海角大神

Welcome back after the off-season from hell.

Penn聽State鈥檚聽torturous timeline, spanning from last November to last week, cast a pall over the sport that could have hardly been fathomed this time last year.

Jerry Sandusky鈥檚 pathetic mug shot, the Freeh Report, Joe Paterno鈥檚 eradicated legacy and NCAA President Mark Emmert鈥檚 recitation Monday of unprecedented sanctions have left a football nation dazed and confused.

鈥淚n one form or fashion it has affected us,鈥� Commissioner Jim Delany said in his opening statements this week at Big Ten media days.

The Aug. 30 opening bell can鈥檛 get here soon enough as we eagerly anticipate the return to trivial pursuits. Before we move on, though, we reflect.

What happened here? What happens now?

The lasting take-away of聽笔别苍苍听厂迟补迟别听is biblically obvious: The consolidation of power in the hands of a few, over time, is poisonous.

Lord Acton, the historian and moralist, opined in another century: 鈥淧ower tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.鈥�

Acton鈥檚 next line, not as often repeated, is 鈥済reat men are almost always bad men.鈥�

Nowhere is it easier for power to corrupt than in the upstairs office of a powerful football coach. The thirst for victory, combined with money, combined with alma mater mania, has elevated conquering coaches to kings.

The reason聽Penn聽State鈥檚聽insular circle thought they could conceal secrets and handle problems internally is because they always had.

Paterno鈥檚 avuncular 鈥淛oePa鈥� public persona, philanthropy and win-loss record provided cover for more ruthless, pragmatic, day-to-day operations.

Power corrupted at incomparable levels at聽Penn聽State, but it also corrupted Jim Tressel at Ohio聽State, and maybe Pete Carroll at USC.

鈥淣o one program, no one person, no matter how popular, no matter how successful, can be allowed to derail the soul of an institution,鈥� Commissioner Mike Slive said at the Southeastern Conference鈥檚 recent media days.

No one would disagree, yet some would also note a school in his king-maker conference, Alabama, practices the custom of erecting a statue of each coach who has won a national football championship.

Nick Saban, two-time Bowl Championship Series winner in Tuscaloosa, walks by his bust every day on the way to work.

A good rule of thumb is to never build a statue of anyone living, and rarely of anyone dead.

Someone recently suggested to Saban that the football coach at Alabama, dating to Bear Bryant, had potentially dangerous power.

鈥淲ell, you know, it鈥檚 not true if that鈥檚 the perception,鈥� Saban said.

笔别苍苍听厂迟补迟别听is a reminder, though, of why light needs to be shined into the dark corners of a democracy that loves tailgating.

Interestingly, the opposite is happening. Coaches with $5-million salaries have a virtual stranglehold over operations and players. Postgame locker rooms used to be open ; now they are closed. Player access to the media has become increasingly limited.

The narrative at most powerful programs is controlled, with puppet strings, by the head coach. Anyone think this will change?

For years, the NCAA operated in the catacombs, revealing about as much of itself as Hoover鈥檚 FBI. The NCAA was also once ruled a monopoly by the Supreme Court, which is the reason it lost control of Division I football.

The NCAA this week become more dictatorial 鈥� they claim it鈥檚 only temporary! 鈥� when the organizational body gave Emmert unprecedented power to expedite an unprecedented case. It then bypassed due process to move swiftly and harshly against聽Penn聽State.

Machiavelli would have applauded.

What exactly, though, hath the NCAA wrought? Time will decide whether it sufficiently crippled聽Penn聽State, or mobilized it. Did it spare the school the 鈥渄eath penalty鈥� and a TV ban to protect its own fiduciary interests?

Football-crazed powers not killed by the NCAA tend to defy it. Miami and Alabama won national titles within a decade of so-called 鈥減unitive鈥� sanctions. USC is poised to compete for a national title in the third year of major probation.

笔别苍苍听厂迟补迟别听Coach Bill O鈥橞rien, on a conference call this week, outlined a potential artery weakness in the NCAA鈥檚 actions.

鈥淭hey let us play football, and let us be on TV,鈥� O鈥橞rien said. 鈥淲e can play football in a beautiful stadium in front of passionate fans I understand we can鈥檛 go to a bowl game, I really do. But how many bowl games are played in front of 108,000 fans? We play six or seven bowl games a year right here.鈥�

Because it balked at putting聽笔别苍苍听厂迟补迟别听out of business, the NCAA is in the unique position of actually needing one of its member institutions to fail. It also set the bar for egregiousness lower than the booster payouts that led to Southern Methodist鈥檚 鈥渄eath penalty鈥� in 1987. The NCAA meted out to聽笔别苍苍听厂迟补迟别听one more year of probation than it gave Caltech.

What if聽笔别苍苍听厂迟补迟别听doesn鈥檛 fail? Are there unintended consequences we have not yet contemplated? Might one of those be the wholesale, unseemly poaching of Nittany Lions players?

The answers await us all.