Pearls of Wisdom? Bruce on the Loose Again in SEC With Auburn Tigers

The NCAA is not the only organization that should exhibit sensitivity to doing what it can to helping modify a culture contributing to the glamorization of untested athletes and suspect characters in college sports. ESPN frequently exploits teenagers beyond reason before they graduate from high school and the Worldwide Leader hypes hoops with endless hours of analysis, promotion and games. The Extra Sensitive Pious Network, playing the blame game by a different set of rules, pays obscene amounts of cash to power conferences for TV rights and gives outrageous forums to questionable individuals. By any measure, ESPN is as much, or perhaps more, at fault as the NCAA for entirely abdicating any obligation to protecting the interests of academic and moral integrity.

Pardon the interruption, but a classic example of ESPN's sanctimonious indifference to eroding values was a couple of years ago when it hired disgraced ex-Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl as a full-time analyst plus possibly a budding part-time interior decorator. How could a viewer trust anything the former Boston College mascot said while winging it when the virtuous Volunteer encouraged recruits to "stretch the truth," couldn't remember what his home looked like inside and acquired acute amnesia when asked if he recognized his assistant coach's wife?

ESPN, rather than finding an insider with less baggage, felt compelled to "force" Pearl and his highly questionable ethics into the homes of SportsNation. Accepting Bruce-On-the-Loose's pearls of wisdom as the next Valvano variation of a showman was one thing, but Auburn sacrificing its standards, or lack thereof, is quite another. Much like Pearl revisiting the SEC, let's revisit this win-at-all-costs issue in a few years and see who had lyin' eyes. Just have the "show-cause" integrity to follow a "No Photos Allowed" sign at his new Sweet Home in Alabama and don't secretly tape conversations he has with recruits like someone Tigers fans will come to know and love because he'll secure a few more victories although few, if any, worthy of wasting toilet paper at Toomer's Corner.

A few more triumphs under Pearl didn't propel Tennessee to its initial Final Four. Ditto for Auburn no matter how long Bruce is on the loose there.