Auburn’s Gene Chizik was watching his language, and trying to avoid dealing with a four-letter word: NCAA.

The throng of reporters was more concerned in what college sports’ governing body was going to do (if anything) to his program, and less about the team itself or its prospects for this season.

The Auburn head football coach addressed reporters Thursday at the 2011 SEC Media Days at the Riverchase Galleria’s Wynfrey Hotel.

Chizik, having aroused the ire of the folks in Indianapolis already by declaring that the investigation into the Cam Newton affair was over, was circumspect in the extreme — especially since details of a conference with NCAA officials at the SEC spring meeting in Destin, Fla. had leaked out.

“It was a real simple question of process to Julie [Roe Lach], who happens to be the head of NCAA enforcement, so I thought there would be nobody better to ask Chizik said Thursday. “There were some clarifications that were made that had to do with process.”

Chizik also addressed claims by sports handicapper Danny Sheridan regarding a “third-party bagman” who helped recruit Newton.

“I’ll make this real clear. The NCAA on more than one occasion has said that Auburn has done nothing wrong in the recruitment of Cam Newton. Nothing’s changed,” Chizik said.

While saying as little as possible for as long as possible about the NCAA, Chizik did manage to get in a few words about his defending national champions, and the Tigers’ rivalry with Alabama — which made headlines with the attempt to kill the historic trees at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn.

“If there’s one thing I could impart to everybody is that if our fan base had as much respect for each other as the coaches and the players, then I think you’d see, you know, less of these things happen,” Chizik said.