What started as a blog post at the St. Pete Times has been picked up by the Tampa Tribune with multiple articles, some of it starting to investigate USF's knowledge of all of this.

According to the Tribune, Moffitt's wife went and spoke to the school about it. This story is denied by the university, but correlated through the account of a witness who saw the discussion take place. To take it a step further, the Tribune followed up with an article after retrieving a total of 9 papers from Shauna's personal computer. The University says there is no cause for investigation and there is no way to prove that Ben didn't take the online classes.

Side note: I don't know about you, but I remember having to show up in person with a student id to take online class tests. This was the same lack of common sense that plagued FSU, and likely plagues a lot of other schools. That seems to be issue #1 that needs to be addressed. Not just at USF, but in general

The liability USF just assumed by denying any investigation -- even a quick glance over/write off -- is amazing. They better be 100% sure these charges are false and that there isn't any other cheating going on that the media will uncover. If so, they now have documented reluctance to even bother with the most basic of investigations from what seems like fairly credible accusations.

We'll see if more and more media outlets start picking up on this story. Right now it seems to be nothing more than a local one.

"Why should the media be reporting this?"

It's a fair and reasonable question. This is, after all, a divorce, and divorces can get pretty messy. Not to mention it's all pretty accusatory even with the evidence, and we have no idea of Ben's side of the story.

Here's the kicker. The school promoted Ben as the shining example of USF athletics on national T.V. broadcasts, in national newspapers (remember the NY Times and ESPN puff pieces?), and in national awards. It was a well marketed, heart warming story.

"Linebacker. Leader. Husband. Father."

The truth, of course, was that Moffitt rode his first marriage all the way to graduation and the NFL only to file for divorce before the big pay day. While national awards were being lobbied for, Moffitt and his wife's relationship had already fallen apart. The school made Ben a public figure and now the people who were sold the story are finding out that it wasn't all that true. Hell hath no fury like media scorned. That and, you know, it's the off-season.

Combine it all with the rampant cheating at another nearby state school, and you have the perfect recipe for a story. Top it off with a sprinkle of university denials like this, and it would seem to have the potential to grow:

Even with this information, Gullette said, "there's really no change at this point" as far as the university is concerned.

"The information we have is information we're getting from reporters," Gullette said. "There's not much to do at this point."

USF President Judy Genshaft would not comment on how the allegations might affect the school's academic credibility, and she referred questions to Gullette.

Ken Cissna, chairperson for USF's Department of Communication, said he couldn't comment on students because of privacy issues. Moffitt is a communication major.

Ken's absolutely right about the privacy issue, but for the rest of it, USF better hope there isn't much to this and that someone doesn't uncover something else over there. The kind of liability that USF is assuming is the same kind that the NCAA doesn't take lightly to.

As the Sarasota Herald put it, USF is invoking the "Roger Clemens" defense. The question is which local journalist is going to play the role of George Mitchell?

I won't bother commenting on the relationship situation that USF's Ben Moffitt finds himself in, that's his business. What's more interesting, especially in light of the suspensions our friends up at FSU just handed out, is this:

"He is living a lie," she said. "He's lying to everyone. He's not helping (us) with anything." Their marriage of five years has deteriorated to the point that Shauna, 26, made public Thursday a larger allegation, saying that she had taken multiple online courses for her husband and written papers for his college classes to keep him eligible to play football.

"I have written every single paper he has ever written in five years at USF," said Shauna, who works as a data specialist in the Sumter County Appraiser's Office.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, USF officials had not responded to questions seeking comment on the academic allegations.

Yikes. This is fodder of course for everyone outside of USF who has questioned Coach Leavitt's discipline (or lack thereof) of his team over in Tampa. I'm sure this type of thing takes place not just on football teams but on college campuses at large, but man.. talk about continually fueling the fire that was kicked off by Nick Saban bashing USF's lowered acceptance requirements. This comes after ESPN ran a "behind the lines" on the school showing that close to half of the USF players were admitted under 'special circumstances' with the NCAA.

This kind of thing plays out one of two ways -- either they get past it unscathed and start recruiting legit kids, or they keep going until they implode from on and off the field issues. The big question that comes up when discussing the "timing" of a possible shakedown, is whether or not Leavitt will stick it out to be around when it happens. Personally, I think if he were looking to "upgrade" coaching positions, he would have already done it. Especially with all the openings this post season.