Mike Slive, Mississippi State Talk Cam Newton

Mike Slive talked with the Clarion-Ledger today about the current Cameron Newton ordeal. He didn't say a whole lot, other than express his disappointment in the proceedings and to reinforce that the SEC is not an investigative body. He apparently wasn't happy about the big gap between Mississippi State's original report last January and its follow up report in July.

He also mentioned that if Mississippi State employees leaked anything to the media, the school could face sanctions from the conference. After all, the SEC has rules requiring that schools not leak information about investigations to the media.

Also this evening, Mississippi State athletics director Scott Stricklin put out a new statement.

"During the recruitment of a football prospective student-athlete, Mississippi State was approached with an offer to provide an extra benefit. This offer was refused.

"MSU alerted the Southeastern Conference about the offer. MSU did not have any specific incriminating information about any other school, and thus could not provide any.

"As Commissioner Slive mentioned today, the SEC is not an investigative body. MSU has cooperated fully and completely with the NCAA from the time it began asking for our assistance, and looks forward to providing any and all help in this ongoing investigation."

The prospective student-athlete is obviously Newton.

The big news here is that Mississippi State, the institution, is going on the record accusing someone in the Newton camp of requesting money. It's no longer just Kenny Rogers, John Bond, and Bill Bell on the public record saying that.

The only real new information here is that Mississippi State didn't implicate Auburn in any of its reports. Even then, it's not that big a revelation because I can't remember seeing anyone suggest that MSU turned Auburn in over anything.