RUTGERS AND PENN STATE ARE ONE AND SAME

Here we go again. Another scandal in college sports. On Tuesday, ESPN's "Outside The Lines"
ran explosive and damning video of Rutgers basketball coach, Mike Rice verbally and  physically
abusing his players in a way never seen before---ever. Bobby Knight may have been worse behind
closed doors and the former Indiana coach was captured with his hands around the neck of one
of his players, but nobody's repeated behavior has been more volatile, inappropriate, and
despicable than that of Rice.

In a tape compiled from 2010-2012, Rice was shown throwing basketballs at his players from
point-blank range and pulling, grabbing, and shoving them all over the court. He was also heard firing insults and homophobic slurs at his team. To even the most hardened viewer, this behavior
is stomach turning and way over line, and by much more than a country mile.

No matter how much anger management he goes through, Rice will never be able to recover
from this. He can sit on Dr. Phil's couch, visit the Pope, and deliver a mea culpa on ESPN's
"Sunday Night Conversation", but Rice is cooked. His coaching career has gone up in smoke
faster than Anthony Weiner's political aspirations.

Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti reviewed the tape, which should be titled, "Rice Gone Wild",
back in November. Less than a month later, he slapped Rice on the wrist with a three-game
suspension and $50,000 fine. So, that's it, that's all, now let's go play some winning ball.

Interesting how Pernetti said the decision was all his but during the interview on ESPN,
admitted school president Robert Barchi, also viewed the tape and agreed with the punishment. Pernetti had no problem throwing his boss under the bus. When reporters called upon Barchi's
office for a comment later in the day, they declined and directed all inquiries to Pernetti, which
means he is out there all alone to deal with this one.

The question is: how could Pernetti and Barchi look at the behavior of Rice on that tape and say, "Yes, that's the man we want to be leading Rutgers basketball and developing our student-athletes into better men."?  How could they honestly say, as an administrators and leaders, the best interests
of the players' health and welfare were not being jeopardized by the mad-man that is Mike Rice?

This is absolutely mind-boggling. What's that old saying? "The best predictor of future behavior
is past behavior". But as we've seen in athletics, that usually goes out the window because every
coach thinks he can rehabilitate a great athlete who exhibits poor character and every administrator seems to think he can help a coach with his problems just as long as that coach wins games and makes the school a lot of money.

The decision by Pernetti and the administration at Rutgers had a lot to do with money and a great
deal with protecting the image of the university. Does that sound familiar? One just has to
look at the tragic events at Penn State to confirm the belief the cover-up at Rutgers, and make
no mistake about it, there was a cover-up, had a lot to do with those two things: money and image.

The athletic director at Penn State during the Jerry Sandusky scandal, like Pernetti had the first
name of Tim. Tim Curley, who like Pernetti, played football at his alma mater, felt he was responsible for protecting Joe Paterno and a program that generated more than $60 million
a year, which supported every non-revenue sport in Happy Valley.

Paterno built a squeaky-clean image for Penn State and Curley and school president, Graham Spanier, wanted to make sure the cash-cow was protected. We all know how that turned out. The Freeh Report damned the school for protecting its image rather than ensuring the welfare of
young children on their campus.

Did Pernetti and the school president do a good job of protecting its young student-athletes
from a psycho coach who thought he was in a game of "Dodgeball" and was the only one
allowed to fire ammunition? Did they do enough to protect them from being called
f&*#*t's, P#&@sy's, and effin c---t's?

Were they on vacation when a Rutgers student killed himself after being embarrassed and
humiliated by two fellow students because of his sexuality? Hello? Mr. Pernetti and Mr.
Barchi, what the heck were you guys thinking?

Pernetti started an investigation of Rice back in July and finished it up in December. He saw
all the abuse on tape, reviewed it 100 times, and still came to the conclusion that it really wasn't
all that bad. Good, grief. Did a player have to come his office with a leg snapped in two like
Kevin Ware's to get his attention? If Rice wasn't Pernetti's first-ever major hire at the school,
do you really think he would've kept his job. Doubt it. Highly doubt it.

Pernetti is a smart guy, as well as a political animal. There's a reason he ascended to the heights
he did so quickly without having one day of experience in athletic administration at a
high school or university. He's been around athletics all his life and knows the difference
between discipline and off-the charts physical and verbal abuse. So, why didn't he fire Rice
when he had the chance to do it back in the fall? He had the smoking gun (the video) to terminate
him on the spot. The answer: image and money.

Pernetti hired Rice. He was responsible for him. Pernetti is image-conscious when it comes
to every facet of his life and career. He knows the Rutgers job is a springboard to bigger and
better things for him. Pernetti is ambitious and power hungry. His final destination is not
Piscataway. Pernetti brought Rice on board and knew he came with an edge, but that edge
sure as hell wasn't going to be the one that Pernetti felt would carve up his sterling resume.
He protected Rice, the school, and his own image.

Pernetti saw the video and prayed and hoped it would never get out to the public, but it has.
Now, he's in that dirty creek, fighting to save face and perhaps his job, without a paddle. He
says he's reconsidering the job status of Rice. He saw the tape back in November and conducted "hundreds of hours  of interviews" according to him. Pernetti could've done the right thing five months ago and NOW  he's going to re-assess the job status of Rice? Translation: he needs to do
something to save his own hide.

The other reason Pernetti wanted this situation to go away, is money, which would come in
the form of Rutgers' move to the Big 10. The public universities in the Big 10 received almost
$25 million from the pot of conference revenue in 2011. Rutgers was only collecting about
$6 million  from the Big East. Big, big difference. Pernetti and Rutgers accepted an invite from
the Big 10 in November, but you know that negotiations didn't just happen overnight.

Pernetti didn't want anything to mess up this deal, it was his baby and would be a big part of his
legacy. Having a basketball coach exposed for verbal and physically abuse at the time, probably would have been a distraction Pernetti was not interested in dealing with.

Pernetti got his deal with the Big 10. Now, he's got the biggest headache of his life to try and
relieve. I don't expect Rice to be part of the Rutgers family by Wednesday evening. He is the
black cloud hanging over the university. Do you really think the school is going to allow him
to go in the home of a recruit? Rice would probably go ballistic if the chocolate cookies a
mother offered him weren't warm and chewy.

After Rice picks up his belongings at the basketball office on Wednesday, he will never step
foot on the Rutgers campus again. He is done. Pernetti, like his former AD brethren at Penn State,
is fiercely protective of his schools' image, as well as his own. He's going to distance himself
from Rice real, real quickly

He should've done it back in December, now he  and Rutgers have to clean up one big mess. It's
not going to be easy or very pretty, and when it's all said done, it might just cost him his job.