The moment the unexpected news broke Tuesday that Bret Bielema was leaving Wisconsin for Arkansas, speculation over the Badgers' next coach quickly turned to one obvious candidate: Pitt's Paul Chryst.

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Chryst grew up in Madison, was son of a Wisconsin high school and small-college coach, played quarterback at UW and most recently was a dynamic offensive coordinator for the program. He left last season for Pitt. Now, with one year of head-coaching experience, he was – at least for some Badger fans – a preferable head man to even Bielema, who merely led the program to three consecutive Big Ten championships.

Yet Chryst isn't a candidate for a reason that's both surprising and refreshing considering the cutthroat state of college football.

"I wouldn't feel right [about trying to hire him]," Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said Thursday morning.

Wouldn't feel right? How often does that get said – let alone thought – in college football these days?

[Related: As Bret Bielema heads for Arkansas, Big Ten's allure fades in shadow of SEC]

Alvarez's reasoning is old-school sound, of course. In general, there ought to be a thing called "loyalty." All the jumping around that goes on today, despite long-term contracts and public pronouncements to the contrary, is dizzying.

It's not that people shouldn't change jobs. Of course, they should. But it could be done a little more reasonably.

Enter Alvarez. Chryst not only just took over Pitt's program, but it was Alvarez, a native of Western Pennsylvania himself, who played a key role in making it happen. So now Alvarez is going to hurt the school that listened to him a year ago?

"I wouldn't think it would be right for him to leave after one year," Alvarez said. "I wouldn't feel right, and I don't think it would be appropriate for me to hire him back after I asked someone to do me a favor and help him get that job.

"So Paul's going to stay at Pitt."

In a nutshell, this is Big Ten football.

Not completely, of course. There are schools in the league that would've had Chryst on the first flight to Wisconsin without even considering it unethical. And it's not that there aren't schools and people in other conferences, including even the ultra-competitive SEC, that wouldn't do the same.

[Also: Dr. Saturday's top 10 plays of the college football season]

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