The culture of football at Penn State needed an overhaul. The loss of scholarships, bowl ban, and ability of players to transfer without sitting out ensures it will happen. The culture of college football in general? Oh, that’s just fine. Nothing to see here. This was a Penn State thing, and not a human being problem thing.

So, it’s good to see reports from ESPN where Penn State coach Bill O’Brien says he walked past six coaches with Illinois bags in his parking lot on the way to Bristol. Illinois has acknowledged that a group of coaches are on campus to recruit current Penn State players. According to O’Brien, some of his players have received up to 50 different scholarship offers from other schools.

It’s NFL style free agency at the college level. Cue a speech from Mark Emmert about the student athlete now to wipe our minds clean. Too bad that Penn State had such a bad football culture that they adopted a win at all costs mentality and the leadership ignored or minimized a horrific crime. Now enjoy the pickings, the rest of you. Need some depth or a player on that line? Team message boards pouring over speculation of who they can grab up? Depth chart updates so we know where we are when a player tragically dies? You better get to Happy Valley and savor the culture, coaches, before Illinois beats the rest of you. It’s different there than everywhere else.

[photo via US Presswire]