In Ann Arbor, they determined that the Wolverine football team had practiced too much and had too many assistants to spot during lifting sessions and fetch balls during drills. The thinking was that Michigan was gaining an advantage or overworking their student athletes. Thank goodness for the NCAA enforcers, says nobody but their on-field resenters and rivals.

While the NCAA took three years to look into the University of Southern California athletic program, O.J. Mayo recruited himself, had a “friend” nearby at all times that had special access to practices and needed tickets, and saw to Mayo’s out-of-the-gym lifestyle. Head coach Tim Floyd was forced to leave the program and Mayo spent a year before becoming a top NBA draft choice. Heisman winner Reggie Bush contributed to a national championship while allegedly having a “marketing agent” provide cars and other “support” while locating his parents in a sweet, rent-free house. Brian Cushing allegedly poked his skin with performance enhancers that went back as far as high school and continued in LA, and Pete Carroll jumped to the NFL this past off season after years of NFL job offer denials.

Now USC can’t play in the post season for two years, will lose something like 20 scholarships, will have to give back a national football title and maybe Bush’s Heisman. Probably harder to do than giving up Kim Kardashian.

Jim Calhoun’s UCONN basketball juggernaut was exposed as being out of his control. His buddy Jim Boeheim’s basketball program produces good teams on the floor, but apparently they don’t go to class. The NCAA is particularly good at exposing these kinds of flaws, and pointing to the the “clean” programs as good examples, but somehow those programs get left out of their 64+ team bonanza every March, while the Syracuse’s, UConn’s and USC’s prosper.

So it’s a good thing that will emerge from the new “Super Conference” alignment because these conferences will dictate how national champions are determined, how bowl money is distributed and who takes the cake when it comes to television contracts. All of the NCAA lawyers, investigators and bureaucrats in Indianapolis will be rendered obsolete and that’s a good thing.

Rosario will finish the semester on the state of New Jersey’s dime and then head south where he’ll sit a year before he has two remaining years of eligibility, which he hopes will resurrect his slim chances for the NBA.

He leaves a team that is crippled and reeling from player defections and a coaching drama that has already dismissed coach Fred Hill Jr., balking at his payoff settlement, and has slowed the search for his successor. Rutgers is destined to fall even farther backwards in the competitive Big East.

The ill will toward Rutgers demonstrated by Hill has also been mirrored by Rosario in his first commentary since being granted a “no strings attached” release by Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti. Despite his comments to the contrary, and being granted his freedom for two years to shoot and run the offense under Hill, Rosario is quitting and damaging a school that went all out for him.

In Florida, “we are going to win,” he said in his transfer announcement, meaning he thought that would never happen at Rutgers. The team is made up of “good guys who are passionate about the game,” he added, meaning the boys he’s abandoning were not. “The people down here are so wonderful, so different,” he backhanded to those who had supported him in Piscataway.

In an article from “The Daily Targum,” the RU student newspaper, there were alleged suspicions of drug use and an attitude from his teammates of “good riddance.” Perhaps the most inciteful commentary came from Rosario’s legendary high school coach, Bob Hurley, who said he was surprised at Rosario’s lack of drive at Rutgers. “He needs to be pushed,” Hurley said, citing Rosario’s failure to work extra on his shooting with Rutgers coaches when his shot went bad.

There are evident glimpses of Rosario’s approach to life in the recently released “The Street Stops Here,” a documentary by film maker Kevin Shaw, where we see Mike Rosario’s senior year with the St. Anthony Friars. In the film, Hurley, who doesn’t like dew rags or tattoos, demonstrates his “tough love” coaching style and tussles with Rosario, as the Friars charge in 2007-08 toward St. Anthony’s 23rd state championship. Rosario is shown being dressed down by Hurley, assistant Ben Gamble and by his teammates. Mike Rosario was the only McDonald’s All American on that unbeaten team which ended rated number one in the nation.

Today, the colorfully tatooed Rosario, succumbs to what he concluded as overwhelming adversity at Rutgers. Perhaps similar to what he grew up against in a broken home in Jersey City’s infamous Duncan Projects. He was quoted as saying “he had to get out.” But this time when everthing was stacked against him, instead of fighting and staying in Jersey City, he chose to run, leaving a broken home behind.

The trouble is Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti is now on a hot seat having to make a reactive decision on who will lead the Scarlet Knight’s basketball fortunes out of the dark ages. As though Pernetti’s task isn’t daunting enough as he tries to raise Rutger’s fortunes above the classification of “feeble” in the Big East.

