In a bit of appropriately ironic and unplanned scheduling, ESPN's college football programming Saturday night includes the Heisman Trophy presentation at 8 p.m. and the debut of the "Pony Exce$$" as part of its acclaimed documentary series at 9 p.m.With Heisman favorite Cam Newton of Auburn distancing himself from his father's admitted pay-for-play approach (the elder Newton apparently shopped his son's skills to the highest bidder when he was leaving junior college), and professing that he knew nothing about the attempted deals, that story clearly takes some luster off the presentation of college football's biggest award.
But, after viewers get an hour of hype and promotion, no doubt pretending that the other finalists have a chance at winning the award while avoiding any sincere mention of Newton's situation, ESPN then moves to a film all about paying college football players.
"Pony Exce$$" examines Southern Methodist University in the early 1980s, when SMU shot to national prominence thanks in large part to its willingness to pay players to play college football. When the NCAA finally stepped in and served up the "death penalty" for the first and only time, effectively shutting down the program and pushing it to depths with which it has not recovered 25 years later, it reshaped college football for years.
Promos for the film hint at an entertaining, maybe even enlightening, film, and the topic obviously remains timely.
Still, the tone of film might be most interesting -- especially because one of those who was a key member on the SMU team's of the early 1980s was running back Craig James, the same Craig James who went on to a career in the NFL and works for ESPN as a college football analyst. How the film treats the topic clearly reflects, at least on some level, how seriously the all-sports network itself considers such cheating.
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