The NCAA’s going to have fun figuring this one out. OBJ gives LSU football players real cash money once the championship game ends Monday. QB Joe Burrow says he’s not a student-athlete anymore, so why not. Neither are seven Tiger underclassmen who turned pro.

But if you are an underclassman planning to return, and you found a little green laying in the palm of his hand … stayed tuned on this one, because hammers might fall as fast as they are in big league baseball.

Imagine it, two World Series winning managers over the last three years may never see the inside of an MLB dugout or clubhouse again.

One extremely talented baseball team, built from the gutters up, yet somebody felt they needed to use technology for an edge.

The reason why A.J. Hinch is no longer manager of the Houston Astros is that he is in charge of everything that goes on and everything anybody wearing a uniform or representing the organization in game-day operations does. It is reported that he did not mastermind or even approve the sign-stealing scheme using cameras and trash cans at home games. Maybe he has his head buried too deep in analytical charts, trying to decide where his superstar middle infielders should be with every pitch to every batter.

But Hinch and Houston’s general manager were both suspended by the league and let go by the Houston owner, a message that everything starts from the top. Just a day or two later, Houston’s bench coach for the 2017 championship season – the one where techno sign-stealing was at its peak – Alex Cora is relieved of his duties as Boston Red Sox manager.

Why? Because MLB was on the verge of suspending him also, not just for his deeds in Texas but what he may have done in leading Boston to the title as a rookie skipper in 2018.

And, on Thursday, Carlos Beltran got Mike Priced. He was in the Astros organization in ’17, so before he can even do a spring training game as rookie manager of the New York Mets, he’s gone.

These sign-stealing accusations fall under the category of cheating. Perhaps somebody can help me draw some kind of parallel, for ‘cheating’ was also the word used when talking about players using performance-enhancing drugs. I start by saying that PED use is always an individual choice, and individuals caught these days receive quite a long suspension. Getting caught more than once can lead to banishment from the sport.

Otherwise, nothing’s been taken away from anyone, no home runs off the all-time list, no Most Valuable Player Awards, and no championships. There are those not receiving any new accolades, like, say, a Hall of Fame induction. It reminds me that it’s this Tuesday, Jan. 21, that the results of the baseball writers’ ballots for the 2020 Cooperstown class are revealed, and unless Derek Jeter doesn’t become the second straight Yankee to be an unanimous selection, don’t expect any surprise news.

If you are wondering about comparisons to the 1919 World Series and Chicago White Sox players receiving lifetime bans from the sport, remember those guys tried to lose games at the behest of gamblers.

What we have going on right now with Houston and Boston hasn’t resulted in the forfeiture of a title. I might be correcting this statement later, but in fact nowhere in the history of professional sports can you find a vacated championship. The closest thing to a comparison to Hinch and Cora came in the National Football League when Sean Payton, who led the New Orleans Saints to its only Super Bowl title in 2009, was suspended for the 2012 season. Why? Because for three years his defensive coordinator was offering bounties to take out opposing players.

Payton didn’t have anything directly to do with that. He’s an offensive guy and may never set foot in a defensive meeting room, but he is the head coach. I repeat, that person is responsible for the actions of everyone under his thumb.

But Payton eventually returned to New Orleans’ sidelines, and the Super Bowl win is still on the record, just like the 2017 and 2018 World Series results. Other team officials for the Saints received punishment, and the organization – just like the Astros – had to pay a huge monetary fine and give up draft picks.

It’s in college sports where a big season can be wiped off the board due to an indiscretion. The ones of the highest profile occurred here in the 21st Century: Louisville men’s basketball in 2013 and the BCS football title (not an NCAA prize) for Southern California in 2004.

You know how this can be both the greatest and toughest time of the year to be a college or professional coach. Great if you are Ed Orgeron or former Falcons assistant Kyle Shanahan for reasons of winning, or if you are Matt Rhule or former Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman for new opportunities. It’s not so good if you once coached in the state of Mississippi and are taking a step down or if you are in any way associated with the Cleveland Browns.

Then I look at some of the recent comments by esteemed North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams. He suggested he lose his job for a loss to Clemson last weekend (Clemson hadn’t beaten UNC in 59 games and never in Chapel Hill) in the same season Wofford knocked off the Heels in the Dean Smith Center. It’s three ACC home losses in a row for UNC, and one of those was to an equally mediocre Georgia Tech team.

But isn’t Williams doing things the right way, or at least now he’s trying? Didn’t he say in the middle of all these woes this team has the least amount of gifts he’s ever had?

Gifts. Right. Got to watch yourself and what you give to whom, right OBJ?

Think about this irony. Penny Hardaway starred as a college basketball prospect in a movie where he decided to play for Nick Nolte’s fictitious ‘UCLA’ looking school. This coach always wanted to do things the right way, and won national championships for it, but as eras changed the great players and wins started not coming so easily. He gets talked into making under-the-table deals to get the most gifted players, but can’t handle the guilt after opening the season beating the No. 1 team in the country at home.

Flash forward 15 or so years and Hardaway, a former Memphis University player, makes a pretty big gift to the school, which used it to build a Hall of Fame. That, in the eyes of the NCAA, made him a booster.

Nine years later an up-and-coming player named James Wiseman becomes part of Hardaway’s travel team; one year later Hardaway is helping the Wiseman family move from Nashville to Memphis. One year later, 2018, Hardaway becomes Memphis’ men’s basketball coach, and in the ’18 signing period he lands Wiseman, a 7-1 center rated No. 1 in the country.

The news of 2019 is how the NCAA ruled Wiseman ineligible for all of this previous connection to Hardaway. After sneaking into a couple of games for the Tigers, Wiseman – since I suppose the school was on a semester break in December – said enough with this, I’ll just leave school and prepare for life in the pros.

That’s kind of what the Hardaway character did in that film.

Do you know who Brad Brownell is? How many in a little South Carolina town knows that answer?

Right now, with 178, he is Clemson’s all-time leader in coaching wins for men’s basketball. That is the result of Tuesday’s home win over No. 3 Duke. Do you suppose that plus beating UNC is enough to ease the sting of Monday’s other Clemson game?

There’s a good comparison here in the athletic programs of Clemson and the University of Georgia. Yes, these are football schools. How many times do we have to hear that? Nobody’s disputing it. But every couple of years or so somebody writes a story about how Georgia basketball struggles for attention in a football crazy town.

The Bulldogs were riding a big wave of momentum beating the Wiseman-less Memphis group in western Tennessee only to crash in their first two SEC contests. A great home crowd, and a great first half vs. Kentucky, but somehow we forgot about the second half.

Give them credit, though, for handling the UT Vols Wednesday.

There are 15 SEC games to go in this season before the tournament, and all home contests are practically sold out (Wednesday’s game was about 200 seats short) from what I understand as there is a lottery-pick in our midst.

But get this: I’ve seen the excitement in Stegman Coliseum like it was when the ’Cats visited; it’s nothing new. It’s just not fair to compare the 90,000 who travel from far and wide to fill a football stadium every time with a 10,000-seat arena and a sport where folks from various area codes don’t make those same kind of treks.