CBS got its money’s worth.

All this, and Nick Fairley, too.

Scandal sells: The off-field accusations against Auburn star Cam Newton delivered for CBS. Its coverage of the Tigers’ win vs. Georgia drew a 5.4 overnight rating, translating into 5.4% of households in the 56 urban markets measured for overnights. Only one college football game this season — ESPN’s Boise State-Virginia Tech opener — had a higher overnight.

Not too shabby for a game with a 5-5 participant.

And some criticism:

… While CBS’ game announcers Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist largely avoided opining on accusations against Newton that include academic cheating and having sought money while being recruited out of junior college, CBS’ Danielson said Newton is “the most valuable guy I’ve seen for his team” partly because he’s surrounded by few players that seem “draftable” for the NFL. Ho-hum. Danielson could have at least nibbled more on Newton’s situation — it’s a pretty big story.

 

Greedy bastiches

In a way, I hate to keep picking on Clay Travis, but… this is a dumb analogy.

11. Do you blame the Newton family if allegations of soliciting cash prove true?

Here’s the rub: no, I really don’t. As I’ve written and said a thousand times, my position is simple. If you’re 18 years old, you should be able to make a living pursuing your chosen talent. The only people who can’t in the entire United States are college football and basketball players. For some reason, we require that they serve an apprenticeship at college that makes universities a ton of money.

Again, we don’t demand that Taylor Swift sing in the Vanderbilt chorus. Nope, we let her go pro.

Okay, fine.  Except “let her go pro” isn’t the same thing as saying that Vanderbilt pays her.

The NCAA doesn’t take the position that an eighteen-year old football player can’t get paid for his skills/services.  It’s only that if he does, he can’t play college football.

So this whole “we require” straw man is a load of crapola.  Unless by “we” you mean “NFL team owners”.  And by “for some reason”, you mean “we’d rather not spend a bunch of money developing a minor league system, thanks.”

Other than that, it’s spot on.

Night time is the right time for ESPN.

The WWL picks up the 7:45 slot for the Tech game.

“This is not,” one SEC official said before the game, “a black and white issue.”

I think you can guess which game that comment preceded.

Camgate is Mike Slive’s worst nightmare, because there’s so much at stake and because he’s got no control over where it goes from here.  It may not be a black and white issue for his office, but the question is whether the NCAA agrees with the SEC’s perspective.  So it’s reasonable to assume that most of his current ire is directed not towards Auburn, but Mississippi State for letting the genie out of the bottle, so to speak.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few things and see where the mess stands:

• Nobody linked to Auburn is talking about it publicly anymore.  Not Gene Chizik, not Cam Newton, and certainly not Cecil Newton.  That doesn’t mean the press isn’t going to keep digging.  It’s too juicy a story to ignore, as much as the Auburn faithful may wish for it to go away.
• The NCAA is meeting with Kenny Rogers this week.  The FBI interviews John Bond.  So for anyone to conclude that Auburn playing Newton this past Saturday is proof that the school’s due diligence turned up nothing that affected his eligibility is premature (or perhaps wishful) thinking.
• The New York Times points out that there’s a lot of money tied to Newton’s success.
• “There’s also the question of the impact of allegations that Newton committed academic fraud during his two years at Florida; if true, the NCAA will be interested in “whether the class grade went toward academic eligibility and if that grade was impacted negatively,” according to NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn, who said she was speaking in general terms.”
• And the BCS picture has to be troubling for Slive, as well.  After Auburn, there is but a single one-loss SEC team, LSU.  And the Tigers still have to travel to Arkansas for the last game of the regular season.  If things break the wrong way, there could be a bunch of two-loss and three-loss teams which obviously won’t be considered for the title game and may not have strong enough resumes to generate a second team for the rest of the BCS slate.
• All of which leads me to a couple of questions which popped into my head before I fell asleep last night.  Let’s say that (1) the NCAA finds that Cecil Newton’s solicitation of money from MSU representatives is a violation of NCAA regs such that Cam is declared ineligible; (2) that ruling from the NCAA doesn’t come until after the Iron Bowl but before the SECCG; (3) Auburn elects to play Newton in the Iron Bowl (if they let him play against Georgia, he’s playing against Alabama, right?) and wins; and (4) Auburn’s knowledge of rules violations is limited to what it was warned about this past week by the NCAA.  So, if the final decision made is to vacate Auburn’s last two regular season wins – vacate as opposed to forfeit, that is –  which team represents the SEC West in the SECCG?  After all, Auburn would stay undefeated in SEC play.  And if the Newton-less Tigers were to win the SEC championship and remain undefeated, would they play in the BCS title game?

My Week Eleven Mumme Poll ballot

• Alabama
• Auburn
• Boise State
• LSU
• Nebraska
• Oklahoma State
• Oregon
• Stanford
• TCU
• Wisconsin

COMMENTS

• Every team on my Week Ten ballot won, which made this week’s picking the easiest of the season.
• Outside looking in:  Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio State and Oklahoma.  I spent more time making sure none of these teams deserved to crash the party than I did on my ballot.
• If it’s possible to forget an entire conference exists, that’s what I did with the Big East.  (I had to look – Sagarin’s highest ranked Big East team is #37 West Virginia.  For comparison, he has Georgia ranked #36.)

SEC Power Poll, Week 11

This week’s rankings will not get thrown out for fighting.

1. Auburn. Cemented their position as the best team in the conference behind the quarterback who generates as many touchdowns as “no comments”.  We’ll find out in the next few weeks which attribute defines Auburn’s season.
2. LSU. If anyone is capable of pulling off the weirdest example of backing into a championship game, it’s Les Miles.
3. Alabama. It didn’t get enough attention because of the games which decided the division winners, but this team got a resounding win over an SEC opponent on a six-game winning streak.
4. Arkansas. I have to confess that the Hogs’ season grows more impressive as it goes on.  They still have an outside shot at a BCS game.
5. South Carolina. For Steve Spurrier, it probably doesn’t get much better than Saturday night.  Well done, ‘Cocks.
6. Mississippi State. There’s only so much magic Dan Mullen can work without a competent passing game.
7. Florida. Jeff John Brantley is now ranked tenth in the conference in passing efficiency.  All you pundits who called him the second best quarterback in the SEC last season can turn in your credentials at the front desk.
8. Georgia. And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on…
9. Kentucky. Struggled with Vanderbilt in becoming bowl eligible.  If that doesn’t sum up the Cats’ season, I don’t know what does.
10. Tennessee. Made Ole Miss their bitch and made ’em like it; the Vols keep the bowl eligible dream alive.
11. Vanderbilt. Moved ahead of the Rebels because even though they lost, they didn’t quit.
12. Mississippi. Amazing factoid:  the two conference teams with worse defensive passing yardage numbers than Ole Miss are the division winners.