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Auburn defeated South Carolina in the Georgia Dome, 56-17 to win the Southeastern Conference Championship. The undefeated Tigers (13-0) will now play Oregon (12-0)for the Bowl Championship Series National Championship in Glendale, Arizona. Kickoff for the January 10th game is set for 8:30 pm est and will be broadcast by ESPN.
Junior quarterback Cam Newton was named MVP of the game following his record setting performance. Newton accounted for six touchdowns as he completed 17 of 28 passes for a career-high 335 yards and 4 touchdowns, he rushed 14 times for 73 yards and 2 TD’s. Wide receiver Darvin Adams caught 7 passes for a record 217 yards.
Auburn’s offense rolled up 589 yards of total offense while the Gamecocks accounted for 349 yards, 193 in the air and 156 on the ground.
Newton’s performance solidified his winning the Heisman Trophy in New York next week.
Newton faced the media for the first time since the firestorm of controversy over his eligibility began last month, he and head coach Gene Chizik refused to answer any questions concerning the pay for play scheme. Newton was declared ineligible last Tuesday and then had his eligibility restored the next day by the NCAA.
The actions of the NCAA and the SEC pertaining to the ruling makes very little sense to anyone other than Auburn fans. The integrity of all college athletics was compromised.
Cecil Newton broke the rules, he knew it was against the rules before he did it, no one denies that fact and he didn’t hesitate to propose a payment plan. The absurd statement from the SEC that he only solicited the money and didn’t have an agreement to accept the cash is based on their assumption that we are all idiots.
The next time you are approached by a panhandler asking for a dollar, ask him if he needs a “handshake agreement” before you give him the cash. If SEC Commissioner Mike Slive is afraid to enforce a rule because none of his predecessors have done so, he is too weak to hold the job and needs to be replaced immediately.
It has always been against the rules for a player or their family to solicit any type of extra benefit and it didn’t matter if the player was directly involved or knew of the solicitation. The penalty has always been a suspension, denial or revocation of eligibility and a new rule is not needed. What is needed is the leadership at both organizations with the gumption to enforce the existing rules without the consideration of a potential financial windfall. The money will always be there, once the integrity of the game is lost it’s gone forever.
On a personal note, the thing that upsets me the most about the entire fiasco is that the Newton's, the NCAA and the SEC took something from me…..I am less of a college football fan today than I was last Saturday……and that hurts.
I think you are extremely naive to not realize that this goes on every single day especially in the big division 1 schools. As a parent of a highly recruited athlete, if a school program really wants a particular athlete, they will do most anything to get him. Now, we are probably talking about the really elite athletes, but as we all know, there are quite a few of those out there. And there have been for many years. Unfortunately, Cam Newton was just the latest great athlete to break the rules and get caught. There are many many more, that are never revealed. That is sports, politics, life in general in the world in which we live. And it has been going on for decades. And the Cam Newton story will not be the last. There will be many more to come in the future.
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