Auburn celebration draws nearly 80,000

Published Jan. 22, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Cam Newton and the Auburn Tigers had one more big Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

The team's national championship celebration drew an announced crowd of 78,000, with hundreds of students crowding onto the field high-fiving players as they were introduced. Newton, Nick Fairley, Coach Gene Chizik and Gov. Robert Bentley were among those speaking.

Chizik told the fans that he was asked before the national title game if the Tigers were a great team. On Saturday, he answered: ''I can emphatically say, this is a great football team.''

Newton struck a Heisman pose at the podium, then thanked the fans for standing by him after the revelations that his father sought payment to sign with Mississippi State. He and Fairley both are skipping their senior seasons to enter the NFL Draft.