The Cam Newton situation and Georgia

On Thursday night, it broke that the NCAA was investigating the recruitment of Auburn star quarterback Cameron Newton. In case you haven’t read it yet, here are stories on ESPN.com, The New York Times and the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss.

I’ll get to the question a lot of you have: Will this affect Newton’s playing status for the Georgia game a week from now?

The short answer: Probably not.

Auburn has known about this for months, and has been allowing Newton to play. Tigers head coach Gene Chizik was adamant on Thursday night that Newton is eligible. “Period. End of story,” he added.

Well, it’s not the end of the story. But the fact that Auburn has continued to play Newton lo these nine games means that a) it’s confident nothing is there and there’s no danger of having wins vacated, or b) the Tigers are taking a huge, brazen risk.

In the case of A.J. Green, when the NCAA came to him with the $1,000 from Chris Hawkins, Green admitted it. Knowing there was a ruling pending, Georgia sat him down for one game, and then came the suspension. That process has been echoed at Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina.

But Auburn and Newton are not admitting any wrongdoing.

Basically, for Newton’s eligibility to be in question before Nov. 13, something would have to happen for Auburn to say, “Uh oh.” It hasn’t decided to do so for months; all that happened on Thursday night is the public found out about the investigation.

All that said, this has a chance to be the major story of the college football season. It now appears to be in the hands of the NCAA, and everyone will be watching to see how quickly they will – or can – act.