The Michigan State crisis

Michigan State University is in deep, deep trouble. It's reminiscent of the sexual scandal that overwhelmed Penn State a few years ago.

Back then, Jerry Sandusky was accused of defiling multiple young men and eventually convicted of same. He'll never get out of jail, at least alive.

But it didn't stop there. Before all was said and done, lots of heads rolled, including those of long time football coach Joe Paterno and the top brass of the university. Besides resigning or being fired, some got caught up in the criminal justice system as well. As we know, Joe Pa himself passed away not long after the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan.

The university itself was rocked to the core financially, athletically, academically, and most certainly in the eyes of the public.

In the wake of the Larry Nassar investigation and subsequent trial and conviction, MSU and its merry band of administrators and athletic departments finds itself in a similar predicament.

The s---ball is definitely rolling.

Accusations are coming fast and furious involving sexually criminal behavior involving both the football and basketball teams.

According to reports, it would seem MSU has had this problem for quite some time, but steadfastly either looked the other way, or worse, tried to cover it up. And that's just not going to work any more. The Spartan Pandora's box is now open, and the investigative hounds loosed and feverishly on the trail.

Just recently, MSU's president, one Lou Anna Simons, resigned. As did athletic director Mark Hollis. But that might not be good enough to save them from the wheels of justice grinding them up in the future.

As we found out at Penn State, there are different facets of such alleged criminal behavior. First, there's the actual perpetrators, the jocks who did it. Second, the people that knew about it and failed to properly report it to either their superiors or law enforcement.

The third degree is where it gets tricky and differs from "civilian" crimes of the same nature.

If John Doe on the street knew some of his buddies committed a crime, but he didn't actually plan and/or participate in it himself, he's pretty well clear. However, if Mr. Doe had no knowledge whatsoever of the crime even happening, nobody would ever suggest he was culpable in any way. That would be ludicrous.

But more rigorous standards apply in some cases at universities. That being, even if you didn't know, you SHOULD have known. It happened on your watch, so you're hit, by default.

That very logic did in a few people at PSU, and might well be the downfall of others at MSU before this is all over.

Mark Dantonio, head coach of the Spartan football team, and Tom Izzo, the same regarding men's basketball, could easily fall into this category.

Both have led their teams to prominence in the last decade or so, Izzo even winning a national title.

As the information continues to unfold, it's painting a very grim picture of their programs. Both football and basketball players, many of them, on multiple occasions, have allegedly committed violent or criminal acts.

Yet as mentioned above, the university, and perhaps the coaches as well, have so far basically swept it under the rug. They've even gone so far as to quite illegally attempt to withhold pertinent evidence from the investigative authorities regarding same. But that wall is about to come tumbling down.

This thing has blown wide open and hard telling who will get caught up in it. The newshounds and government agencies are all over it.

Just because the university once tried to circle their wagons and protect their own doesn't mean the jocks who, again, allegedly, did these evil deeds are off the hook. Prosecution types might well open or re-open cases on any or all of them.

Dantonio tried to play the ignorance card. This is new ground for him, he said. Yet that appears to not be true.

Izzo has said he might retire after this season.

That's all well and good, but those guys are smart enough to know they're in deep doo-doo. The president and athletic director having already stepped down hardly means Dantonio and Izzo won't be subjected to intense scrutiny in the coming days, weeks, and months. They most definitely will.

Yes, Mark and Tom, they will be coming for you.

It would seem highly likely both of their coaching careers will be over before long. And that's the least of their worries. Both have plenty of dough. Yet if those pesky criminal prosecutors zero in on them, well, who knows where that might lead?

How much they knew and when they knew it may never be proven, but the aforementioned "SHOULD" have known thing may be the trap they can't escape.

On top of all that, over 150 women, alleged "victims", have filed law suits against the university. Before all is said and done, that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages being awarded, which would cripple the school itself.

This thing is just getting started and it's not going to go away. As they say, this story has "legs" and the heads have just begun to roll. There will be more, likely many more, to come.

Yep, MSU is in big trouble and it's probably going to only get worse now that they're the focus of attention. Forget about any more covering up or obstruction. It's ALL going to come out, as it should.

And this is before the NCAA itself has investigated and weighed in. Who knows what sort of harsh penalties they might eventually slap MSU with?

Oh yeah, this is going to get ugly. Really ugly.