The Newton Saga...

I guess it is my time to chime in on the never-ending saga of Cam Newton and his recruitment. First, I will say that he is clearly the best player in the nation and the most valuable to his team. Watching him this year it is very evident how good he is and he showed it again vs Georgia yesterday. Without Cam, Auburn is a 6-8 win team, so his value can not be overstated.

Now, to the issue...It seems more likely each day that Cam's Dad, Cecil Newton, solicited money from Mississippi State for his son's signature. Once that gets out (Mark Winne is reporting it is already out), Cam will be deemed ineligible to participate in NCAA football games.

Auburn was informed that there was an eligibility issue with Newton before the UGA game and chose to play him anyway. If he sat out, Auburn could argue they had no knowledge of the eligibility issue for the 1st 10 games of the year (similar to what OSU did with Mo Clarett) and not have to vacate and wins.

Auburn's thinking is, "Lets just play it out and see what happens, we aren't going to sit our superstar if we don't have to." They had a chance to win 2 games against their rivals who have been looking down on them the last few years (UGA 6 of 8 and Bama BCS champs) and did what they had to do to get the wins. UGA and Bama clearly beat Auburn without their Heisman front-runner, and AU chose to get the wins and let the fans enjoy this dream season for another week.

On another note, Nick Fairley is easily the dirtiest player I have ever seen in college football. Then, on top of his 5+ cheap shots (he actually hurt his shoulder trying to land one) he acts like a complete idiot running around posing with Trooper "hundred dollar handshake" Taylor. Wow.

Auburn got the win yesterday by out-playing UGA. Congrats. I am extremely relieved that the players and coaches representing AU are not associated with mine. I also hope they write that "W" in the record books in pencil...

RSM Poll 11/14

1. Oregon
2. Auburn
3. TCU
4. Boise State
5. Stanford
6. LSU
7. Wisconsin
8. Nebraska
9. Ohio State
10. Michigan State
11. Alabama
12. Arkansas
13. Virginia Tech
14. Oklahoma State
15. Missouri
16. Oklahoma
17. South Carolina
18. Texas A&M
19. Mississippi State
20. Nevada
21. USC
22. Northwestern
23. Arizona
24. Florida State
25. Iowa