Word came down yesterday that my alma mater, West Virginia University, allegedly violated NCAA college football rules over a span of five seasons.

There were five major and one secondary rules violations:

According to the NCAA, during the summers of 2005 to 2009, West Virginia allowed graduate assistants, student managers or others to monitor or conduct voluntary football players’ summer workouts.

Graduate assistants were allowed to analyze video with football players and some staff monitored and conducted skill development with players during the spring and summer, the NCAA said.

I wasn’t totally surprised by the news because the investigation of WVU football has been well-publicized for several months. The violations encompass the tenure of former head coach Rich Rodriguez, and he hadn’t been at Michigan as head coach long before the NCAA alleged violations against him there. Rodriguez’s reputation is mud.

What does surprise me about the allegations against WVU is that they didn’t stop when Rodriguez, now exposed as a bad boy of college football, fled Morgantown, W.Va., to Ann Arbor, Mich., in the middle of the night. Current WVU coach Bill Stewart apparently followed Rodriguez’s bad example.

Rodriguez is a pox on the good name of West Virginia University, and even in his absence, his has cursed the school. We’re better off without him. Now it’s time for Bill Stewart and new athletic director Oliver Luck to right the ship.

Based on Luck’s statement yesterday, it sounds like the Mountaineers are up to the task:

Because of our strong commitment to compliance, we implemented significant changes intended to ensure that those mistakes did not continue, and that they will not happen again.

This past spring, we developed new job descriptions and employment agreements which clearly detail permissible and non permissible activities for graduate assistants and other sport-specific personnel. In addition, we have expanded rules education and monitoring programs.

We have also reduced the number of football graduate assistant positions, restricted the duties of graduate assistants and non-coaching personnel, and restructured the student manager program. We may take additional actions.

As for this Mountaineer, I will take Luck’s closing admonition to heart: “As Mountaineers it is in our DNA — in our very nature — to stand strong, to stand together, and to stand firm when we face challenges — whether on the field or off. As we approach the coming season, let us do so with pride in our university, passion in our football team and persistence in our mission.”

It’s well past time to get beyond the Rich (Gotta Get Richer) Rodriguez era of WVU football and build a better program. Let’s go … Mountaineers!!!