As the college football season wound to a close during the twilight of 2005 and first week of 2006, the lesson clearly learned by both the University of Colorado and Virginia Tech was better late than never. The Buffaloes' head football coach, Gary Barnett, finally joined the unemployment ranks at the conclusion of his school's regular season, and the Hokies gave star quarterback Marcus Vick the boot after he misused his boot during the squad's bowl game. Both were wise decisions and, though they each came too late, other NCAA universities would do well to draw a lesson of sorts from these schools' problems.

Mr. Barnett brought disgrace to his school when, in February 2004, he responded to allegations that Katie Hnida, Colorado's female place-kicker, was sexually assaulted by teammates by commenting to a group of reporters, "I think she was a distraction because at the end of practice, we would have 20 media members there to talk to a walk-on kicker who couldn't kick it through the uprights." He went on to call football a "guy's sport" and suggest — hopefully not mindful of the terrible pun — that his players felt like Ms. Hnida was "forced on them."

Mr. Vick has also enjoyed a shameful tenure at Virginia Tech, including a suspension following a violation of unspecified team rules, possession of an illegal substance, driving with a suspended license and, most recently, stomping on an opposing player's calf following a play in the Gator Bowl.

It took the latter duo of incidents for Virginia Tech to finally dispatch of Mr. Vick and it took a poor season of play for Colorado to drop Mr. Barnett, but the reality is that both schools' reputations almost instantaneously improved once these sores were removed from their football programs.

Universities, above all else, are about academic education, and prestige is surely always more valuable than a favorable win/loss record on the gridiron. Yet too many schools of late have created veritable public relations fiascos, allowing star athletes to get away with behavior that brings disgrace to their respective universities. Athletes and coaches — especially those appearing on television every Saturday — are ambassadors from their respective institutions and, while each school surely should have its own process for dealing with all members of the student body in a disciplinary context, it seems only wrong that those given these heightened delegation privileges ought to be able to so willfully bring shame to their schools.

As the University of Wisconsin deals with the troublesome second arrests of Marcus Randle El and Booker Stanley — and panoply of other schools deal with their various athletic behavioral discrepancies — it would seem wise for all to keep the lessons of Colorado and Virginia Tech in mind. Dignity is surely more valuable than any victory, and an athletic program infested by those whose names are no longer shameless can all too easily bring disgrace to an entire university.