How did I know that`d get a rise out of you Krazy ?
Well, I see these things as being connected. It literally is the fault of Auburn, Ole Miss, and the NCAA (if this is what it appears to be).
Alabama's resurgence wasn't taken well by Auburn, so they fire their coach, bring in someone with ties to the University and make one particularly high profile purchase, Cam Newton. This isn't even speculation, his dad was shopping him, a known fact, and Cam said he chose Auburn because of his dad. So, the only thing missing from the now oddly high NCAA standard of proof was the bag man, so they got away with it. One of the things I said back then though was that their getting away with it was bad for the entire SEC. It sent the wrong message, that you can do that and get away with it.
In the wake of this and the new kinder, gentler NCAA, Ole Miss suddenly starts recruiting really well. Guys with no interest in Ole Miss, uncommitted guys, people getting on board late, all the signs of guys being bought. Sure enough just like Auburn the NCAA comes sniffing around. But as of yet, nothing and Ole Miss was up to the same tricks in the last recruiting cycle. They were getting guys they shouldn't, same old same old.
So, when Bo Davis' name comes up, where do people look first? They look to the state of Mississippi. Is that supposed to be a coincidence? That the smart money would be on something going on in the state of Mississippi?
The NCAA does their job with Auburn, and I seriously doubt we're having this conversation right now. So, in light of that can I view what I have said all along as ringing hollow? Nope, because this situation was not the creation of Alabama and some of us at least were indignant over the inevitable consequences of this sort of thing. If the NCAA was supposed to do anything, it was to stop players from being bought. They didn't do that at Auburn, they didn't do that at Ole Miss, and it put Alabama and Alabama's recruiters in a bad spot. What ever this turns out to be, it couldn't have helped one bit to be in the backyard of a team that gets their recruits via dubious means.
I agree, but if you take Auburn's approach and someone turns on you, you get slammed like we did when the "booster" sent those emails from Tressel to the media and NCAA.
There are risks to either approach - cooperating and obfuscating.
Well the problem a lot of us have really goes back to the textbooks. Alabama was forthcoming, they cooperated fully, it was a pretty trivial matter. However, the NCAA was still fairly heavy handed. Contrasting that with Miami's refusal to cooperate, and Auburn's refusal to cooperate, and it showed you can get away with pretty much anything now as long as you don't admit guilt. So, if this is minor and didn't involve any active players, yeah I think cooperating will make it go away with no meaningful impact. But, if it was more serious Alabama darn well better know when to clam up.