With one of the most scintillating individual performances in recent years, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton has left little doubt that he’ll be named Saturday as the 76th winner of college football’s Heisman Trophy.
The only question is margin of victory — and perhaps degree of discomfort as the NCAA continues to investigate a pay-for-play scheme pursued by his father while Cam was being recruited out of junior college.
Cecil Newton, an Atlanta-area pastor, was invited to the presentation with other finalists’ parents, but said in a statement Thursday that he will not attend because he doesn’t want to be a distraction.
Nearly nine of every 10 voters polled by the website stiffarmtrophy.com (127 of 146) by Thursday said they had Cam Newton atop their ballot. The electorate totals 926.
Newton could approach a standard for Heisman runaways set by Reggie Bush in 2005, when the Southern California star received 784 first-place votes and what stiffarmtrophy.com says was a record 91.8% of the maximum possible point total. Bush forfeited the award in September because of rules violations that occurred while he was at USC.
