New At al.com: Roundtable, Part 1

The first part of my contribution to this week's al.com Blogger Roundtable is up.  No questions were asked about the actual Auburn-Georgia game this week.  I'm assuming the rest of my response will be up at a later date.  In the meantime, here's a preview:

Auburn question: It's clear Auburn's gone "All in" with Cam Newton this season. Is that the right decision? Is it worth the risk of more sanctions down the road? If you were a voter in the polls or for the Heisman, would this situation impact your vote?

The question pre-supposes something that hasn't even been alleged outside of middle-of-the-story innuendo and message board chatter: that Auburn has broken a rule somewhere. "More sanctions" assumes Auburn is going to be sanctioned in the first place. Before you get to that point, it's usually necessary for an actual rule to have been broken by the school in question. That hasn't even been credibly alleged. Every level of administration at Auburn University is convinced it's not the case. If they'd had any doubt at any point, going all the way back to last July, Newton never would have played a snap.

To believe that AU is knowingly playing Newton in the face of actual rule-breaking assumes a mutual career suicide pact on the part of, among others, the university's president, athletic staff, compliance department and coaches. Fans in the SEC are willing and eager to believe in that sort of nefarious plot when it comes to their rivals, especially rivals who are winning. People working for media organizations ostensively engaged in reporting news (as opposed to guessing what the news might be if it were really juicy) ought to know better.