'Death' to Penn State football?

"An instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers." That definition of cult applies to sects ranging from the Branch Davidians to Jonestown and now, it appears, Penn State college football. The inner sanctum of the university's football program seems to have become a cult followed by legions of participants, devotees, and protectors who operated with impunity under the almighty influence of a revered icon, Joe Paterno.

Unfortunately, this is not just a metaphor about the fanaticism of college football; this was allegedly a group operating outside the bounds of the college administration, if not in some cases the law, enabling the frequent molestation of children by a member of the inner sanctum, sometimes in Penn State's facilities.

Moreover, that sanctum extended not only to the university's athletic director and a campus police administrator, but in some manner to the now-fired president of the institution. Paterno was the tail wagging the football program, and the football program was clearly wagging the university. This is why no one protested the removal of the president the way rioters came out in force for Paterno last week: The university president was expendable in the scheme of the football program.

So what else can be done? To get the full attention of Penn State and every other out-of-control college football program in America, the NCAA should take away Penn State football - if only for a while.

College football programs have been an academic cancer for years. In 1989, sports journalist Rick Telander's The Hundred Yard Lie exposed their depravity, including that of players who wreaked havoc on other students, often of a violent or sexual nature. In many places, not just Penn State, football is a license for mayhem. And if ever an athletic program were out of control, Penn State football is it.

There are several NCAA rules on institutional control or lack thereof. Consider: "A single deviation by a member of the athletics staff or a representative of the institution's athletics interests will not be considered a lack of institutional control. However, if there are a number of violations, even if they all are minor, indicating that the compliance system is not operating effectively, the person(s) responsible cannot ignore the situation, but must take steps to correct the compliance system."