Like the confetti that swirled around at the conclusion of Auburn's 22-19 win over Oregon in Monday night's national championship game, the future of the Tigers controversial and charismatic quarterback Cam Newton is also up in the air.

Newton passed for 265 yards and two touchdowns with an interception and ran for 64 yards despite hurting his back. Coach Gene Chizik said Tuesday morning he had no update on the injury.

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Newton and defensive tackle Nick Fairley are expected to enter the NFL's April draft. Underclassmen have until Saturday to declare for the draft. "The time is obviously coming up," Chizik said. "We had one focus before this game, and I've got so much respect for both of those guys because they are getting hit from every angle with the same question, 'What are you going to do? Are you going to stay? Are you going to go?' "

Any possible NCAA sanctions are up the air as well. The NCAA determined that when Cam Newton was being recruited in 2009 by Mississippi State, Newton's father, Cecil, marketed his son in a pay-to-play scheme. Though the NCAA did not find sufficient evidence to prove Cam Newton or anyone at Auburn knew of the scheme, the case is not closed.

As a result of the findings, Auburn limited Cecil Newton's access to the program. He didn't even attend the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Monday, Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs told the Associated Press that Cecil Newton would not attend the national title game and the decision was "mutually agreed upon." However, after the game, Cam Newton was seen embracing his father in the stands. According to Auburn spokesman Kirk Sampson, Cecil Newton did not receive his ticket from Auburn.

"Don't feel sorry for me," Newton said when asked about his back injury following the game. "I'm OK. It was worth it."

In addition to Newton and Fairley likely leaving, Auburn stands to lose 23 seniors, including 13 starters. The Tigers, nor any other Southeastern Conference team, are likely to be at the top of the polls when the college football season begins anew in about eight months.

However, by season's end, don't be surprised if another SEC team finishes on top.

Auburn became the fifth consecutive SEC team to win the Bowl Championship Series title. When asked, somewhat facetiously, if he could foresee a day when the SEC didn't win the national title, Chizik said, "I know that the numbers would tell you that if you look at it from 10,000 feet, it looks like this conference is a very dominating conference over some of the others. But I don't know that that's necessarily true.

"I think every year it is probably a case-by-case year. And I just don't feel like you can say that one conference just dominates all the others. … Year by year, everybody has got the same chance."

Still, the numbers are hard to ignore. The SEC's streak became the most dominating run for a league in eight decades, matching the Big Ten's five consecutive championships won by Michigan and Minnesota from 1932-36 — and four came before the Associated Press began its news media poll. Auburn became the fourth different SEC school to play for BCS title in the last five seasons. Since 2006, no other conference has had more than two different schools play for the national title. To put the SEC's recent dominance in perspective, consider that the Big Ten has won just two championships in the past 40 years, by Michigan in '97 (shared with Nebraska) and Ohio State in '02. The SEC won its ninth in 19 years.

When the season began, few outside of Auburn's locker room imagined that the Tigers would finish their season on a field full of confetti with a crystal trophy in hand. Auburn began the season ranked No. 23 and became the lowest-ranked team from the preseason USA TODAY Coaches Poll to win the national title since USA TODAY began administering the poll in 1991.

"When you go in the locker room (after the win) and you look at 100 guys that 15 weeks ago nobody would have gave a dime for to win a national championship, which is fact, and you see them look at you and your coaches are saying thank you to the players and the players are saying thank you to the coaches, that's family. And you've brought these guys from point A to point Z," Chizik said.

With the score 19-19 with 2:27 left, Newton led the Tigers on a 73-yard drive that ended with a 19-yard field goal by Wes Byrum. It was the sixth game-winning field goal of his career.

On that drive, freshman running back Michael Dyer took control, gaining for 57 of his 143 yards to set up the field goal. The key play came when Dyer appeared to be down. As he rolled over Oregon's Eddie Pleasant, his knee never touched the ground. After hesitating, Dyer realized the whistle never blew, heard coaches on the sideline and players on the field yelling, "Go, go, go" so he kept running, for 37 yards. Replay confirmed the officials' decision to allow the play to continue.

Dyer is one reason Tigers fans are hopeful about the future, no matter what the pollsters might say before next season.

"He has got a chance to be a really good tailback in our league if he'll keep working at it," Chizik said. "He certainly has not arrived yet because he got the MVP of the national championship game. But I think he has got the potential to do whatever he wants to do."

National champ Auburn, Cam Newton face uncertain future

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