re: will Miles get any heat from the OkSt scandal?

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Shortly after Les Miles took over as Oklahoma State's football coach in December 2000, he introduced an exhortation that he would use often at the end of team meetings during his four years in Stillwater. "Academics first," Miles would say. "Football second."

Miles's words encapsulated one of the central pillars in the mythos of major-college football: that nothing, not even wins and losses, takes precedence over educating young athletes. The reality is that when jobs and money are at stake, priorities quickly skew.

As Miles said, "Academics first," he would hold up two fingers. And as he said, "Football second," he would hold up one.

"You heard his words but you saw what he was doing," says Doug Bond, a Cowboys offensive lineman from 2002 to '04. "So the thought process was that you're going to school just so you can play football."

Given the coach's message to his players, it is not surprising that 13 Cowboys who played between 2000 and '11 told SI that they participated in some form of academic misconduct, and 16 others were named by teammates as also having had schoolwork done for them. Players said that they routinely had their coursework completed by tutors or university staff members, that they were provided with answers to exams before taking them, and that they received passing grades despite doing little or no work. Players also allege that the academic counselor for football scheduled them in classes with exceptionally lax professors and pigeonholed them into majors without consulting them. "The philosophy, the main focus [of the program], was to keep [the best players] eligible through any means necessary," says Fath' Carter, a safety from 2000 to '03. "The goal was not to educate but to get them the passing grades they needed to keep playing. That's the only thing it was about."

Full coverage of SI's special report on the Oklahoma State football program

That philosophy took root after Miles was named Cowboys coach before the 2001 season and continued under Mike Gundy, who was the offensive coordinator under Miles and replaced him after the '04 season, players and former staff members say; less and less emphasis was placed on academics, and the school began admitting more recruits who weren't as qualified academically. "Were the players who came in after Miles [arrived] lesser students? Yes," says Carter. "So things had to be put in place to help them."

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Terry Henley, an academic adviser for football since 2000, denies the players' allegations that he scheduled them in easy classes and steered them to majors, but concedes that academics weren't a priority for Miles. "There was never pressure [to cheat], but Miles was like most coaches who want to be somewhere else," said Henley. "They're going to do what they need to do for two or three years, and they're not going to have to deal with whatever the fallout is. So, no, he didn't promote academics."

VIDEO: SI's special report on Oklahoma State

Miles, the coach at LSU since 2005, denies that he deemphasized academics while at Oklahoma State: "I always said, and I always meant, that academics was the most important thing." Of the one-finger, two-finger gesture, Miles says it happened just once in "a moment of humor."

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You can bet SI and it's writers will be under the microscope on this 1, and from what I'm reading they already are.

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Everybody who pays attention to college football already knows he's a joke.

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13 Cowboys who played between 2000 and '11 told SI that they participated in some form of academic misconduct,

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