Cleanest/Dirtiest Programs in the Country

Submitted by Wolverine15 on

I'd like to see what the mgoblog community thinks are, historically or currently, the cleanest/dirtiest (semi-competitive, no western kentucky or north texas) programs in the country.  As recently as a week ago I would have put Penn State in the top 10 cleanest, but now, are they one of the dirtiest?

Cleanest

Air Force

Army

Navy (obviously for all 3)

Stanford

Michigan

Northwestern

Boston College

Notre Dame

Penn State kindof

Nebraska?

Dirtiest

LSU

Alabama

Auburn

Florida State

The U

ohio

USC

SMU (obligatory)

michigan state

UNC

elaydin

November 7th, 2011 at 9:42 PM ^

There's a systematic, institution wide cover up to protect a child molester, but other than that, I'm sure everyone at penn state has been diligent with complying with all NCAA rules.
<br>
<br>What else has Joe Pa or the AD turned a blind eye towards?

SysMark

November 8th, 2011 at 9:23 AM ^

That's the way most of these situations are.  It is rarely the actions of a majority, but a privileged subset at some level in the organization.  The difference with Penn State is that it went to the very top and it went there right away - they were the first to know of an incident of child molestation and did nothing.

Also, this goes right to advantages on the field.  Whitewashing that program for so long was a huge benefit to recruiting, at least over the last decade.

justingoblue

November 7th, 2011 at 9:24 PM ^

PSU doesn't have a dirty football program. They have an ex-assistant that's all kinds of evil and an incompetent administration that didn't follow its obligations to children brought to campus. If criminal charges to coaches were the normal standard for people calling programs "dirty", the list would be very different than yours here or most people's in general.

JClay

November 7th, 2011 at 9:23 PM ^

I'm not sure "dirty" is the right word from PSU. By every football/NCAA metric, they're a clean program. What's going on there now is apples and oranges when compared to recruiting violations, cheating, and having a team of thugs.

Genzilla

November 7th, 2011 at 9:26 PM ^

I think this list is moot.  The amount of information that we actually know about these programs is extremely limited.  Yes we can identify ones that are dirty, but I think identifying programs that are clean is mostly conjecture.  Every team is clean until they get caught.  Yes, there are programs that have a history of doing sketchy things or being caught breaking the rules, but identifying the clean programs is all guesswork.

Impaler 19

November 8th, 2011 at 9:13 AM ^

I think that kicking 30 players off of the team actually gives support to the argument that they are a clean program. Looking down at OSU we see the exact opposite reaction and we argued all summer long that made them dirtier. Therefore 1951 Army kicking players off the team makes the program look cleaner.

LSAClassOf2000

November 8th, 2011 at 5:43 AM ^

In the physical sense, having seen photos of the locker room, you would think they would have a hard time staying dirty. I know I would spend all day in that shower for the luxury alone.  Now, when you realize that Phil Knight had a hand in  it....well, that ruins it. 

So, yeah, dirty program. The Willie Lyles thing too - almost forgot about that. 

Space Coyote

November 7th, 2011 at 10:05 PM ^

FSU hasn't gotten into much trouble, they just don't have the highest grade standards in the world.  I know people love to associate MSU with the word "thuggish" around here (can we get a better word while we're at it, or is it our goal to sound like elistist, disconnected with reality snobs?) but I wouldn't characterize their program as dirty.  The program itself isn't dirty, they just have a hypocritical douchebag for a coach.  But they don't pay players, oversign, etc.  Don't confuse douche for dirty.  Texas is a about the biggest douche of them all with what they've done to the Big 12, but they are still a relatively clean program that is good for example.

Like it or not, Michigan was on probation for major penalties recently (the severity or major can be debated), but I think that automatically takes Michigan off the list.  And if you went/go to Michigan you know that all of Michigan's players haven't been the most model citizens in th world.  Don't get me wrong, I love Michigan football, it's just kind of wearing really dark tinted maize and blue glasses to see them as one of the cleanest at this point.  ND had a student killed under their watch by putting him up in high winds, can't really consider them exactly clean (Floyd too), but they also shouldn't be on the bottom.

All together, pretty poor list, and worse discussion because we don't really know who is really that clean.  Info comes out on who is exactly dirty, but as far as I know Rutgers might be paying Yuri 100 grand to go there (FYI there is about a 0.001% chance of this, it's just an example).  

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 7th, 2011 at 10:15 PM ^

Free Shoes U?  Peter Warrick and Dillards?  Huge test-taking fraud scandal covering multiple sports and costing Bobby Bowden the wins record by vacating games from multiple seasons?  What hasn't Florida State done to get into trouble?  They might be in the ACC but their program - at least as run by Bowden - was pure SEC.  Bowden was the classic see-no-evil coach who openly admitted not giving a shit what his players were up to and treating the stars differently than the grunts, and nobody was ever gonna hold him accountable for it.  I lost every ounce of respect for the man over Laveranues Coles.

This might be the biggest gray-area topic ever covered, but there shouldn't be any doubt in anyone's mind where FSU stands.

tbeindit

November 7th, 2011 at 10:26 PM ^

Please people, stop comparing Penn State's situation to other colleges' situations.  COMPLETELY different.  Tattoos, stretching, oversigning have absolutely nothing to do with sex abuse of children.  Don't compare them.

Volverine

November 7th, 2011 at 10:58 PM ^

I'll add any irrelevant football team to the "clean" list. I'm looking at you (including, but not limited to):
Virginia, UConn football, Vandy, Baylor, Abilene Christian (Shout out to Johnny Knox), Iowa State, etc.

 

omahagoblue

November 7th, 2011 at 11:01 PM ^

Is Michigan State really worthy of dirtiest programs ever? I hate them too but really? I would replace State with Ole Miss, Oregon, and Tennessee. As much as it pains me to say we can't call ourselves the cleanest program ever after the fab 5 and stretch gate. Yeah they were both lame but it is what it is. Also BYU is pretty clean. I know that guy had sex with his girlfriend and that is a huge hit to the cleanliness of their program. But they are still top 10 I think.