I would like to say that your experience would be shocking but, unfortunately, it's the sad truth too often in big time college athletics. When college athletics become a huge business with deep corporate dollars feeding the university kitty, the only things that are going to ultimately matter are the number of W's and championship banners.

You didn't feel comfortable blowing a whistle on it all?

My late father in law was the chief of police at a major university in Socal. He knew most of the football players well, unfortunately for the wrong reasons. The majority of them did not graduate, but received a certificate of attendance. I wonder what the graduation rate is for bama players.

Apparently 24-7 over Washington is not enough and Saban lets Kiffin go this morning with one game to go in the season.

@fugawe09, that's very good and sad insight into big-time college football. I am sure that is common practice at the upper levels of the sport. I'm torn because I love the product on the field but feel terribly for the majority of the players who won't make it into the NFL. I'll always cherish my time playing at UCD where nearly all of us were playing for the joy of it and focusing on our post-college careers (though someone seemed to go on to the NFL every 1-3 years back then). I missed several practices to study for an exam or prepare for a paper, and yet we were still very competitive. i believe we can still achieve success at the FCS level and focus on academics. Some programs are able to do this at the FBS level (Stanford, Northwestern, the academies). It's a cultural commitment.

Saban may be a football guru but the incident during the game with Washington where he goes berzerk on Kiffin shows that he is a first class jerk also.

Happened earlier in the season as well.

@BlueGoldAg

Pathetic! What a wonderful role model for his players on how to handle their emotions in the heat of the game...! If this man can erupt like that on national tv, just imagine what he's like when he's behind closed doors or when the cameras are off. Uncontrolled outbursts of anger should not be tolerated and justified just because it takes place in a sporting event. It sends a terrible message especially to young men.

Think Woody Hayes....nobody at The Ohio State University did a thing until he stepped on the field and punched a player running down the sideline.

Or some of the stories about Bobby Knight.

Saban is a first class jerk, Kiffin is right in there. Switched numbers for players during a game, refused to let opponents practice in the Coliseum, played around with air pressure in footballs before the Patriots...

I grew up in Indiana and still have Hoosier hysteria in my veins. My mother and sister are IU alums and my sister lived in Bloomington for many years. Despite all of his championship accomplishments, Bob Knight nearly ruined Indiana basketball with his outrageous, juvenile, anger tantrums and, believe me, what you saw on the court was only the tip of the iceberg.

The worst part was that IU administrators and many fans turned a blind eye to his shameful behavior as if the ends justified the means. Finally, after he assaulted a player by grabbing him by the throat, the university knew they couldn't let him continue and gave him the boot, but a lot of damage was already done.

Knight left Indiana pouting, angry and loudly crying foul. The man was a genius about the game and demanded unquestionable accountability and total commitment from his players but he was to blind to his own boorish behavior. It left a stain on IU basketball for quite some time and the ability to recruit at the highest level fell off. IU basketball is finally back up to an elite level under Tom Crean. Crean is very intense but he always maintains a respectable demeanor.

How many times have you watched Hoosiers and Breaking Away?

Hoosiers seems fairly accurate.

I've seen them a few times. Hoosiers is a very accurate account of perhaps the biggest Cinderella basketball story ever.

The high school basketball tournament in Indiana had only one classification when I was in high school which meant that every school, no matter how big or small, were all together in one big tournament. That's how such a small school like Milan ended up beating the big, perennial powerhouse, Muncie Central for the State Championship in 1954. They also beat Indianapolis Crispus Attucks, led by Oscar Robertson, in the semis. Bobby Plump, who hit the shot as time expired to beat Muncie Central, is an Indiana legend.

I'm not sure when the single classification tournament ended but now, like most states, the Indiana high school basketball tournament has several championships based on school size. We'll never see a miraculous run like Milan had in Indiana ever again.

Edit note: Indiana ended the single championship tournament in 1997 amidst much controversy. Many Hoosier basketball fans loved the traditional format because it allowed for the possibilities of Davis vs Goliath upsets. Now only two states have a single tournament format in which everyone competes against each other: Kentucky and Delaware.