Auburn's Cam Newton is Eligible By the NCAA; SEC Championship Can Move Ahead

The news of Cameron Newton's eligibility came about as I was sitting in Toomer's Drugs for lunch. A man, holding his smartphone up in the air, announced that the NCAA found that Newton was eligible to play by their investigation on the matter. The patrons in Toomer's applauded with great relief.

Two words escaped my mouth: Justice Prevails.

The whole situation concerning Auburn was nonsense with the facts that were made available with all the "sources" coming out and commenting on the situation. All these "sources" pointed to one thing: Auburn had nothing to do with the "pay-for-play" scandal.

The focus was on Auburn because Newton and the football team was on the way to playing for the BCS national title. That alone was making many of the Auburn family angry, besides the mindset that Auburn always gets hindered by something when it is on their way to a special season.

The key part of the NCAA's statement:

Auburn University football student-athlete Cam Newton is immediately eligible to compete, according to a decision today by the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff. The NCAA concluded on Monday that a violation of amateurism rules occurred, therefore Auburn University declared the student-athlete ineligible yesterday for violations of NCAA amateurism rules.

When a school discovers an NCAA rules violation has occurred, it must declare the student-athlete ineligible and may request the student-athlete’s eligibility be reinstated. Reinstatement decisions are made by the NCAA national office staff and can include conditions such as withholding from competition and repayment of extra benefits. Newton was reinstated without any conditions.

The entire statement can be found here.

The investigation is still ongoing, but this statement pretty much puts Auburn in the clear. Unless there is some jaw-dropping development, which is apossibility but unlikely at this point, Cam Newton will still be able to play at Auburn for the rest of his college career.

Other media outlets haven't let the whole situation go, which is expected since the investigation hasn't been completely closed. However, the way that they were expecting it would fall out hasn't come to fruition. This will disappoint some of the people that were hoping for a witch hunt.

Questions will abound on how this was all handled, and those questions need to be asked. At the same time, if nothing has come up against Auburn or Cam Newton, there is no need to get the bonfire going to burn the unjust.

The SEC and NCAA will move on, and so should the rest of college football. The argument on this new precedent set by the NCAA, which has a tendency to make new precedents on a case-by-case basis, will be debated for years to come.

What is important now is this: We can get back to talking about just on-the-field events concerning Auburn football.