Boise State Football: Sanctions Are a Way of Life for Football's Elite Programs

We learned the Boise State Broncos would be hit with sanctions. The news was received with shock at first, but has dissolved into apathy. We have all resigned ourselves to the fact that if you're not cheating, you're not trying to win. 

The age old adage used to seem more fitting for baseball, a sport that demands you steal signs and place phantom tags. 

The thought should seem inconceivable in the ranks of college football. It is a sign of the times that we have all but accepted that universities skirt the rules, and that no program is exempt. 

Granted, the Boise State sanctions and violations are child's play compared to the bombshell that was released on the Miami Hurricanes earlier in the year. 

But that is besides the point. 

The fact remains that we have numbed to it all. In a perfect world, NCAA powerhouses would be clean institutions that run as machine-like as they do on the field. 

I fail to believe that head coaches can have their young men learn complicated play books, run them to perfection in front of thousands and still have their students remember which classes they are signed up for. 

The one thing they can't do is control what their students do off the field. That sentiment is beyond laughable. Jim Tressel of Ohio State allowed his players to have unsavory ties to tattoo parlors.

He allowed them to live life free of imposing questions from coaches and staff. That is hardly how things should work. If the coaches demand results and a by the book nature on the field, it should be imposed off it. 

Yet, we feign interest. Every year, another program is hit with sanctions and rule violations. We deride. Then we move on. 

Let us all agree to what we have already done, which is that we accept it. 

Boise State broke a couple of rules, nothing to lose sleep over. However, it should be. When did rules have degrees of severity?

The time has come to either hold these schools to a higher code or release them from the rules completely. 

I am tired of the in between.