Cam Newton Won the 2010 NCAA Heisman Trophy Award, but Did He Get Robbed of His Place in History

Saturday night Cam Newton won the NCAA Heisman Trophy Award. Does this shock anybody? This means that all the bad press didn't affect Cam Newton winning the Heisman at all. Right? Quite the contrary my dear Watson, Cam Newton got ripped off!

Even if you didn't watch one college football game all year, all you had to do was look at the stats, and it was obvious who the best player in 2010 was. Of course, the question was never whether the Auburn quarterback was the best player in college football this season.

The question was would the money his dad supposedly took for him attending Auburn affect him getting the Heisman Trophy Award. I say supposedly because I still don't see much of a way in which Cam Newton is guilty of wrong doing in this. However, that being said I am willing to play by the rules of Heisman Trophy voting. Which means you vote for the player that was the best player on the field and was most valuable to his team's success. Without Cam Newton, Auburn isn't playing for a National Title. One could even argue that without Cam Newton, Auburn wouldn't even be playing in a bowl game this year. I know they would still have some other highly recruited college kid taking the snaps, but Newton was the Auburn Tigers offense this year.

So Cam Newton was the best college football player in the nation and won the Heisman Trophy. All sounds like it worked out just the way it should have. Before we come to that conclusion, let's look at a few interesting numbers.

105 - The number of Heisman Trophy voters who left Cam Newton off of the top three of their lists. I don't think anybody could argue that this had anything to do with three players being better than him.

159 - The number of voters that picked somebody other than Cam Newton to win the 2010 Heisman Trophy. Stanford Quarterback Andrew Luck received 78 of these first place votes. You know, Luck did pass for almost 500 yards more than Cameron Newton did this season. We will just forget about the almost 1,000 rushing yards that Newton topped Luck by.

49 - The number of touchdowns Cam Newton accounted for this season with Auburn. Just to put this in prospective, Andrew Luck had 31 total touchdowns this season.

If not for allegations against Cam Newton's father Cecil, there would have been a lot more first place votes going Cameron's way. More than likely, he would have garnered enough additional first place votes to unseat Reggie Bush as the man that had the highest percentage of first place votes in Heisman voting history. Isn't it ironic that like Reggie Bush, Cameron Newton could someday be giving back his Heisman Trophy Award?

Sources

ESPN Sports