Cam Newton Saga: Miss. St. Admits Contacting SEC

Auburn football coach Gene Chizik declined to answer questions about an ESPN report Tuesday that said Newton told a Mississippi State recruiter that his father wanted him to go to Auburn because "the money was too much."

However, now Mississippi State is admitting it contacted the SEC in regards to "an issue" relating to Newton's recruitment, reports CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd.

One can only imagine was that "issue" was, Dodd reports. The release (see below) does clear up some time line issues. For the first time we have on the record that the SEC knew about the Newton recruitment since January.

According to the ESPN report, one of Mississippi State's recruiters said Newton's father told him it would take "more than a scholarship" for his son to attend Mississippi State. All Chizik would say about Newton yesterday is that he'll start for the second-ranked Tigers against Georgia on Saturday.

Released Wednesday afternoon from Mississippi State:

Mississippi State University acknowledges that it contacted the Southeastern Conference office in January of 2010 regarding an issue relating to its recruitment of Cam Newton.

Shortly after the initial call, the SEC office requested specific information to include interviews with involved staff from MSU.

Due to MSU dealing with ongoing and time-consuming eligibility issues involving non-football matters in the winter and spring of 2010, the specific SEC request went unfulfilled.

Some additional information was provided to the SEC during July of 2010.

Once the NCAA enforcement staff became involved, Mississippi State University cooperated fully with its investigation.

MSU is confident the SEC office has managed this process consistent with its established procedures and the university is committed to the conference's ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with SEC and NCAA rules.