Pernetti and Rutgers basketball also needs to raise cash in a cash strapped state, to build a basketball center and upgrade the RAC, one of the best on-campus 8,000 seat venues anywhere, and compete with everyone from Pitino to Wright to Krzyzewski to Calipari to Boeheim to Steve Lavin, Danny Hurley and Ralph Willard Jr. for players in their own backyard. They’ll also need to pay a coach to lead his vision.

Three million a year was the bandied number throughout this season’s coaching derby. Pernetti has nothing close to that, not to mention little support from alums, state funding and his trustees.

Somehow, Pernetti’s spin doctors have Fran Fraschilla and Jim O’Brien as the saviours. No one is asking why Fraschilla left St. John’s and New Mexico abruptly or about O’Brien’s lawsuit with Ohio State, which exonerated him from being bashed by OSU and the NCAA for alledgedly loaning $6,000 to a Serbian recruit.

Fred Hill Jr. ($600,000 per year) leaves a bit of a mess, too. First, his dad, Fred Hill Sr., RU’s baseball coach, has to continue to work for Pernetti, while his son weasels the most out of a bad contract former AD Bob Mulcahy gifted him in 2006. Junior has gone from a loyal Rutger’s “dream job” to a threatened defendant in a lawsuit aimed at getting somewhere from $1.8 to $2 million out of the school, in just a matter of hours. New governor Chris Christie, who is strangling every taxpayer dollar in New Jersey, should represent Rutgers in the courtroom.

All this excitement has taken some observer’s eyes off the (basket)ball. Rutger’s has a chance to settle with Hill because it can fire him for cause…i.e. as a head coach and high-profile leader of the school’s second-leading revenue sport, you aren’t supposed to throw f bombs at public intercollegiate/athletic places, and, be stubborn (no apology), and, disregard orders (insubordination) from your boss. This turn of events may take away the horror of Hill’s contract, while at the same time opening the door to a good coach who may be able to keep recruits, import more player and coaching talent and put the program on a course moving ahead toward the goals of 1.) competing in the Big East, 2.) performing in the Big East tournament and 3.) securing an eventual NCAA bid.

O’Brien and Fraschilla are not those guys. They will be patches, and within another four years or less, be heading toward the sunset. Despite granting Hill a one-year reprieve on St. Paddy’s Day and missing out on the March Madness coaching carousel, you would have hoped, that if Pernetti is as bright as some say, and been doing his job, he has a list of creative options that will improve Rutger’s fortunes.

Let’s start with Bob Knight (worked for $250,000 a year at Texas Tech, and gave it back), whose son Pat last month publicly mentioned “that schools like St. John’s and Rutgers should at least be making a phone call” to inquire about the General’s interest. Who better to persaude Mike Rosario to not blow his career chances by sitting out a year and transferring or going early to a foreign league where he’ll be forgotten forever. Rosario’s best days were played under the demanding Bob Hurley Sr., who is one of the few who can match temperments with Knight. Who better to stabilize the program, put a shining light on it, and groom players and coaches? Who better to raise money (ask the librarian at Indiana) and graduate players?

The second inquiry would be to Larry Brown ($7 million a year according to Forbes.com), rumored to want to return to his first love, teaching “the right way to play”, familiar with the metropolitan New York area, having homes in both Philadelphia and New York and maybe, not completely in sync with his new owner, Michael Jordan. This is a long shot prospect, especially if the 76ers job opens, but it’s about time Brown jumped jobs and the money doesn’t really matter after pulling in his salary for a couple of years and settling with the Knicks for close to $20 million.

A third consideration would be Gino Auriemma ($1.5 annually, plus Nike contract, bonuses, incentives and perks) who needs to coach men to truly gain a distinction among basketball’s greatest coaches. It isn’t quite clear how RU’s HOF women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer ($500,000 base plus bonuses, incentives and perks which total an estimated $1.2 million), one of Gino’s arch rivals, would welcome that news, but that might be just the factor that get’s Gino to Piscataway. He likes to tweak whenever possible.

For a fourth possibility, wait a few days and see if former Rutgers star Eddie Jordan ($5 million estimated) becomes available if fired from the Philadelphia 76ers. Jordan’s chances at another NBA job (Sacramento, Washington, Philadelphia) would certainly shrink, and taking his Princeton offense back to college, while returning to his alma mater makes sense. If there’s a guy who could better help Rosario prepare for the NBA, please submit to Pernetti.

