Fooling Absolutely Nobody

This week, the NCAA came down on the Penn State football program like a piano falling from the top of the Empire State building.This penalty was not the result of academic dishonesty or recruiting violations or ANYTHING even remotely involved with a player. The  well-known case against coaches and administrators as a result of looking the other way while a coach molested young boys was horrendous and the school and program were punished under the vague "lack of institutional control" heading. The real perp gets prison, as he should, and several administrators may follow in due course; the team, however, gets slammed in an attempt to restore some semblance of propriety in the collegiate athletics system. The message, it seems, is that athletics programs are only a part of a larger institutional machine and should not be allowed to dictate to the university or its employees what course to take or avoid. Establishing this moral high ground is all well and good...as a show. Nobody really believes that college football or basketball are going to be reined in...not as long as hoops players can pretend to go to school for one semester before declaring themselves good enough to play in the NBA.
As for football, the Penn State news was followed this week by two important major college football verbal commitments...by young men entering 8th grade next year! Yep, both LSU and the U of Washington reached out with scholarship offers to  boys who were still in junior high...boys who cannot even sign a letter of intent until February 1st of 2017! Seriously! And you think that procedure will end the recruiting process of these two? Hardly. It's going to get crazy, especially when one considers the latest NCAA data that shows 40% of verbal commitments are rescinded by players before actually enrolling in their "dream" university. It's all about the Benjamins; don't think it will change.
This seems particularly ironic in the face of the circling pool of college coaches around Happy Valley these days who are hoping to lure disenfranchised ("no bowl appearances for four years") players to their campuses as soon as next week when fall practices will begin. While legal under NCAA guidelines, this practice merely allows us to see the seamy underbelly of the coaching profession: win or get fired.
That's why the tail wags the dog at universities.
That and the Benjamins sports rakes in.