Culture is recyclable. What goes out almost inevitably comes back. Thus the suspicion that we're in 1980s recycle mode is now confirmed via fashion and football.

Girls are dyeing their hair pink. Big glasses have made a resurgence. And there is college football scandal from coast to coast.

What started in Los Angeles at USC has rippled through other prominent addresses nationwide: Columbus, Eugene, Auburn, Baton Rouge, Knoxville, Atlanta, Chapel Hill now the brewing cataclysm in Coral Gables. And that may not be all. A well-connected college official last week predicted "a busy fall" for alleged rules violations.

The only difference from the '80s is that the cheating contagion has thus far skipped the Southwest. That was ground zero back then.

The retro movement appears to be ongoing on the gridiron. Once the embarrassment reached a saturation point in the '80s, the establishment reacted. School presidents got active, academic reforms such as Proposition 48 were instituted, and the NCAA dished out the ultimate deterrent, the so-called death penalty. SMU is still recovering from that infamous 1987 shutdown.

Last week NCAA presidents once again stepped forward, convening in Indianapolis, and delivered a mandate for academic upgrades. And they also made clear a desire to see the serious cheaters get hit hard.

"Coaches, athletes and boosters should be afraid now if they're going to go out and break rules," Penn State president Graham Spanier said.

That is Miami's cue to be afraid.

The Yahoo! story that broke -- erupted, really -- on Tuesday covers nearly everything on the Whopper Allegation Checklist. Payoffs to current and former Hurricanes, improper benefits for recruits, coaches in the know and on the take, willfully ignorant administrators if only there were a bogus SAT score in the mix, Miami would have hit for the scandal cycle.

(That one missing ingredient is somewhat offset by the salaciousness of the details. Class act Nevin Shapiro allegedly supplied hookers, strippers, an abortion, an engagement ring, SUV rims and a whole lot more for dozens of Hurricanes. He was the Wal-Mart of sleaze -- one-stop shopping. And by the way: If you want to allow college athletes to earn endorsement money, guess what kind of guys will be lined up to give it to them? No-perspective creeps like Shapiro who derive their esteem from playing the big shot to players. If granting those guys greater access to the program is a good idea, go for it.)

If the '80s flashback is going to continue, that brings us to the ultimate penalty. The death penalty.

"I do see some parallels," said Georgia State football coach Bill Curry, who was at Georgia Tech and Alabama in the '80s and ranks among the wisest men in his profession. "We've had so much bubble to the surface. It's been stunning what's happened the last few months.

"[In the '80s] I remember thinking, 'The presidents are dead serious about this.' I think this is a similar time. There seems to be an ebb and flow, and we're back in an era where they're going to hammer the big boys."

The extent to which Miami can and will be hammered remains unknown, of course. What is reported by the media does not always translate to what is formally alleged by NCAA enforcement. Then the school has a chance to respond to those allegations, and ultimately the Committee on Infractions must weigh both sides and mete out a punishment.

So we're a long way from knowing how this will all play out. But the death penalty is applicable for "repeat violators," and Miami would seem to fit that definition.