Big West Commissioner Should Resign

Cal State Northridge coach Bobby Braswell read from a prepared statement yesterday, saying that the young men involved in the Best Buy caper will be held from competition until these issues are cleared.

Northridge's leading scorer Deon Tresvant and reserve Dallas Rutherford have been charged with second-degree commercial burglary and grand theft after taking items without paying for them at a Best Buy store in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The two men collaborated with the coach's son, Jeffrey Braswell, who used a co-worker's terminal to arrange the theft.

Braswell moved quickly to suspend the players. He even let his son spend a few nights in jail for the crime. For that he is to be commended. But this is only the latest in a string of incidents that has muddied the Big West's already sullied name.

The Big West is out of control and it's time for commissioner Dennis Farrell to resign.

Ask a random fan about their thoughts on the Big West conference and you will likely get this response: "Utah was jobbed for the AP national championship in football." Then there will be some embarrassment as you explain that Utah plays in the Mountain West, and the Big West doesn't support football.

But with all of the criminal activity that goes on in the conference, you would figure that they were big-time.

Cal State Fullerton suspended guard Junior Russell in February for possession for sale of marijuana. He was kicked off the team and later reinstated after the charges were kicked down to a misdemeanor. But he rarely, if ever, got off the bench. Fullerton is no stranger to the police blotter either. Other Titans players have been arrested for grand theft auto and stealing a knit cap from a department store in recent years.

Pacific had troubles stemming from a sexual-assault case back in May that led to the transfer Steffan Johnson to Idaho.

A Cal Poly basketball recruit allegedly played part in a bank robbery in August. The school cut ties with him a week later.

Kids being kids? A microcosm of society? The Big West isn't the only conference getting in trouble. There seems to be a new report of some athlete doing wrong seemingly every day. But for a conference like the Big West, they really don't have any leeway here.

The Big West should be celebrated for UC Santa Barbara's soccer program. For Cal State Fullerton's baseball program. For Misty May who played volleyball at Long Beach State. Instead, they are weighed down by these crimes. And these aren't just victimless crimes, either. This isn't just a couple of kids making kid-type mistakes of smoking a joint, or stealing a six-pack from the local liquor store. We're talking conspiracy on an Ocean's 11 level. Stealing nearly $7,000 in electronics goods and robbing banks? These are serious, serious issues.

Beyond that, the Big West stopped supporting football because it wanted to become a basketball power. Much like the WCC. Then it chased away it's best basketball program, Utah State, and elevated a number of Division II schools.

Now you have half of the teams playing in glorified high school gyms, and another playing a rusting, leaking, half-finished pyramid. The basketball courts at the prisons that will be housing current and future Big West players have better facilities.

There isn't even that one marquee program to rally around like UNLV in the 1980s or 1990s. UC Santa Barbara could be that school, but they've necked taken the reigns. Long Beach State fancies itself as an upstart, but coach Dan Monson is already looking at other gigs.

Instead of a basketball power, you have a conference making more news in the police blotter and the occasional NBA player -- like Bobby Brown -- than for winning meaningful basketball games. This conference has a become a joke and somebody needs to take responsibility for it.

The time has come to ask Farrell to resign from his post as commissioner of the Big West Conference. And you know what, more people would ask for it ... if there was anybody who cared.