Today, the ivy on the walls of higher education is coated with slime, deceit and alcohol. Pick your poison.

Just when the portrait of collegiate athletics is soiled by the orgy of alleged illegal sexual activity surrounding the football program at Colorado, San Diego State can't help but imbibe and stagger into the frame, stumbling over its own minor league feet.

This is nothing remotely as serious as rape and the wild sex parties said to infest Colorado's program. But, despite the SDSU athletic department's documented pains and its changes and its firings and its hirings and its efforts to get ahold of itself, whatever's broke on Montezuma Mesa doesn't appear to be getting fixed.

A lack of institutional control? How about a lack of control, period?

If nothing else – these latest, serious allegations being true or false – embarrassment and innuendo continue to permeate the institution's athletic halls.

Aztecs strength and conditioning coach Dave Ohton, in response to the California State University auditor's investigation into SDSU athletic department improprieties, has filed suit in Superior Court alleging negligence by the school.

Several names are a part of the suit. Taking the biggest hit is Aztecs head football coach Tom Craft, not exactly a friend of Ohton's. Craft no longer allows Ohton to work with his athletes.

Sworn affidavits – under penalty of perjury – from former and current Aztecs football players and a few boosters paint Craft as an adamant admirer of John Barleycorn. If true, what Craft has been running is more sports bar than football program.

Among the allegations:

That Craft was "stumbling" and "very drunk" at about 1 a.m. the night before a game at New Mexico and "reeked" of alcohol in the locker room before a game at Idaho;

That players drank alcohol on plane trips home from road games and that alcohol was served to underage players at a team banquet;

That Craft struck offensive lineman Mike Kracalik at a team meeting;

And that Craft acknowledged unscheduled spring workouts were illegal but told players to keep it quiet.

Several of these allegations were made by former starters, highly respected members of the team during their time on campus. Former defensive tackle Jerome Haywood, who was beloved in the program, is one.

Coaches drink. Players – overage and underage – drink. Millions of people drink. But these allegations all but describe an unsupervised program run into a wine cellar.

In the NCAA's eyes, however, the most damning allegation would be Craft telling players he knew the spring workouts were illegal, but they were going to get around the rules.

Would the NCAA rip the scab off that sore? It just might. Aztecs officials were told flat-out by the governing body it would come down harder on the program if further improprieties were uncovered.

If Craft did tell his players to keep quiet about it, and former starter Anthony Foli swears he did, the coach made a major blunder. Get 90 football players in a room and it isn't easy to keep all of them under the cone of silence. It would be difficult for a team of monks.

Ohton, who has been around campus since 1986, obviously has befriended a few players who weren't recruited by Craft, an alum who was given the head coaching assignment in December 2001.

And that's only natural. A strength and conditioning coach works closely with individual athletes. A head coach can't possibly get that close. Even starters who aren't malcontents might be moved to acknowledge improprieties.

From the beginning, Craft didn't show much remorse for the infraction, minor in everyone's eyes but those of the NCAA, which went overboard to step on one of its helpless.

Because of the lawsuit, Craft, new Athletic Director Mike Bohn and university President Stephen Weber can't comment directly on the allegations.

But the charges are serious. And they directly affect the integrity of San Diego State University and how its coaches and student-athletes conduct themselves at home and on the road.

Can you run a successful football program under the weight of these allegations? It's hard enough to do when everything is as clean as an O.R. – or at least appears as sanitary, which is impossible.

Weber, who insists Division I-A football is terribly important to his school's future, has some tough decisions to make on this one.

He runs a public university. And the public has to be restless to the point of carrying torches.

Enough, in this case, is more than enough.

I like Tom Craft. But there are some who do not, and, as I've said before, as long as he's at State, the whistle-blowers aren't going to stop their tweeting.

Somehow, it has to stop.

Dr. Weber, I know you're a philosopher, not a jock. Think of Plato in pads. What would he do?