UCF, like many teams, cheated to get ahead

When I sat down to read the 16-page NCAA Notice of Allegations for myself, I discovered some troubling things. As I continued to read I became more and more angry.

I wasn't angry because a representative of my school blatantly broke the rules, or because I was embarrassed to be a UCF student or even because the Super Sketch Bros., Bender and Caldwell, ruined UCF's good name.

I was angry because they got caught.

In my defense, I don't think cheating is okay or that UCF is in the right in any way in this scenario. But as I read allegation after allegation the only thing I could think was, "Man, our basketball team really could have used Kevin Ware and Michael Chandler this season."

Is this what being a fan of college sports has come to?

I think so.

The win-at-any-cost mentality seems to have become the norm in college sports. Some of the nation's most respected institutes are toppling one after another due to scandals.

Not even counting the obvious culprits like Miami or John Calipari at Memphis, everyone knows they're dirty. But could anyone have guessed that Jim Tressel at Ohio State or Joe Paterno at Penn State would be forced to retire?

Has winning become such a necessity for coaches and athletic directors that they could commit such blatant illegalities? Some of these guys have to know they're going to get caught.

The problem is that coaches value winning so highly that they are willing to risk losing their jobs amid scandals to get an extra edge. And fans are the fuel to the fire.

Many UCF fans were outraged when then ESPN writer Pat Forde suggested that UCF had to be cheating in order to get such highly touted recruits. I was plenty angry at this disrespect from the national media simply because UCF was not a household name in college basketball. But, in hindsight, he was right.

How could fans have expected UCF to bring in the 16th-ranked recruiting class cleanly? How could we expect Ware to choose UCF over the likes of UCLA, Georgia, Georgetown and Louisville when he isn't even from Florida?

The fact that this booming recruiting success didn't seem suspicious to the fans shows that we hold coaches to a standard that they can't possibly live up to. These kind of expectations force coaches and athletic directors to seek any kind of upper hand they can possibly find, even if that means bending the rules.

President Hitt holds the athletic department to the highest expectations of compliance and honesty. He wants his coaches and their staffs to do it the right way. But, as the coaches return to the recruiting trail, doing everything the right way, will the fans be okay with it? Will Donnie Jones' job be safe if he doesn't bring in a top 25 recruiting class within the next three years?

Only the fans can answer that question.

It's not about accepting losing in exchange for a clean program, it's possible to win and be clean. But it is about being realistic in your expectations. The fans have to understand where their school is and expect results accordingly. Donnie Jones is a great recruiter and UCF is a very attractive place to come to play, but UCF is not the future home for any McDonald's All-Americans. At least not any time soon.

If UCF is going to become a truly clean program, it starts with the fans.

Whether or not Knight Nation can rise above its current situation is something left to be seen.