Today, word out of Piscataway is that ace recruit Mike Rosario, “Hill’s first McDonald’s All American,” wants to transfer as he heads into his junior year, and his top incoming recruit Gil Biruta, from Newark’s St. Benedict’s, wants out of his letter of intent. One report has St. Anthony’s of Jersey City legendary coach Bob Hurley providing some level headed advice to his former charge Rosario, while new Wagner coach Danny Hurley, formerly the head man at St. Benedict’s, has Biruta’s ear.

If Rosario bolts, it would be an even dozen players that Hill has lost in his four years on the job, the most significant to date being big man Greg Echenique, who left for Creighton this past season. According to a Newark Star-Ledger report, Hill met with Rosario and his mother in a testy exchange where the shooting guard said Hill was impairing his chances for the NBA. Well, if giving the kid the green light to shoot whenever he wants is impairing, there might be just a little bit of responsibility on Rosario’s part to make a few of those shots. Rosario averaged 33 minutes a game and shot 487 times and made 184 (.378) many of which came in garbage time. He’s got one thing right, the NBA scouts have him pegged as an NBDL shooter.

So Rutgers men’s basketball is back to square one….no money with new Governor Chris Christie firmly placing his abundant frame on top of any treasure chest that might someday mean a basketball complex and upgrades at the RAC. Seton Hall, St. John’s, Wagner, Fordham, Hoftsra and Iona have nabbed the coaching prospects. And, players can’t wait to leave. What could that mean to future recruiting? That Piscataway is destined to remain an outpost of terrible basketball.

Paul Hewitt (1997-2000) is rumored to have been offered the St. John’s job, if he can wrangle away from his “commitment” to Georgia Tech, and current Siena coach (2005-2010) Fran McCaffery, may be following the Louis Orr (2000-2001) model of jumping from New York’s capital city to West Orange, NJ and Seton Hall.

The only ex-Saints coaches who are still-in-play and not being pursued are Bob Beyer (1994-1997) who is an assistant for the Orlando Magic, Louis Orr, the head man at Bowling Green, and Rob Lanier (2002-2005) who is an assistant for Billy Donavan at Florida.

And athletic director Tim Pernetti may grant Hill his wish, following the lame precedent posed on TV by fellow Jersey bad ex-coach, Bill Raftery, as the Scarlet Knights fell to Cincinnati at the buzzer in a first round Big East tournament game that ended their season. To paraphrase, “Greg Schiano was given time to develop his program,” Raftery blew hard. “It takes time, and Freddy deserves the same consideration.”

What Pernetti really needs to consider is whether he wants to take Rutgers to a competitive level in men’s basketball, or be satisfied with Hill’s 32-60 overall record, middling recruiting, ill-conceived, $1.8 million buyout (provided by Bob Mulcahy, Pernetti’s successor), uncompetitive team and bailing recruits. It’s crossroads time. Move on and make history. Spend some money. Take a chance. Or, stay with Hill, pay him an affordable $600,000 a year until 2013 and continue to follow past mediocre history.

Rutgers is funded by taxpayers and it’s a tough time to make progress in New Jersey as conservative new governor, Chris Christie, takes his foothold. For Pernetti to go to the next level he has to think big. Expand the RAC. Build a basketball facility to compete with his competitors and sell the school as a realistic basketball locale. In other words continue investment into making Rutgers more of a “destination” college, where players want to come. Like Schiano preached years before, New Brunswick is a sleeping giant. Good education. Good fanbase. Absolutely superb location and marketplace, situated on train tracks just over 30 minutes from Manhattan, with multi millions of basketball (and football) fans in its broadcast footprint.

As a business proposition, Rutgers basketball could easily hike attendance with a competitive team, attract high rollers, expand into the TV coverage business (a Pernetti specialty) and finance, over time, the upgrades to its physical plant. It just takes vision and courage. A good coach would go a long way to taking Rutgers in the right direction. Without progress on the capital plant projects, a dynamic coach is the best way to immediately add recruits, upgrade the level of play and unleash the New York metro passion that would come with a winning team. Hopefully it’s clear to Pernetti that Fred Hill Jr isn’t that guy.

