5 Questions to Ponder While Watching HBO Real Sports

The Auburn Tigers did the unthinkable this season as they were lifted to new heights as the National Champions. With that enormous amount of exposure came a large amount of negative attention and an almost witch hunt style pursuit of anything and everything bad about the Auburn program.

What this has led to is a road less traveled by most modern BCS programs. Watching the 30 for 30 series that featured the SMU pay for play scheme amazed the masses as it seemed like no one could have missed the signs. The recent rise in news from the plains seems to fill the gap left by the former SMU program.

Looking at the recent release of the script from the show and dissecting comments from those that had screened the show, many questions seem to go unanswered if this is truly a truth seeking expose. The show should have gone much deeper with solutions if releasing the demons of college football were its goal.

To understand the questions that are missing answers is to further grow into the conspiracy. These questions just simply can’t be pushed aside, as the allegations sure to arise are ones that could sink the ship for good in not only Auburn, but those programs controlling the landscape of modern college football. It is not only Auburn that is implicated with handouts. Where this train will end no one seems able to predict.

So what if the allegations are true and this is simply the beginning of the dominos for major college football? If it starts at Auburn, they should be burned. If these allegations are true that other schools were involved those schools should be burned. These allegations reach beyond a statute of limitations and look quite damning.

Before your sold either way however, ponder these questions before, during and after your viewing of the special.

If the Four interviewed received funds, who else at Auburn did?

The four former Auburn players that have claimed to have received extra benefits have made some very lofty and destructive claims. If they received cash handouts, free flowing alcohol as a minor and cash for signing, who else did?

These players were not necessarily the most sought after recruits in the nation when they came to sign with Auburn or played for the Tigers. Raven Gray never saw the field as a Tiger and barely qualified out of JUCO, but he received funds to play?

Ramsey was a freshman lineman and was the least recruited of the dynamic trio that was Lee Ziemba, Ramsey and Ryan Pugh. Ramsey was good, but if he took money so did the likes of the others. His former teammates have already discredited his claims.

Numerous other players like Junior Rosegreen, Carnell Williams and Jeris McIntyre have openly stated they never received money, and their play and contribution far outweighed the four in the interviews. Finding other recipients is a must if the story has legs.

Where are the other recruits who received extra benefit?

As stated above, the claims of payment for good play are coming from every player involved. The second portion of the question and claims is recruiting practices were a problem at multiple institutions. If this is the case, who were the other recruits that were at the same places as Stanley McClover? Did no one else receive benefit to their trips to LSU, Ohio State and Michigan State?

If he was the only recruit that received benefits it would be very surprising. Kids talk on recruiting visits. Players would know where to get paid, and looking at the talent dip in the latter part of the 2000’s it is hard to believe that Auburn was paying players. If they were they need a refund with interest.

If there are indeed others that were recruited in the same fashion, they need to be named and interviewed as well. This will no doubt cause some further interest to stir in the NCAA. Who are the other teams giving extra benefits? Where are the recruits? More questions with a few less answers.

Which staff member passed cash to Reddick?

Reddick claims that he initially declined money to attend Auburn during his recruitment but then later took a money filled envelope and went with it. He stated that on multiple occasions he received envelopes full of cash.

My first question would be, why take the cash when it was offered a second time? Why not transfer? Why sign in the first place with a school that is cheating but you don’t take part? Strange to say the least.

But the allegations that a coach brought him up to his office to pass off mail which turned out to be cash could be the most damning evidence of all. Who is the coach? Why can the name of the coach that made the transaction not be released? That would be a follow up question for any level headed journalist.

Was there a lavish trail of booster donation spending?

For guys to receive book packs full of cash and not spend it is simply absurd. If you are handed hundreds to thousands of dollars as an 18 year old kid you are buying cars and everything else that you can imagine.

There doesn’t seem to be a trail of lavish spending from these players however. Looking at the interviews that have come out with former teammates of the “Fantastic Four” they seemed to beg teammates for handouts. McClover is named by teammates as asking for money. If he has uncountable stacks of cash, he isn’t asking for a five spot.

Why did HBO not interview more players from different institutions?

With the vast expanse of funds that must be at an institution like HBO, why does it seem that they didn’t seek out any more interviews than those from the former Auburn players? If you are doing journalistic justice to a story you will investigate all turns that you are given.

No stone would go unturned, so the question remains why the HBO team would not seek interviews with former coaching staffs or guys that were a part of the same process but at the other schools mentioned. Were there any former Ohio State players interviewed? What about players from the same LSU camp that Stanley McClover attended?

If this was a piece that was meant to be justified and unbiased and to show college sports for what it is, the buck cannot stop at these allegations. The national media must dig elsewhere and not just crucify Auburn but everyone involved in the allegations.

Who knows what goes on in recruiting? Few seem to know the true game but the closer we get the more the fans seem to want to pull back and say “not my school”. Well, unfortunately it just may be your school, but more facts are needed to crucify an institution than the ones that seem to be given.