Auburn Football's Problem Is Not HBO or the Corrupt Players, but the System

The problems with the Auburn University football program didn't just go away because it only had one infraction in the past 10 years. They just did a better job of hiding them—until now.

With the HBO special putting the Auburn Tigers clearly in the crosshairs, it's easy to point fingers at bad players who only looked out for themselves or coaches who were under so much pressure to win that they did so at any cost, but that is not the problem at Auburn, or any other school that has these $500 handshakes, presents and gifts.

It's the system behind the scenes.

The boosters wanting to be "invaluable," who believe they're helping the team and the school when instead they are wrecking it, and the fans who demand souvenirs from the players and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get them—that's the part that makes today's college football have a slimy film on top of the surface.

Though Auburn was the focus, almost any school would have those kinds of players who could come forward with enough digging. It's all about numbers, fate and timing that get some schools caught while others slip away.

Seventy-five percent of all college students have driven while legally intoxicated at least once during their college years, according to one study, yet less than one percent have ever been caught and penalized for it.

See the similarities?

Joe Chalktalk is the cleanest coach in the country. He works harder than most coaches because he won't be one of those to even slightly bend a rule to land a big prospect. He does everything right; he counsels his players and even passed out handbooks on what they can and can't do, and he took every precaution he can. He's only hired men like him to help lead the team.

Then a booster, whom he's never met, pays for a recruit to go to Disney World for a week. Another fan buys a star player's old jersey for 500 bucks if he'll sign it for him.

The coach, the school and even 90 percent of the players know these things have happened, but suddenly they're labeled cheaters, the school is ridiculed and the coach's reputation is never the same.

I'm not saying that this is what happened at Auburn; clearly Pat Dye knew of things and kept quiet. Some of these players on the HBO special said that some Auburn coaches were also in on the scam.

But the point I am making is that for every coach that is involved, there are dozens of boosters who are guilty.

Terry Bowden, a former Auburn coach, was fired despite having an undefeated season. He wanted to clean the program, but some of the people he needed to clear away from the program were some of the biggest financial supporters and influential people, so you can guess how long he stayed there.

Even though Tommy Tuberville may be proven not to be a saint himself, he too tried to buck the bad boosters, and he found himself out of a job with the best coaching record of any Auburn coach.

The point I'm making is, it isn't always the coaches, the school or the administration as much as it is the boosters, the big donors and the influence peddlers.

Until the NCAA, the schools themselves, the coaches or the players ever figure out a way of fixing that, they'll be more stories like this one on HBO, and it could be the school you back.