Audience Participation: “Clean” College Athletics Programs

I need your input

Here’s the situation- I’ve got a friend who’s a die-hard Trojan fan that was giving me grief about the latest Tressel “news” (and you wonder why Ray was in the doghouse…). I know… savor the irony.

Anyway, after we moved past our mutual schadenfreude (I’m working the steps, trust me), we started talking about who we could “follow” that wouldn’t give us these types of headaches. Fear not, this was a hypothetical exercise… I’m still on task.

We looked at BCS champions from the past decade, and many of them have “issues”- USC, Ohio State, Auburn (do I need to say it?), Alabama (oversigning and agent issues from last year), LSU (allegations of working with “agents” with recruiting), Florida (multiple arrests), and we could only come up with Texas. But Texas has a minor scandal in their basketball past… so that made us double think that selection.

So- Here’s the question:

What major college athletic program could someone follow that met the following criterion?

1. Successful on the field/court- Top 10-15 nationally in at least one major sport, obviously more is better. Football, Men’s and Women’s Basketball carry more weight than Baseball, Track, Lacrosse, etc. History of success is important- not just a one or two year streak.
2. No history of NCAA violations- Or if they do exist, they’re secondary/minor or so far in the past that it can effectively be argued that “things have changed”.
3. No history of “lawlessness”–  Students will be students, but the athletic program shouldn’t be a regular player in the Fulmer Cup.
4. Student athletes- Sure, college athletics are internships for pro sports, but what teams make the grade on and off the field? And yes, we’re looking at athletic departments, but you can’t use the cross country team’s GPA/Graduation rate to counterbalance the fact that your punter can’t read.

Ok, so there’s the rules. Sure, some of these might be “more” significant than others, but I’ve got a feeling that those distinctions will be pretty subjective.

We have a ton of great readers here from a lot of different programs and with varying perspectives, so I’m interested in what you all decide. It will be interesting too to see one person nominate their school and have someone else offer a “Well, what about…”  Be respectful, folks.

And, before the trolls come out, this is not an attempt to deflect responsibility from the current Ohio State situation: we firmly believe that accountability is a part of the process. I’m really interested to hear what our readers come up with.

I’ve got one program in mind, but I’ll wait until later today to see if anyone else might be thinking the same.  Have at it!