In normal, everyday life, this is the sort of punishment that would be expected, but in the win-at-all-cost world of college football, UCF's dismissal of four players for dangerous and unacceptable behavior is being portrayed as bold and groundbreaking.
An average college student would likely be expelled from school if he were driving recklessly through campus at a high rate of speed with no valid driver's license, possibly under the influence of marijuana, in possession of loaded handguns and a loaded assault rifle and yelling obscenities at police officers who pulled him over.
But when the four UCF players — senior defensive back Antwan Collier, junior defensive end Randy Charlton, redshirt senior defensive tackle Kenny Turnier and redshirt senior linebacker Eric Mitchell — were dismissed from the team earlier this week for that behavior, the reaction was one of shock. In the alternative universe we are now living in, there were even critics saying the school was treating the gun-carrying, cop-berating players too harshly. Why couldn't UCF football coach Josh Heupel be like so many other big-time college coaches, keep the players on the team while the slow crawl of the judicial process runs its course and then just sweep the ugly matter under the rug in a few months when everybody has forgotten about it?
