Are the Auburn Gates Beginning To Open? ESPN Confirms Part of Wednesday's Story

((ht: espn.com))

So, most football fans south of the Ohio have been caught up in the implications swirling after a scathing report claimed all kinds of improprieties surrounding the Auburn Tigers football team.

The report on a "new" website, run by a former New York Times reporter and Auburn alum quoted multiple football players accusing the school of paying players, fixing grades and essentially institutional racism.

We voiced our thoughts on that story by Serena Roberts on Roopstigo.com earlier today.


You can read the original story by Roberts, RIGHT HERE

There were many accusations in Roberts story, including that the school protected multiple players who failed drug tests before the 2010 National Championship game.

And today (Friday) comes a follow up story by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" explaining how the school kept drug tests confidential and was fully aware of multiple players using synthetic marijuana and did nothing about it.

You can read that story RIGHT HERE\

And yes, we'll direct this paragraph to brother Jon. While the ESPN.com story does not validate the entire Serena Roberts story, it confirms a portion of it.

And Auburn AD Jay Jacobs confirmed it. (The marijuana part)

So, the takeaway from this is simple: Auburn played the 2010 Championship Game with players that arguably shouldn't have been eligible. Yet they were.

By no means are we implying Auburn is the only school that looked around the "Synthetic Marijuana" issue. There were reports that same year that Georgia looked away from then star tailback Isiah Crowell's positive result for the same drug the week before the Georgia/Florida game.

Here's our initial story RIGHT HERE

We had been told that Crowell was the player in question, but nobody would at the time confirm it. Crowell and 2 other players were suspended the following week...vs. New Mexico State.

You can read that story RIGHT HERE

Our point here is this: There have been some questions about the Selena Roberts report. Several have said she "Has a vendetta" "She's looking for revenge". And maybe that is a factor in her reporting, which focuses around former Auburn Safety Mike McNeil. But as time passes, confirmation of the story is beginning to surface.

If the drug test/abuse allegations are true, than what other parts are? Yeah, sure, most in the SEC world are saying "So what, everybody does stuff like this". And they may be right. But Auburn is again in the spotlight for it.

Expect an NCAA Investigation for what that is worth (another). And expect it to probably not get anywhere.

But we've said all along, "Where there's smoke, there is fire" and it sure sounds like that's beginning to hold very, very true.