MICHIGAN STATE IS AMERICA.

Power and greed. Broken moral compass. Lack of empathy.

The Larry Nassar predator/pedophile/sexual assault case took a sharp turn last week when, just hours after Nassar, disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor and former Michigan State University sports doctor, was sentenced. After Nassar received three lifetimes behind bars (up to 175 years on top of his prior 60-year sentence), the spotlight shone on Michigan State University, specifically MSU athletics.

And despite denials they had done nothing wrong and therefore would not resign, MSU President Lou Anna Simon resigned a few hours after Nassar’s sentencing. Two days later, MSU Athletic Director Mark Hollis did the same.

That’s the way it seems to go in cases like these. The top brass feigns ignorance, (“see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”), then shortly thereafter acknowledges there may have been missteps, and sometime after that either step down, are forced to resign, or get fired.

Two men now in the cross-hairs are MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo, one of the most respected coaches around, and football coach Mark Dantonio, also highly respected. Both men resurrected MSU’s fortunes in the two major sports that pay most of the bills in big-time college athletics. MSU’s football stadium seats 75,000 while the basketball arena seats 15,000. The size of both are indicative of a major athletics department.

In Michigan State’s most recent football bowl game, the Holiday Bowl, the per team payout was $2.1 million. That’s for one game. In the past 10 years MSU has been to numerous bowl games, including the 2014 Rose Bowl with a per team payout around $6 million. (Typically, the bowl game makes direct payment to the Big Ten Conference and then the conference distributes the money among its member schools.)

While the payout varies depending on the bowl game, it is clear MSU has made tens of millions of dollars for the Big Ten conference by qualifying for bowl games.

Same thing with basketball. A perennial March Madness contender, last year MSU earned $3.4 million, despite only advancing to the second round. However, in the past decade, MSU three times made it to the Final Four, delivering $7.5 million to $8.0 million to the Big Ten Conference, per trip to the Final Four. Again, it is easy to see the school has made serious cash from talented MSU hoops squads.

All of which is to say there are tremendous rewards for MSU, and the Big Ten, when the football and basketball teams are among the top teams in the nation. There is also tremendous pressure to maintain eligibility for the players whose on-field performance makes the team a national power.

When football coach Dantonio was faced with at least 16 cases of alleged sexual assault or violence during his ongoing 11-year tenure as head football coach, the tendency at MSU (and surely at some of the other big-time schools) was to bury the accusations. What occurs is a lack of transparency and/or manipulation of the investigation with the goal of protecting the university’s reputation and, if possible, keeping the player on the playing field.

The female victim, despite credible and believable accusations against the alleged athlete perpetrator, is reduced to collateral damage, moved aside like an unwanted poker hand.

ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” (OTL) investigation revealed a deep level of cover-up by MSU officials, including deleting critical information from records that were requested through the state of Michigan’s open records laws.

What has, and still is transpiring at MSU is emblematic of what ails too much of America these days. Powerful people who slide into the realm of power-hunger and greed. They become insulated from life’s realities. Winning overrides integrity and vigilance.

It’s no surprise that Izzo and Dantonio, given their stellar reputations, are gripping tight to the power that comes with being a head coach at a major institution (of course, venerable Penn State Coach Joe Paterno had a spotless reputation before Jerry Sandusky came to light).

Despite having been, according to the ESPN OTL report, complicit in manipulating, covering up and/or not appropriately punishing players who’d been accused of sexual assault, both men say they will not resign. Dantonio said reports he mishandled sexual assault allegations are “completely false.” Izzo said he has no plans to retire.

It remains to be seen what lies ahead for Izzo and Dantonio. The final consequences of these situations can play out over just a few days, as was the case with MSU Athletic Director Mark Hollis, or several years, as was the case with ex-Louisville Coach Rick Pitino.

Pitino walked the scandal tightrope, starting with an admitted adulterous fling with the wife of a Louisville equipment manager, who then attempted to extort money from Pitino for her silence. This was followed a few years later by proven accusations Louisville recruits were treated to strippers and prostitutes.

All along, Pitino claimed to not know a thing. Incredibly, Louisville administrators bought his story because, hey, Pitino returned Louisville basketball to a big-time, money-making machine.

But last fall’s pay-to-play scandal, involving executives at adidas paying at least one Louisville recruit, finally toppled Pitino from his perch. On his way out, Pitino still claimed hear no, see no, speak no.

At MSU, trust and transparency, both lacking the past decade, must be restored. This means the state attorney general, the FBI, the NCAA (itself not exactly a credible institution), and the Big Ten should put MSU under intense scrutiny until the truth comes out.

As Mitch Albom wrote in the Detroit Free Press, Dantonio and Izzo “need to accept the old way of ‘we know what we’re doing’ will get you fired.” The Sports Business Journal surmises it can be “assumed others, perhaps many others, will follow” and it is also reasonable to wonder if Izzo and Dantonio are in danger.

Even Michigan State’s most famous athletic alumnus, Magic Johnson, called for the immediate removal of anyone - from the university president to the Board of Trustees to the athletic director to coaches to campus police - who knew about the epidemic of sexual assault and violence. By that standard, it would seem the days of Izzo and Dantonio are numbered.

Frankly, the honorable and only thing for both Izzo and Dantonio to do is immediately step down. MSU needs a fresh, clean start, beginning with its high-profile basketball and football programs.

The women who were abused twice, first by abhorrent athlete behavior and a second time by callous MSU administrators and coaches, deserve some form of retribution, even if it’s too late for criminal justice.

And, it should be noted, if you are one of the Americans, many of whom claim to be Christians, who are not outraged by Donald Trump admitting to committing sexual assault, or if you are one of the Americans, many of whom claim to be Christians, who are not bothered by Trump reportedly paying $130,000 to a porn star to be quiet about committing adultery, then keep your mouth shut regarding the sickness that is Larry Nassar and the athletic department at Michigan State.

Douglas FreelandFebruary 1, 2018