Those inside the sport will tell you that cheating never has been so widespread, yet the NCAA hasn't busted a single big-time men's basketball program in nearly two years.

It hasn't nailed a major football program in nearly 15 months.

It's the longest stretch of compliance for the once iron-fisted organization in 46 years and the second longest ever according to an analysis of the NCAA's major infractions database.

Across a landscape of power conferences and power programs, the NCAA hasn't uncovered one booster, one agent, one phony term paper.

An organization that once picked off cheats nonstop – it averaged nearly seven major convictions of big-time programs from 1986 to 2006 – now either is incapable or unwilling to police its money sports.

They did get Middle Tennessee State volleyball. And Texas Southern tennis, of course.

Yet in football and men's basketball, when it comes to major programs (the top six conferences in football, the top nine in basketball) and major violations,

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Each small step brought a grimace of pain – too many blown chances not helping the two blown ligaments in his knee. Charlie Weis had his arm around his son, a limp in his step and defeated eyes staring straight ahead – casting what for many would be a sympathetic image.

In the stands around the Spartan Stadium tunnel, many had a different take. Over the din of the Michigan State band serenading a 23-7 victory, fans screamed venom at Weis. They had let the Irish players go through mostly unmolested, but not the coach. No way for the coach.

And so they shouted at him. One guy flipped him off. Another hung over the rail and rained insults down on him.

Slow and hobbled, one tiny, tormented step at a time, Weis finally made it into the tunnel. He never once looked up to acknowledge the scene above.

Beating Notre Dame might not mean as much as it once did – Michigan State's done it nine times in 12 meetings, its student section wasn't full and the postgame celebration

Chris Petersen was too busy working on a Boise State game plan to watch the NFL on Sunday.

When Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan eschewed a final-minute tying extra point in favor of what turned out to be a winning 2-point conversion, word got to Petersen, perhaps all of football's most aggressive coach, quickly.

The decision stunned the NFL, where it's rare to dare. It left Petersen laughing at the reaction.

"I heard some of the announcers were saying, 'He shouldn't be going for it. What is he doing? They're playing at home,' " Petersen said Tuesday. "I'm just kind of chuckling that people made such a big deal about it. He obviously knew exactly what he was doing."

Well, you'd think. Shanahan is in his 16th season as an NFL head coach, has reached the playoffs seven times and won two Super Bowls.

When he decided to become just the seventh NFL coach to attempt to win a game by going for 2 though, you would have thought he was some bumbling rookie. It wasn't just his coaching acumen

Craig Thompson is enough of a realist to know that if at the end of the year Southern California and Oklahoma, for example, have perfect records, the BCS title game will be set.

Even a one-loss champion of either the Big 12 or the SEC – the two conferences that boast nine of the top 11 teams in this week's AP poll – would be impossible to argue against.

Brigham Young or Utah or Texas Christian could be undefeated coming out of Thompson's Mountain West Conference and probably have to settle for a Fiesta or Sugar Bowl. Settle being the key word.

If this year winds up like last year though – chaos in the chase for a spot in the BCS championship game – Thompson, the MWC commissioner, is vowing to make a push into unchartered territory.

Forget an undefeated MWC team trying to crash its way to a BCS game. If any of them survive to reach 12-0, Thompson will lobby hard for the BCS game, the one for the national title in South Florida.

"Absolutely we would campaign for that," the league

LOS ANGELES – Here was Jim Tressel, sitting in front of a microphone after his program again melted into a big-game puddle of scarlet and gray. Here was Ohio State's leader after another national humiliation, 35-3, this time at the hands of Southern California.

Here was the sweater vest, who keeps calling for the same old failed game plan even when he's far from the comforts of the cornfields of the Midwest. He's an example of coaching insanity – expecting the same bad plays to produce different results.

Here was Jim Tressel and all he could do was smile and shrug.

"The guys fought hard," he offered Saturday night. "I don't know that we did the best we could do, but we fought hard."

So apparently that's it now for Ohio State. They fought hard. Let's just focus on the moral victory – the lament of every blown-out, schedule-padding cupcake in college football. We were overmatched and outcoached, sure, but we fought hard.

Only this is Ohio State. The Buckeyes keep getting their asses

One of the great fallacies spread by BCS apologists is that the system makes "every week a playoff." Hence, there is no need for an actual playoff.

No matter how oft-repeated, it doesn't become true. Ohio State and LSU both dropped games in November a year ago and advanced to the title game. That isn't how a real playoff tends to work.

The reality is you can lose, even late in the season, and emerge no worse for wear.

Unless you're this year's Ohio State Buckeyes.

Then, there is no margin for error. Fair or not the Bucks will pay for the lingering memory of BCS championship game disasters past until they bury it with perfection.

That makes Saturday's game at No. 1 Southern California the rarest of college football games – an actual must-win.

USC can lose and rebound. Ohio State can't. Unless they defeat USC, the Buckeyes have no chance of reaching a third consecutive national title game.

If they do win only to lose later in the season and finish 11-1, they still might get passed over.

Don Haskins was the John Wayne of basketball, a one of a kind throwback, a coach's coach and a man's man who finished his career in an era overrun by the Armani-clad phonies.

When he retired in 1999 after 38 years at the University of Texas at El Paso, I dropped him a congratulatory note. A few years earlier I had written a magazine story about him and his decision to start five black players in the 1966 NCAA title game.

He got the note and called. "Now that I've got nothing to do, come down and visit," he said. This was rare for a reporter. You don't become friends with these guys. I wondered why he wanted to. Now I treasure that he did.

He picked me up at the airport in his pick-up truck. We drove into the desert to "chase clouds." This was a good time to Haskins and what we generally did on my many ensuing visits.

A bottle of Jose Cuervo usually came along. Sometimes we'd slip into Mexico for a cerveza. Maybe we'd shoot beer cans or play pool in some little dive. One time we got up

Terrell Owens pulls in a touchdown reception against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

CLEVELAND – The play that changed everything about this NFL season had occurred hours before and miles away.

Tom Brady's reported torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee had taken the league MVP from the Patriots, the league's standard bearer and title favorite. While the thoughts of the Dallas Cowboys were initially about a fallen fellow player, there was also an acknowledgement that the competitive balance had shifted.

It gives the Cowboys, impressively dominant in defeating Cleveland 28-10 on Sunday, potentially one less road block to a season where it's Super Bowl or bust.

"Tom Brady is the reigning MVP and that's for a reason," linebacker Brady James said. "I'm sure he'll be missed on that team. One thing about (New England) is they have enough talent and experience to rise up."

Actually, they probably don't. As good as the supporting cast is in New