Penn State Sex Scandal Highlights Depraved Culture of College Football

College football is a breeding ground for slime balls and swindlers. It turns men with lofty morals into corrupt criminals. 

This has never been more apparent than it is in the sickening bright light of the Penn State sex scandal. While this deplorable set of circumstances has taken college athletics to a depraved new low, the conditions that created it have led to rampant reprehensible behavior time and again in countless universities.

Jobs, careers and the health of entire educational institutions can ride on the success of the football team.

College football is huge business. To give you an idea of the kind of numbers we're talking about, in 2009, Forbes listed the Texas Longhorns as the nation's most valuable team.

They generated $119 million that year—$59 million of which was profit.

It is not just about money, either. A strong football program also leads to invaluable prestige and notoriety.

The bottom line is that a quality program allows everyone involved with a university to have access to better facilities and higher salaries.

People will do funny things for this kind of security and power.

These conditions have led to countless cases of corruption and disgusting criminal activity.

It is the same combustible mix of circumstances that led to the respected powers that be at the prestigious Penn State University to act in their own self-interest and sweep the actions of an accused child molester under the rug.

Numerous people at Penn State were aware of the allegations that assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was molesting a 10-year-old boy in the showers of the Penn State locker room. Yet no one notified the authorities.

University president Graham Spanier knew enough that he was willing to sign off on a ban that kept Sandusky from bringing boys onto the Penn State campus, and he was maniacally selfish enough to not alert authorities or launch an official investigation.

He either knew the sordid details of the allegations, or made sure he knew as little as possible to protect himself. Either way, he chose to act with the goal of self preservation instead of acting for the greater good.

In his mind, it was worth it to keep Penn State's name out of the mud while letting a man that was a possible child molester continue to have access to countless children.

This is the kind of savage, twisted and depraved logic that can only come with the intoxication of greed and power.

While this is certainly the most disturbing evidence of the sickness that the culture of college football brings to society, it is not anywhere near the only thing.

Institutions have, and will continue to, turn a blind eye to boosters and agents paying players, trainers giving young adults performance enhancers, teachers not holding athletes to academic standards and countless recruiting violations committed by coaching staffs.

For far too many universities these kinds of behaviors only become a problem when they become public, and they become a bigger liability than an asset.

It is wrong, dangerous and out of control. And there is no end in sight.