Could There Be A Bowl Championship Scandal Be Developing?

A-ha. Now it’s starting to make sense. I was perplexed as to why it took Florida State‘s (FSU) offense so long to get going in the national championship game Monday night. The articles below, which broke today, may provide some answers as to why. It appears Auburn may have been stealing FSU’s offensive play calling signals.

• www.cbssports.com - “Florida State : Auburn Knew Signals In BCS Title Game”
• www.tomahawknation.com - “Kelvin Benjamin Appears to Tell Jimbo Fisher Auburn Coach Dameyune Craig Was Calling Out FSU’s Plays” 

How could it have happened? Auburn’s current receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator Dameyune Craig just completed his first season with Auburn. Guess where he was the three previous seasons? He was quarterbacks coach at FSU. Insider information, maybe?

I suspect more may come out about this in the coming days, and I think the NCAA should do a thorough investigation as the NFL did with the New England Patriots and “Spygate” a few years ago. The sign stealing allegation may have some merit, too. For instance, look at the flow of Monday night’s game. Auburn got up 21-3 early while the FSU offense was sputtering, which would have been during the time frame the alleged sign stealing took place. FSU, as the articles above indicate, made adjustments in order to prevent the alleged signal stealing going forward and got going offesnively. From that point on, FSU outscored Auburn 31-10. I suspect word of what Auburn was doing quickly spread up and down the FSU sideline, too, and with it some extra motivation for the Seminoles.

On the other hand, I would not be surprised if this goes hush-hush. I suspect the NCAA might want to let the whole thing alone letting it die for fear of a potential scandal tarnishing its sacred and favorite cash cow – the SEC.

I find this revelation hilarious. For years, all the college football world has heard is that the ACC and the other “itty bitty” conferences just can’t compete with the big, bad, awesome football machine called the SEC. If this allegation is indeed true, to me it means :

1. Auburn felt that it was outmatched against FSU and needed an edge. It didn’t think it could line up, play FSU straight up, and win. They were scared, so they cheated.
2. The 2013 SEC Champ was able to jump out to a 21-3 lead on the ACC Champ for one main reason – stealing signals (cheating) and knowing which plays FSU was running. When FSU put an end to it, Auburn couldn’t compete with them and ultimately lost their huge lead and the national championship due to having to play clean, straight up football.
3. Since FSU outscored Auburn 31-10 after blocking the signal stealing, how badly would FSU have beaten Auburn if the entire game had been played straight up. After all, in the fourth quarter alone, FSU outscored Auburn 21-10. Unfortunately, we we never know. 

As this FSU fan thinks about the reports of what Auburn’s actions, the old saying, “cheaters never win,” comes to mind. Apparently, they don’t win national championships, either.

I just can’t help but laugh about this. Revelations that Auburn cheated and still couldn’t beat FSU just make this championship even sweeter. I suspect some Alabama fans are laughing pretty hard, too, as it would put egg on the face of the Auburn football program.

This is just too dadgum funny.