Today we thank the Southeastern Conference for reminding us it’s almost college football season, when big-time educational institutions hit the “hold” button on their ethical standards and all but light candles daily in hopes that their school does not end up at the top of the N.C.A.A. enforcement police blotter. This year, many of those hopes have already been extinguished and what was originally called the S.E.C.’s “Media Days” have officially been renamed the “Blame Everything on Those Dastardly Agents Days.”

It was a bit priceless  pun intended  that Alabama Coach Nick Saban (annual salary: $4 million) went on the offensive Wednesday, bemoaning how money is ruining this quaint little sport. He compared the agents to pimps and said they were victimizing his poor children (players).

Saban was joined in this particular rant by Florida Coach Urban Meyer (annual salary: $4 million). What spawned this frantic finger-pointing, writes Pat Forde of ESPN.com, is a rash of reports that prominent S.E.C. players were entertained by agents at a South Beach soiree. Georgia, not coincidentally, just received notice from the N.C.A.A. that its enforcers will be stopping by for a not-so-friendly visit. This, writes Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, is causing the coaches to suddenly get religion on the agent issue. As Gregg Doyel does a very good job of articulating on CBSSports.com, they are worried mostly because the N.C.A.A. showed it is finally ready to deal with the agent issue after years of ignoring it. The University of Southern California’s stiff penalties are the N.C.A.A.’s evidence of that.

So it was a bit disconcerting, writes Dennis Dodd on CBSSports.com, to hear S.E.C. Commissioner Mike Slive sounding Mike Garrett-like when he called for “education not enforcement” on the agent issue, that it might be time to talk about allowing players to sign with agents whenever they want. Everyone, it seems, would like to wash their hands of any responsibility and The Sporting News’s Dan Levy wrote that some of the blame should fall on those “kids,” players who are actually adults and should know better.