Academics more important than football

If the NCAA proves rampant wrongdoing and does not hand the University of Miami football program the harshest punishment in the history of intercollegiate sports, then the NCAA and its alleged wrath has lost all credibility.

Money to injure opposing players? Gifts, prostitutes and wild parties for recruits? The alleged violations make SMU’s crimes in the 1980s seem like misdemeanors.

If the allegations are proven to be true — and the NCAA should be thorough in this (who knows, it might find more) — Miami’s football program should get hammered like nobody’s business, for two reasons.

» The school should be dealt a massive blow simply because of the major infractions. You do the crime, you pay the time.

» Sadly for Miami, such allegations have come at a time when the NCAA has been scrutinized and the landscape of who’s cheating and who’s not has seriously come under question. A strong example must be set, and the system that demands purity in college athletics must be cleaned — quickly.

There’s the Cam Newton pay-for-play controversy. Whether he knew of his father’s intentions or not, the former Auburn quarterback certainly brought a ton of attention to the NCAA rule books last fall. There are also allegations involving Alabama players and the owner of a men’s suit store.

Then there’s Oregon and its involvement with a scout, North Carolina and its laundry list of infractions, USC and Reggie Bush, and who can forget Ohio State, the Big 10’s golden child, whose numerous violations forced the resignation of coach Jim Tressel. The NCAA isn’t finished in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes and Hurricanes play this season in what could be dubbed the “Ineligibowl.”

Just how systematic and widespread has cheating become? Do programs even fear the NCAA’s wrath anymore? Maybe it’s time they should. It’s time an example is made and its precedent followed.

We’ve heard the words “death penalty” kicked around when programs are subject to major violations, particularly repeat offenders. Should it be imposed now, for the second time in NCAA history? Or could the NCAA deliver an even stronger penalty to Coral Gables?

How’s this: Limit the Hurricanes’ annual football scholarships to 10 and have the rest of the team comprised of walk-ons — student-athletes who simply love football but are in college for the sole purpose of academia, not the glamour of television or touchdowns. Obviously, this program would be decimated athletically and would find it very difficult to compete with the Florida States and Virginia Techs of the world.

At that point, knowing your program has become a Saturday afternoon doormat and the laughingstock of college football, perhaps then the university could choose to pull the plug on the program itself.

Without the television revenue, wild parties/gifts for recruits and high-profile highlights that come with college football, then the University of Miami could remember precisely what its place in the world always was, and always should be — a private school in south Florida dedicated to higher learning.

Academics should always come first. At Miami. Everywhere else.