"Nobody is bored when he is trying to... discover something that is true" -- William Inge

One hopes there's the same rush-to-judgment in Syracuse as there was in Penn State when the former's own underage sex scandal broke this week. It would be fair, and it may even help Joe Paterno feel a bit better as he battles lung cancer.

In Syracuse, the accused molester is still on the basketball staff, still on campus, and his head coach, Jim Boeheim, was fully apprised of the molestations.

There is some legalese about the "statute of limitations" and "corroborating evidence" (the latter of which, it is widely understood, is really not necessary in charges of child sexual abuse, one of the few crimes in which the burden of proof falls on the accused, not the prosecution) which to a great degree smells similar to Paterno having passed along his information up the chain of command and washed his hands of it. Legal technicalities, however, did not save Joe from the firestorm when he did not precipitate the calling of the police.

Syracuse, in turn, conducted their own investigation of that school's sexual abuse scandal as recently as 2005, but no one called the police at that time, either. They all were satisfied with simply having handled it internally and finding nothing.

The most chilling testimony in this latest story is from one of the molested boys, lying in the hotel bed of the molester while the team was on the road, and being seen there by Boeheim, who made a face that the child interpreted as, "You shouldn't be in here."

Here's a smart bet: Will everyone in the media have become so tired of lynching Joe Paterno and the Penn State assistant coaches that Syracuse gets a "pass" on all of this?

YES is even, and NO is -140. In other words, the odds here say this all will fizzle as we turn our attention to the holidays, the BCS, and the never-ending Tim Tebow saga. The smart money is that nothing will ever come of this.


[Add-on, 11/20/11: After seeing almost nothing about this story on Yahoo Sports, I suddenly realize that ESPN broke this chilling news, not, for example, a legal authority. This story may get little coverage outside of Worldwide Leader. Why would other outlets want to promote a story in which they had been 'scooped' by another network?]