We now have a denial of the reported three-person call between John Bond, who blew the whistle on the pay-to-play offer made to Mississippi State for Cam Newton’s services, Dan Mullen and Urban Meyer.

Bond spoke to an Atlanta radio station and, according to Year2 over at Team Speed Kills, denied the idea of a Florida-State conspiracy to leak the story.

He laughed when asked if Urban Meyer put him up to this. He told the Mississippi State athletics department about Rogers’s offer, and that’s the end of his involvement.

There was never a three-way phone call between him, Dan Mullen, and Meyer where the Gators coach insisted on taking this story public, as reported by some less reputable Auburn news sites.

Not that this will stop the more cynical among us — and most Auburn fans of any degree of cynicism — from believing it anyway. But since everyone is going to largely believe whatever they want to about the whole matter, there’s grist for the mill of those who doubt Meyer’s involvement.