Grizmayor said:
As usual from seeing Beau's Griz photo used with the story - the crime is connected to the costume. Beau Donaldson the football player wasn't wearing his uniform when he commited the rape. This is an act of an individual who just happens to have an athletic scholarship. I've seen this point made before and I agree 100%. Too say this reflects badly on the football program bothers me... when in fact, it should reflect badly on his personal values and be an embarrassment to his family. Bad life decisions and bad blocking/tackling are two different things.
That said, when student-athletes garner academic honors or do great things in the community (that have nothing to do with football), we all definitely want that goodwill to be attached to the athletic program. We can't have it both ways.
It may not be fair (I know MSU fans would certainly have loved to segregate football activities from off-the-field activities for a whole truckload of our players several years ago), but that's just the reality of it.
When a college football team goes out and proactively recruits a player to come to your school to be a football player (essentially, to be a face for marketing the University), ALL aspects of that person's personal and on-the-field life (good and bad) are going to be attached to the team and the school.