NCAA reportedly investigating the recruitment of Auburn's Cam Newton

According to initial reports from Bryan Fischer of Yahoo! and Pete Thamel of the New York Times, and with much greater detail provided by ESPN.com, the NCAA is currently investigating the recruitment of Newton, specifically whether a person associated with Newton or his family solicited money from schools in order to obtain the services of the quarterback following his JUCO stint.

From ESPN.com:

During the height of star quarterback Cameron Newton‘s recruitment out of junior college last year, a man saying he represented Newton allegedly was soliciting a six-figure payment to secure his signature on a national letter-of-intent, ESPN.com has learned. Former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond told ESPN.com that a teammate of Bond’s at Mississippi State in the early 1980s contacted him soon after Newton’s official visit to Mississippi State during the Ole Miss game in December, and said he was representing Newton. “He said it would take some cash to get Cam,” Bond said. “I called our athletic director, Greg Byrne, and he took it from there. That was pretty much it.” Multiple sources told ESPN.com that Mississippi State called the SEC office with Bond’s information shortly after he brought it to the attention of the school.

Sources told ESPN.com that the former teammate is Kenny Rogers, who played at Mississippi State from 1982-85. Rogers operates a Chicago-based company called Elite Football Preparation, which holds camps in Chicago, Alabama and Mississippi. A Lexis search for that business lists Kenneth Rogers as the contact and his title as “agent.” A Birmingham News story from 2008 said Elite Football Preparation “matches high school athletes with college programs.”

Newton’s father, the pastor of a Newnan, Ga., church, denied any knowledge of the situation, telling ESPN.com that "if Rogers tried to solicit money from Mississippi State, he did it on his own."

The NCAA requested financial records from the Newtons "about a month ago". The SEC was informed of the specific allegations in late July.