Obviously, Rutgers wasn’t paying attention

Note to all colleges and universities:

If you don’t want to look stupid, be embarrassed and be ridiculed nationwide, don’t try to cover up anything.

Ohio State, an outstanding university with lots of very educated people running it, and Penn State, another outstanding university with tons of educated people, tried to cover up NCAA violations (Ohio State) and child abuse (Penn State), and they ended up looking stupid, being embarrassed and being ridiculed.

Every coach involved was fired, and so was the Penn State president.

Last week it was learned that Rutgers obviously doesn’t get newspapers delivered or have television on campus, because school officials apparently hadn’t realized what had happened at other schools and tried to cover up the outrageous behavior of its men’s basketball coach, Mike Rice.

Eric Murdock, a former NBA player who was in charge of filming Rutgers practices, turned over videos of Rice shoving players, throwing basketballs at them and verbally abusing them.

Athletic Director Tim Pernetti, who was fired Friday, wanted to fire Rice on the spot.

Instead, upon someone’s advice — likely interim vice president and general counsel John B. Wolf, who has now resigned — Rice was ordered to sit out three games, was docked $50,000 to $75,000 (reports vary) and was told to enroll in anger-management classes.

Robert Barchi, the university president, knew about Rice’s behavior but apparently his job is safe. He said he knew about the video but didn’t ask to see it.

So Pernetti, who wanted to do the right thing and fire Rice, a Rutgers graduate, has been fired while Barchi, who apparently didn’t care as long as it didn’t go public, went along with the suspension and loss of pay.

Come on, Rutgers. You have a chance to the do the right thing and start over with a clean house.

Admittedly, the video made Rice look like Attila the Hun or perhaps even Bobby Knight, but it was made up of clips from several practices and wasn’t turned over to ESPN by Murdock until after he had been fired for insubordination.

Of course, now he is suing the school for wrongful termination. You can almost smell the money that will come with the settlement.

This story broke last Tuesday, and it was discussed at Wednesday Night’s Men’s Group. Every single guy said he had been physically moved into a position by a coach during high school or college practices.

That happens. If guys can’t learn their positions, a little hands-on learning often is needed.

Bouncing a basketball off the brain container is not a good teaching method.

At the risk of sounding prudish ( which I’m not), something that isn’t necessary is the constant barrage of profanity and certainly not slurs, such as Rice is accused of using.

Anyone can slip and let a curse word escape, but any coach who thinks that demeaning players regularly through profanity is going to help — especially when it comes to recruiting — isn’t keeping up with the times. Few athletes are motivated these days by profanity and a challenge that they can’t do something.

It is OK to knock an athlete down mentally if the coach helps him back up. That’s been a part of military discipline since George Washington was a private.

What happened to those student-athletes at Rutgers is a shame. They deserve better.

Not just from their coach, but the entire administration. Until Barchi is fired, Rutgers will continue to look stupid and will be embarrassed and ridiculed.

There is only one right way, and that never includes a cover-up.