If ever there was an industry that shrugs at moral outrage, it is college sports. Autumn Saturdays are held sacred for football rivalries, are they not? Spring weekends are the stuff of March Madness.
Every now and then, some institutions of higher learning earn a tsk-tsk for cutting corners, or a wrist slap for violating N.C.A.A. rules. No-show classes at North Carolina? No worries. College basketball coaches indicted for trying to turn those student-athletes into meal tickets? It’s been going on forever.
But try to hire a football coach with a middling record at a once-mighty Southeastern Conference university.