Cowherd: ‘Major program to be outed for major recruiting violations’

Earlier today, an Alabama radio host continued his interview onslaught by reiterating claims that, based on audio tapes he’s heard, Auburn and Tennessee offered a sizable chunk of change to the father of Cam Newton in order to secure the now-former Tiger quarterback’s services.

Apparently, another major college football program is on the verge of being “outed” for allegedly committing significant recruiting violations.

On his ESPN radio program Tuesday afternoon -- the 30:00 mark in this clip -- Colin Cowherd tap-danced around rumors that we’ve been hearing for the past few days, that a top-10 program will be the subject of an, for lack of a better word, exposé by a very recognizable media entity in the coming days. Here’s Cowherd’s minute-long monologue on what would be a seismic development if proven true:

I received an interesting text about 10 days ago, and this should be very frightening if you’re a fan of college football, that a major program in this country is going to be outed very soon for major recruiting violations. It is a top 10-12 program. I know what I think it is according to both my sources; I received another tip last night. I went to Vince Doria, who is sort of the journalistic editor at this company. He had heard the exact same thing. We are pursuing this story with vigor. A major publication is about to unseat a major college football power on recruiting violations. I will tell you from my source, it is not -- it is not -- Auburn. I will leave it at that. It is a major program and a major publication. When we can validate more... I have not been able to validate it nor has this company. We’re both pursuing it.

Shortly after Cowherd’s words hit the airwaves, John Canzano of The Oregonian was contacted by, he writes, “several national college football writers after those early rumors began to point at the University of Oregon being that program.” An Oregon source denied they are the football program in question.

Made some calls. A reliable source high in the athletic department said everyone there was “surprised” to hear about the rumors. They have not been contacted by the NCAA on this matter, nor anyone else.

Said source: “We haven’t heard a peep from the NCAA. If there was something going on, we’d typically hear about it way beforehand.”

Ducks coach Chip Kelly said he was also unaware of any violations. Kelly attributed the rumors to the program’s recent national success. Said Kelly, “We’re going to have to endure some of this.”

For the record, Oregon is not the school we have heard connected to these rumors. Nor is it Auburn. Nor will we mention the school’s name we’ve heard floated around as it’s not been remotely confirmed.

Suffice to say, though, it’s going to be a very interesting next week or so around the [school redacted] campus if the rumors come to fruition and the allegations that are currently making the rounds are published.