Cameron Newton Saga: Is Urban Meyer Behind the Conspiracy?

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Apparently this is the national college football media's motto when it comes to destroying Cam Newton.

They couldn't get him when it was found that a lone wolf, acting on his own, tried to get Mississippi State to give him $180,000 for Cam's services.

No, that wasn't enough. Now, we decide to go with an unnamed source to further drag Newton's name through the mud with a report of his academic indiscretions at Florida.

I beg you to read this latest "report" about Auburn's Cameron Newton and tell me that this is not a Washington D.C.-style character assassination of a young, talented student-athlete.

After the pay-for-play mini-scandal surfaced last weekend, it appeared that the story would, for the time being, die a natural death only to be resuscitated in the offseason after Newton had a Heisman on his mantle and Auburn's trophy case had some shiny new hardware in it.

Apparently, that was not enough for some enterprising "journalists" from the various national sports media entities.

No, they decided to dig into confidential student records through a source with inside information on a completely unrelated matter to further drag a kid's name through the mud.

Granted, Cam Newton is no ordinary kid.

Newton was everybody's top Heisman candidate prior to last week's report. His team is undefeated with two games remaining in the regular season. He is a 6'6", 250-pound freak of an athlete who no one in college football's toughest conference, the SEC, can stop.

Unfortunately, he's also the same Cam Newton that left Florida amidst another scandal involving a purchased stolen laptop that was thrown out of a window. At least that's what we've all believed for much of the last 20-plus months.

To hear Newton tell it, the unbelievably gifted athlete left because all-everything quarterback Tim Tebow announced he was returning for his senior year at Florida.

Obviously, the circumstances surrounding this young man's college football career have been nothing short of scandalous, but to continue dredging things up—especially issues of a confidential nature—amounts to nothing short of character assassination.

So, since real "journalists" can engage in baseless mudslinging, I figure this wannabe journalist might as well try his hand at it.

Does anyone find it odd that all of this Cam Newton news suddenly comes out with three games remaining in a so far undefeated regular season for Auburn?

How about the fact that the nation's best player, a former Florida Gator, is leading another SEC school to the top of the BCS standings?

Then there's the matter of Florida playing terribly for much of the year while looking for the next Tim Tebow to run Urban Meyer's offense.

It all equals the logical conclusion that Newton is the subject of a conspiracy, probably authored by Meyer himself, because of his success in another SEC uniform—a uniform that Meyer is 0-2 against in his six-plus seasons on the job in Gainesville.

And why not? Auburn's season was running along smoothly. Cam Newton was atop everyone's Heisman list. He is, by far, the top player in the nation. He's completely unstoppable on the football field. So, why not author a plan to distract him off of it?

If you think Urban Meyer is above that sort of thing, you are either a Florida partisan or completely blind. This is the SEC. This is how things work in the conference. If you can't beat 'em, turn 'em in. It worked when Phillip Fulmer turned in the notorious Alabama Crimson Tide for cheating in the '90s.

Bottom line, it is eating away at Urban Meyer to watch a kid that was a Gator take another SEC school to the promised land while Florida has to fight and claw to even win the SEC East.

When Urban was asked at a recent press conference if he'd had a chance to watch Cam Newton play this year, that was probably the last straw. Meyer's response to the question, "It's hard to watch," was the subject of media speculation as to what he meant by the words.

It was finally decided that he meant it was hard to watch because he didn't have the time with his duties as head coach at Florida.

That press conference happened on October 25. The initial "news" about Newton broke on November 4. Coincidence?

My theory: Urban didn't want to be asked about the one that got away again—especially the one that got away amidst allegations of theft, purchasing a stolen laptop and throwing said laptop out of a window.

So, he encouraged Dan Mullen and John Bond to leak their information to the media, as was first speculated by Paul Finebaum. When it turned out that there was apparently nothing to get Auburn or Newton on that one, Urban arranged for another unnamed source to leak the confidential academic information.

Two plus two equals four.

If all of this is true, it will make for some interesting story angles should Auburn and Florida wrap up their respective divisions this weekend to force an SEC title game between the teams in early December.

In the seedy underworld of SEC football, if character assassination doesn't work, that only leaves one other option—winning on the field.