Can College Football Get Anything Right?

So I realized today that I only have two posts this month and decided to change that, I enjoy blogging and will do other sports other than football, but this is topic is just too big to pass up right now.

College football seems to be hurting right now, and hurting really bad. Three football players for Southern Mississippi were shot in a bar fight over the weekend, leaving one paralyzed. A Notre Dame student who filmed the football teams practices died after filming on a scissor lift that fell over when weather got really bad.

But the biggest black eye right now is Cam Newton. Newton is the starting QB for second ranked Auburn. He is the leading candidate for the Heisman trophy and if he keeps winning, he will be playing for a national championship.
However there have been a slew of reports coming out that Newton and his father were soliciting money to schools that wanted to sign him.

For a background, Newton played for Florida in 2007, backing up my most hated athlete Tim Tebow. When Tebow announced he would come back his senior year, Newton and his dad agreed he should transfer, and he did to a small junior college in Texas. During the 2009 season he was amazing, leading his school to the junior college championship. He was ranked the #1 QB coming out of high school or junior college. Newton has highly recruited by both Mississippi State and Auburn. He chose Auburn. Lets also not forget that while we has at Florida he got in trouble there. He was arrested for stealing a laptop(charges were dropped after he went to some classes of some sort) and he was also caught cheating in class on multiple occasions. This isn't the kind of cheating were you look at your neighbors paper, its were you put your name on a paper that you didn't write AND paying for a paper online. So his character isn't exactly perfect by any means

Reports now are saying that Newton and his dad asked Mississippi State for $180,000 to get him to commit. Now Newton didn't sign with Mississippi State, but that still doesn't mean he is a clean player. Auburn is saying that Newton is eligible to play, but they could just be saying that. Who knows if Newton and his dad got money from Auburn.

So if Newton did take money then its Reggie Bush all over again. Reggie took money(about $300,000) in the 2005 season, we won the Heisman and then went to the NFL. Reggie had to give up his Heisman trophy, and USC got hit with tons of probations for playing Reggie when he was not eligible. USC also had to vacate wins from that season too.
So what if Newton is guilty, but we don't find out for sure until after the season is over, after he wins the Heisman, and can take Auburn to the BCS national championship game. Leaving Boise State and TCU out, even though they obeyed all the laws.

But then again Newton could be eligible and could be worth of all the praise he is getting.

The problem is we most likely won't find out until after the Heisman trophy ceremony and when all the bowl bids are given out.

So what should college football do?

Punish Newton and give either Boise State or TCU a chance at the title game, but then what if Newton is clean? Do we just say sorry Auburn for ruining your chance to win a title game, even though Auburn got burned by the BCS in 2004 when they went undefeated but didn't play in the BCS title game. Even though Reggie Bush played for USC who won the title that year and he was not eligible. Is it fair to burn Auburn twice in 6 years?

Or does college football let Newton play? And if he is not eligible do we just say sorry to Boise State and TCU for costing them a once in a lifetime opportunity to play for the championship?

College football is gonna be damned if they do and damned if they don't. They cannot make the right decision because there isn't a clear one. If there was a playoff system then it could work out better, but you and I both know that ain't gonna happen.

Lets also look at the fact that Tennessee, USC and North Carolina are all under heavy punishments from the NCAA for recruiting violations.

Is it safe to say that college football is just not a clean sport anymore? Not with steroids, but with schools buying players and paying them money to stay?

If its true then college football should just come out with it, much like baseball needs to come out with steroids. So everyone can know and we can work better at fixing the problem rather than trying to cover it up.