The shock of being un-shocked

The bar for scandals in America is an exceedingly low one these days. Remember that old SNL bit with John Belushi and the little chocolate donuts?

Yeah. Even he could clear it.

This is a consequence, at least in part, of an administration that daily establishes new standards for influence peddling. It's become almost nostalgic now to remember a time when conflict of interest was a thing, and corruption actually was a bad thing. But now?

Well. When corruption is simply the way business gets done in Washington, everything's a scandal. And therefore nothing is.

Which brings us to the latest non-scandal scandal, Rich And Powerful Parents Buying Their Kids' Way Into Elite Universities.

This is in the news because a couple of celebrities have been caught up in it; in a celebrity-obsessed society, nothing revs up a news cycle like famous people getting caught being bad. Seems actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin got nabbed by the FBI paying a fixer to game their kids' SAT and ACT scores, part of an elaborate scheme that includes coaches allegedly taking chunky bribes to fake-recruit fake athletes in order to land them athletic scholarships.

So far, a legendary water polo coach (USC coach Jovan Vavic, the Nick Saban/Mike Krzyzewski of water polo) and several soccer coaches at prominent national programs have been nicked for allegedly taking money to get imaginary athletes into school on bogus scholarships.

In a word: Well, color me shocked and appalled.

Let's face it: The whole notion of the rich and famous using their wealth and power to get their kiddos into storied academic institutions is as American as fearin' foreigners. Our Only Available President, after all, didn't get into the Wharton School of Business on his massive intellect; ditto his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, getting into Harvard. Somebody's palms likely got greased somewhere to make that happen. It is and always has been the real affirmative action in this country.

Ditto with the coaches who allegedly took money to fabricate athletic recruits.

They are, after all, the products of a system that's built almost entirely on commerce. Collegiate athletics at the top level are as profit-driven as any other corporate entity, an institution that pretends to a higher purpose while keeping one eye glued on the financials. When you have conferences putting together their own TV networks, scheduling mid-week football games and adding members based solely on market penetration -- hello, Big Ten -- it's not about the convenience or welfare of the student-athlete. It's about the cabbage.

And so why should we be shocked that coaches would cut side deals with unscrupulous people to plump up their own bank accounts? They're simply products of the prevailing culture.

You reap what you sow, folks.  And Division I athletics have been sowing this crop for a long time.