Oklahoma (State) Ain't OK

According to Sports Illustrated we've got a "football factory" going on in Stilwell, Oklahoma. Are you sure, really, no kidding? That's right fans, Oklahoma State with the help of Sugar Daddy T. Boone Pickens has gotten dirtier than Miley Cyrus' choreographer... and ain't it terrible. Why they're paying players, doing their school work for them and even having campus hotties show them the ropes during recruiting visits (wink-wink!). Here's SI's explosive cover this week blowing the lid off this scandalous scandal.

Hang on a second...I GOT THIS!

Damn! This is harder than I thought.

WOW, that's better! (Gee I was getting a little nervous there. It was like my fingers were possessed)

Now, are we to believe this is unprecedented? Have the editors ever been to say... NORMAN, Oklahoma? Are rich, generous alumni particularly uncommon in college athletics? Furthermore I wonder if SI would be interested in shining the harsh light of truth on the Oregon Ducks (another team that came out of obscurity in the last few years) and their benefactor Phil Knight? And I'm sure the fact that OSU's Pickens doesn't really do that much business with sports magazines and Nike does millions upon millions, I'm sure that fact would not even enter the heads of SI's editors. 

Here's the thing, college football is dirty but that's the system. And when a "nobody" school wants to join the club of the TOP THIRTY, then all of a sudden the bloodhounds start baying. The University of Oklahoma is dirty as hell, and has been for years. Most of the SEC is dirty, and has been for years. Clemson stinks to high heaven, and has for years. It's common knowledge. So they get a pass because they're in the club because they're the bread 'n butter money-maker schools. Oregon gets a pass because Phil Knight has clout and North Carolina's football program gets a pass because their basketball program is so lucrative that they can't afford for the brand to be tarnished. But woe be unto the no-name school that tries to buy their way in (SMU immediately comes to mind) especially if they're sitting on top of a "name" school like Oklahoma or Texas. 

So I'm guessing this story is probably factually correct, but that's not really the point. This is the way the game is played and the rules were set by the powers that be...for their benefit. The system serves them just as prohibition served bootleggers. So for a school like Ok. State they have the choice of playing crappy football for all time or getting down in the mud with the likes of OU and the rest. But if they choose the later they had better be prepared for these kinds of stories. The sports establishment doesn't take kindly to upstarts.