Hypocrisy U

Someone, please step forward and tell me that what happened in the Florida International-Miami game wasn’t worse than the Duke Lacrosse scandal.

Anyone?While Duke University canceled the entire season and forced head coach Mike Pressler to resign on allegations involving three of the players off the field, the University of Miami, under the watchful eye of President Donna Shalala, has issued 12 one-game suspensions and one indefinite suspension for a brawl that occurred on the field.

Oh, and head coach Larry Coker still has his job.

In the hypocrisy that is collegiate athletics, why should we be surprised?

Miami makes millions of dollars each year regardless it wins or losses, regardless the program goes 2-10 or wins a national championship, regardless it’s known as Thug U or an institution of higher learning, but it makes more when it wins. Thus the `Canes have to send out their best product each week.

With the exclusion of safety Anthony Reddick, who was suspended indefinitely, the 12 players suspended for one game will miss Saturday’s matchup against winless Duke, a program so hapless that it has failed to score half the times it’s taken the field this year, including a home shutout to Division 1-AA Richmond. The program is so bad that the school’s athletic website lists an article about the football team as the third headline- behind soccer and golf.

FIU has suspended 16 players indefinitely and kicked another two off the team for their actions during the game. However, the Golden Panthers are 0-7 and not going anywhere this season. They have nothing to play for except self-pride.

Miami still has an ACC title in its sights.

And that’s where the decision makes sense.

College athletics is a business. If a college football team will make an athletic department money, that team will get preferential treatment.

Arizona State fired head men’s basketball coach Rob Evans in March after eight seasons and a 119-120 record. When he took over, the Sun Devils were coming off of the infamous point-shaving scandal that landed six people in jail, including Steven “Hedake” Smith, a former player. However, during his eight years, not one player was arrested, and he rebuilt the program to respectability.

But basketball did not make Arizona State money.

Conversely, head football coach Dirk Koetter took over a program in 2001 that had become mediocre only five years after it blew a late-fourth quarter lead against Ohio State, costing the school a national championship. And in his first five seasons, not much had changed, posting merely a 33-28 record over that time.

That record isn’t significantly better than Evans’s mark and Koetter took over a team that wasn’t recovering from a scandal.

And the team wasn’t clean off the field either.

According to Phoenix New Times columnist John Daugherty, five players had been kicked off the team for illegal activities and two others had faced sexual assault allegations before Koetter allowed star running back Loren Wade to stay on the team without any disciplinary action after he threatened to kill his girlfriend and a female gymnast because reporting him would have led to him getting kicked out of school and Koetter’s team to lose.

Then Wade murdered someone.

Koetter’s lack of action led to the death of Brandon Falkner, a former ASU football player.

And Koetter was awarded with a raise and an extension through 2010. Hypocrisy much?

But that’s how it is. Miami’s football team will make the department money and thus it won’t suspend players if it could cost the team a game. Duke won’t beat Miami, but Georgia Tech, Miami’s following opponent, might.

While Duke’s lacrosse team costs the school money, Arizona State’s basketball team probably doesn’t make substantial money, assuming it makes anything at all, and FIU’s football team breaks even by getting paid to play at schools like Miami, the Hurricanes rely on their football team to fund the athletic department, so they’ll cut the team some slack.

No, it isn’t fair, but that’s the way it is.

Yes, Miami should chose to probate the team from the postseason this season like Clemson and South Carolina did two years ago for a similar brawl, but it won’t. Too much money is riding on this.

And for those wondering about Arizona State, Koetter’s team is in ninth place in the PAC-10- out of 10. That’s money well spent.