Auburn Spent $260,000 To Prove It Didn’t Spend $180,000 On Cam Newton

Remember when Auburn (or the NCAA, whatever f-k you) suspended Cam Newton for one day and then reinstated him so he could play in the SEC title game? Turns out they didn’t need to do that because the NCAA declared Wednesday that the Auburn football program committed no major violations in the recruiting of Cam Newton from junior college.

You may also remember that Cam’s father, Cecil, allegedly asked for somewhere around $180,000 from Mississippi State for Cam’s services before he finally committed to Auburn. That, of course, raised the question as to exactly what Auburn did to get the eventual Heisman Trophy winner and national champion quarterback to move to The Plains.

At the time, this was a huge deal since Auburn was undefeated and Newton was being his amazing self. Little did we know this was just the tip of the iceberg in the 2010-2011 offseason in terms of scandals for college football programs. At the time it felt like the future national champion was super-cheating and no one would stop it. Yeah, well, our bad.

That said, it was this part of the AP article that caught my eye:

Auburn spent $183,667 in attorney’s fees on the Newton case and $82,463 for the other investigation through August, the university said Wednesday in response to an August 18 opens records request from The Associated Press.

That’s $266,130 in legal fees to prove they didn’t spend $180,000 to illegally recruit Cam Newton. What a country!

So how pissed is Auburn right now? I mean sure, that’s chump change to SEC programs, but what I mean is they might as well have spent the money on Cam Newton because the NCAA and the press made them do it anyway…and then some.

Or maybe they just haven’t given it to Cam Newton YET. Hang on while I get my Conspiracy Theory Hat.

Maybe Auburn realized there’s no way they could give the money to Cam Newton while he was being recruited because his dad went full retard and outright asked an athletic program for money. Even in the laissez-faire 1980′s and 90′s, when programs like SMU and Miami got away with everything but murder, you couldn’t just ASK for money like that. You had to be sneaky about it. Just show the boosters that you were open to it and that would be good enough.

Maybe Auburn is giving the money to Cam Newton now. That way no one will ever track where Cam Newton got an extra $180,000 since he’s getting paid number-one-pick money anyway, and then Newton can use that money for something good or “good” in case it’s for purely selfish purposes.

I’m basing this on absolutely nothing, of course, but it makes a crazy kind of sense. Especially for those out there who believe the Newtons and Auburn just HAD to cheat to get that much success in one year. After all, Oregon was apparently dirty that whole time. Auburn had to be too, right?

Then again, maybe Auburn and the Newtons really didn’t do anything wrong and the 2010 Tigers are something of a Cinderella story after all. But after Ohio State, Oregon, North Carolina, and Miami, it’s much harder to believe something that great was completely on the level.

Thank you Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire. Your steroid use made sports fans so paranoid of anything truly great in sports that we can’t believe anything anymore. Thanks a lot.