The University of Notre Dame and its star football player Manti Te'o find themselves in the hot seat in light of information coming forward late last week about Te'o's apparently fictitious girlfriend dying of cancer.

Te'o reportedly learned in early December that his online amour Lennay Kekua, whom he never actually met in person, had not died and was real. He is said to have notified the school is late December and the school verified that the story was false, but did not to go public with the information before ND's championship game against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Jan. 7.

Te'o has since admitted that he lied about several aspects of the story, including perpetuating it even after he knew it was untrue and misrepresenting such things as whether he actually spoke on the phone to the woman. However, he denies he was part of the hoax.

So, what do you think? Did Te'o deliberately create the sad story of a dead girlfriend for attention and possibly to enhance his chances to win the Heisman trophy? Or was he duped by a cruel prankster? And should Notre Dame have come clean before the big game?

Take our poll below and tell us what you think in the comment box below.

For more details on the story, this CNN story lays out the situation fairly well:
edition.cnn.com/2013/01/19/sport/manti-teo-controversy/index.html