Hawaii Football Scandal: Will Point-Shaving Allegations Be CFB's Next Bombshell?

In light of the Penn State scandal, nothing that happens on the field seems terribly relevant. Still, in terms of on-field scandals, there's nothing worse than what's currently being investigated at Hawaii.

Keoki Kerr of KITV is reporting that the Hawaii football program is being investigated by the Honolulu Police Department for point shaving. 

I don't care what opinions anyone has of Hawaii. If they are your favorite team, great. If they are your least-favorite team, great. That really doesn't matter. With the exception of what's allegedly happened at Penn State, there is nothing worse than this. 

Sports fans need to trust that what they're seeing is legitimate. No, the results of the games certainly aren't going to go the way that you want all of the time, but if you're not confident that it is in fact real, there's really no point in watching. 

Now, as Kerr pointed out, point shaving doesn't necessarily mean that the outcome is being changed.

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Point shaving happens when one or more members of a sports team prevent a team from covering a published point spread, often purposely failing to score as many points as the team was expected to make. Gamblers who know the information in advance can win extra money by betting on the team that was not expected to do as well but does better as a result of point shaving.

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So, if a team is favored by 25 points and they are up 28, they could conceivably allow the other team to score a touchdown, get to within 25 points and still win the game comfortably. 

But point shaving is dangerously close to just completely throwing games. And even if it's just altering spreads, it's pretty bad. There's really no excuse for players to get involved with gamblers.

That's why eight members of 1919 White Sox received lifetime bans. That's why Pete Rose received a lifetime ban. This is a different sport, but the same ideas apply.

Now, it needs to be said that this is just an investigation. Nothing has been proven.

But hypothetically, let's say that it is. From an on-field perspective, no violations that have hit any program in the past or will hit them in the future are anywhere near as bad.