NEW YORK — The presentation of the 2010 Heisman Trophy had about as much suspense as a Harlem Globetrotters game. For 13 star-kissed games, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton seemed to toy with opponents — from overmatched nonleague teams to the meat of the Southeastern Conference — as if they were the Washington Generals.

But in a season in which Newton lapped the field, the only opposition he has not been able to escape is controversy. When Newton accepted the trophy in Manhattan on Saturday night, his father was not in attendance; the NCAA determined that Cecil Newton Sr. attempted to arrange a pay-for-play scheme to send his son to Mississippi State.

While the NCAA ruled Cam Newton eligible despite the scandal, his father ducked the spotlight of New York to avoid taking attention away from his son.

“I’d be sitting up here lying to you if I didn’t say it hurts,” Newton said of his father’s absence. “It hurts me a lot. It’s a once in a lifetime deal.”

Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, who is considered the favorite to be the top pick in the NFL draft this April if he declares, finished second. Oregon tailback LaMichael James finished third, and Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore came in fourth. Newton joins the former tailback Bo Jackson (1981) and quarterback Pat Sullivan (1971) as the third winner from Auburn.

Newton certainly earned the award on the field, as he produced 48 touchdowns — 20 rushing and 28 passing — and perhaps set the standard against which dual-threat quarterbacks will be judged. Newton received the fourth-most first-place votes in the history of the Heisman and ended up with the 11th largest margin of victory. But perhaps more notable were the voters who abstained — 18 fewer ballots were turned in this year — and the 105 voters who left Newton off their ballots.

“This was a landslide win for Newton but not historic,” said Chris Huston, the publisher of Heismanpundit.com. “The allegations of pay-for-play appeared to have little effect on the race. He was left off of 7.4 percent of ballots but it wasn’t enough to prevent him from scoring a dominant win.”

Heading into the ceremony, numerous voters had voiced their displeasure over the controversy hounding Newton. The ballot states that the winner should be the player “whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity.”

Newton received first-place votes on 93 percent of the ballots, but one hint that pointed to voters’ unease with picking Newton because of ethical concerns was that he had the fewest second-place votes of any winner since the Heisman voting format changed in the early 1970s. Along with the NCAA controversy, Newton was arrested in Florida in connection with a stolen laptop and was involved in three academic cheating incidents while there.

But those events did not dim the wide smile that Newton has flashed throughout the season, which will end with No. 1 Auburn playing No. 2 Oregon in the Bowl Championship Series title game on Jan. 10.

“This whole thing right now is just beyond me right now,” Newton said. “I feel like I’m in a dream.”

With the winner a foregone conclusion, a bigger question was whether the Heisman organizers set a dangerous precedent when Reggie Bush returned his trophy this year. While the organizers have not acknowledged this directly, it is understood that Bush, the 2005 winner, returned his award under pressure.

With the NCAA still investigating Newton’s recruitment from junior college last winter, the pink elephant in the Best Buy Theater last night was whether a similar scenario would plague Newton.

“If they’re going to continue to include integrity as one of their core criteria and values, they have to look at it,” the Pacific-10 Commissioner Larry Scott said of the precedent set. “They have no choice. They can’t preach it and not back up the words with actions, otherwise they lose credibility.”

The Heisman Trophy is not tied to the NCAA and does not fall under the purview of anything other than the trust that runs the award. Privately, Bush was steamed about returning the award, especially after others tied to those tainted Southern California seasons did not pay nearly as dearly. The Heisman Trust has been relatively mum on the Bush issue, even declining to acknowledge where it is keeping the trophy.

“What constitutes the level of impropriety and severity?” the Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Karl Benson said of the Heisman’s precedent. “The chances of it happening again are pretty strong. And it may be sooner than later.”

Asked if he had any concerns about whether the NCAA investigation would force him to return the Heisman, Newton did not hesitate in his answer.

“Two letters for you my friend,” Newton said. “No.”

The Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany predicted that the Heisman Trust will face problems with making such decisions over the trophy in the future.

“It’s really difficult stuff because they don’t have a kind of an adjudicatory function,” Delany said. “While smoke or suspicion has been raised, it’s obviously factually incomplete. They’ll struggle with it.”

As Newton left the interview area at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, he was flanked by eight security guards. Until the investigation ends, questions will linger about how safe Newton’s Heisman is at Auburn.