Agree with pbiflyer - its not that "its ok because everyone does it", it is that the series was written by a bitter Oklahoma guy who has a history of ripping OSU, and many of the things he reported, weed, sex... are visible on every college campus in America.
"When March Madness spills into April.... that's the gravy!" - Homer Simpson
Say Andy Katz, a UW grad, wrote this type of exposé on Marquette. Then, reputable journalists questioned many of the facts in the article(s). I think we would be livid as a fan base as well.
And his sources are totally unreliable. I mean, sure a bunch of athletes admit they received cash (Mickens, Girtman, Johnson), engaged in academic fraud (Carter, Cole, Mickens, Brown, Cruz, Furr, Girtman, Massey, Minor, Richardson, Sims, Woods, Wright), sold and used drugs (Bowling, Bell, Alexander, Cruz, Furr, Johnson, McGill, Mickens, Allen, Bond, Broadway, Cole, Coxeff, Davis, DeGrate, Denson, Girtman, Johnson, Mack, McCoy, Murphy, Pratt, Richardson, Shaw, Thomas, Townsend, White, Woods, Wright).
But can you really trust the word of these cheaters? Look, OSU is going to get off with a slap on the wrist. Not because one of the authors hates OSU, and not because the dozens of sources may have gotten together to fabricate the greatest lie in sports history because they are disgruntled, and not because other schools cheat way more so they should get a pass. OSU will get away with this because the NCAA figured out a few years ago that they are one "death penalty" away from having every football school break away and put them out of business. That's why Notre Dame is allowed a racially offensive nickname, Duke's hoops players get to wear $10,000 jewelry, and Tarheel football players get to attend basketweaving 101.
Yet you care about the quality of the journalism on a sports story on something you don't give a rat's behind about? Interesting.
Go ahead and pick apart the quality of his fact finding and overall journalism. I agree, they are not going to win a Pulitzer, but IMO on the actual substance of what they are trying to communicate I found it both enlightening and unsettling.
Uh...what?
I think the series reeks of poor journalism. The fact checking was poor. The authors had a clear bias. They hardly talked to anyone at OSU until the article was about to print.
And when I say "I don't care about the behavior" I mean that I don't get caught up in what other schools do. If they want to sacrifice their integrity (academic and otherwise) for the sake of athletics, go for it. Do I want Marquette to engage in this behavior? Not on your life.