Newton allegations could affect Auburn’s title hopes


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USC could cost the Auburn Tigers a national championship for the second time this decade.

No, the Trojans won’t be playing in the BCS title game. The sanctions handed down by the NCAA in June prohibit USC from playing in any postseason game through the end of the 2011 season. But as one writer for ArkansasSports360.com suggests, those sanctions could play a role in how the ultimate fate the 2010 Auburn Tigers is decided.

In an article published the Arkansas sports-centered website, author T.J. Carpenter explains that the recent allegations against Auburn’s star quarterback Cameron Newton — charges that include a representative of Newton’s demanding a six-figure payment to secure Newton’s signature on a national letter-of-intent — could affect how the NCAA and its voters rank the Tigers at season’s end.

“Voting for Auburn [for No. 1], putting support behind Newton, keeps the story in the public eye,” Carpenter wrote. “You can count on voters looking for other candidates for the Heisman Trophy and No.1 team in the country.”

Carpenter based his argument on his belief that the NCAA would not want to deal with taking away another illegally obtained national championship, thus avoiding “[having] egg on their face.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about college football in the past few years it’s this,” Carpenter wrote. “College football would rather insulate itself from blame and hide its seedy underbelly at all costs than actively attempt to change the business of its sport for the better.”

Auburn is currently the No. 2 ranked team in the nation in both the BCS and AP national polls.