Although Hill has a strong reputation as a tireless recruiter, he hasn’t created critical mass with players by stockpiling and overlapping his talent. He uses Mike Rosario as his flagship recruit (“first McDonald’s All American to Rutgers”) but as a coach, he just lets Rosario shoot at an unacceptable percentage. His best freshman Dane Miller can’t hit a free throw and his prototype Big East big man, Greg Echenique is now mysteriously moving to Creighton. Hill can recruit, it’s clear he can’t coach and he’s surrounded himself with stiffs to remain the singular source for the direction to nowhere.

The New York Post’s Lenn Robbins authored a handy guide to metro coaching possibilities, citing ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla and Steve Lavin, Jersey HS guy Danny Hurley, UCONN assistant Tom Moore, Siena’s Fran McCaffery, Hofstra’s Tom Pecora, Rick Pitino and Iona’s Kevin Willard as possible Rutgers candidates. All but Pitino are realistic.

As Pernetti waits to review Hill’s performance, he needs mostly to consider Fred Hill Jr’s one crowning achievement as coach of the Scarlet Knights since 2006. That would be the contract Hill secured himself that guarantees $600,000 a year until 2013. Pay up Tim, and move on. That’s what we’d call New Jersey progress.

So, I thought it would be a good time to provide some sports reminders. First, the Olympics start on Friday. They don’t start off with a bang, alpine events will occupy the first weekend. Figure skating, hockey, speedskating, Shaun White’s one event and Lindsey Vonn will be the highlights of the two weeks. It’s weird how Sports Illustrated has talked the Olympic females into bikinis and the dinner hour gossip shows are so on top of whom (Lindsey Vonn) will be the next star for the paparazzi to pay attention to. That in itself is a bad sign. When Access Hollywood starts telling us about our skiers, it has to be worse then the Madden curse. I don’t think that Vonn will medal now. Meanwhile, the mountain two hours north of Vancouver in Whistler is envious of the snowfall at 17th and Park Avenue South.

The biggest snow jobs remain on cable TV. In the past months and just this week, the cable virtuists have reinforced that Tiger Woods is a dolt because he’s the first guy with a thirst for sex; that Mel Gibson is a dope because he called an asshole “an asshole,” and Rex Ryan is $50,000 punished for flipping the bird in public. All of these accounts gave the pundits plenty of ammo to lecture the public on how holy they were, while these resented-specially-treated-talented-people-who-make-millions-and-you-don’t, are such bad examples of behaviour. It was especially great to hear from Tom Watson, who while he commanded the links, was at the top of the SOB list, not for fooling around, throwing clubs or swearing, but for just being mean and unpleasant to those who covered him. Of course, his public persona was of a smilin’ and humble golfer. Any temperment shown of Tom while working was attributed to his being a “fierce competitor.”

Mike Francessa last week, called it the loss of “the fear factor” that has come with Tiger’s dressing down. Now all of the jealous, I-was-never-nor-ever-will-be-that-good, closet resenters, racists and frustrated competitors are having a field day. There seems to be a comment from somebody daily, to equal every time Tiger skipped a tournament, blew off an interview, tossed a camera, dictated how it was going to be and ate up the field. Funny that no one has said too much about how boring golf is without him and, while giving him credit for fattening their wallets, no one wants to venture a pointed finger at anyone else on the tour who has ever stepped out on the wife.

And as the weekend gives birth to the Olympics, some good college basketball, the NBA All Star game and golf at Pebble Beach, pitchers and catchers will be slowly showing up in Florida and Arizona to start the baseball season. They dropped Poppy Hills out of the Pebble Beach rotation this year and replaced it with Monterey Peninsula CC’s shore course. I could never figure out why Cypress Point isn’t included in the Pebble mix. Clint Eastwood is said to be a member at both, maybe they should put Dirty Harry on the case?

Pebble Beach remains the nation’s most beautiful golf course and will give pros a warm-up for the 2010 U.S. Open in June. For plain folk like us, you can reserve a $500+ a night room at The Lodge at Pebble Beach, The Inn at Spanish Bay or Casa Palmero which will entitle you to book a similarly priced tee time at Pebble. They’ll also gladly book your golf at Spyglass Hill or Spanish Bay. It’s good to know that the place is now under control by Americans, not the Japanese, and none other than Arnold Palmer is helping rule the peninsula. And this weekend, a lucky few celebrities, who pay one way or the other, get to hack away, while we watch New York transcend from the hard to believe back to reality. Kind of just like the amateur’s handicaps.