Anyone who’s been even tertiarily involved in NCAA sports knows how corrupt it all is.

That makes this bust all that more gratifying.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced punishments against Northern Colorado Friday, commending the university for “exemplary cooperation” but still slapping it with fairly severe penalties, including vacating the 2011 win in the NCAA Division I Big Sky Conference and returning all money from the team’s appearance in the championship — neither the institution nor the NCAA specified how much that will be.

Former head coach B. J. Hill, a longtime coach at Northern Colorado, was fired in 2016 after allegations emerged he had helped players with their course work. The NCAA found that Hill, along with five assistant coaches and one graduate assistant, had either completed classes for prospective athletes or paid for the online courses.

I don’t know if the institutions I worked at were that bad, but we had fluff classes called things like “Life After Football.” Taught by the football coach, of course.

At this point, honestly, I don’t see how college sports and college academics are in any way related. They’re two completely different entities shared by a common brand.

I’m not sure which one is the parasite anymore.

Athletics needs the college’s academic legitimacy and its name. The college needs the $$$ from athletics.

A weird co-dependent relationship.

It’s really weird.