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If you are a fan of college basketball, then the following statement is an undeniable truth.

At the end of this calendar year—perhaps even sooner—you will love Austin Rivers.

You will either love the energy and the passion that he brings to the Duke Blue Devils this season, or you will love to hate the swagger that accompanies him each and every time that he steps onto the court.

It’s that simple.

There is no room for debate, no middle ground to stake. It’s either heads or tails, black or white, hot or cold. When it comes to Duke’s latest blue-chip recruit, no one can claim to be as neutral to be Switzerland.

Rivers won’t allow it. He has the bloodlines (Rivers is the son of 14-year NBA veteran Doc Rivers) and the resume (2011 Naismith National High School Player of the Year) that will make you take notice, one way or the other.

On sheer talent alone, it will be hard not to be enamored with Rivers. At 6’4”, he is a well-rounded combo guard with NBA range and a lightning quick first step. Rivers has the mid-range game of a seasoned professional, and he has no qualms about taking the crucial shot in crunch time.

Virtually every scouting service of consequence tagged Rivers as one of the top prospects in the Class of 2011, and in a loaded freshman crop, he was named the ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year.

Of course, there are some (read: fans of other ACC teams, for the most part) who simply won’t be able to root for Rivers.

Why? Because he is J.J. Redick to the extreme. He is this generation’s Bobby Hurley, only with infinitely more talent.

One glance at the ESPNU profile of Austin Rivers will tell you that he is a “cold-blooded assassin.” He’s the type of player that will come into your gym, drop 30 points on your team’s best wing defender, and let everyone in the building know what he just did on the off chance that they were too busy updating their Twitter feeds to pay attention.

Rivers often straddles the razor-thin line between confidence and cockiness, and he sometimes winds up on the wrong side of the ledger. Case in point: he’s already given himself his own nickname.

On Twitter, Rivers dubbed himself “Sub-Zero” earlier this year because of his jersey number (zero) and his self-proclaimed ability to “freeze people” with his moves on the basketball court.

It’s a good thing that he has the talent to back up his words.

A privileged few got an early glimpse of that talent this summer at the Greater NC Pro-Am in Durham, North Carolina. True to form, Rivers showed up for his first day at the McLendon-McDougald Gym wearing the uniform shorts given to him at the McDonald’s All-American game.

It would be naive to think that his choice of outfit that day was a random occurrence. For Rivers, the shorts gave him instant credibility in a league that featured such talents as John Wall, Harrison Barnes, Rasheed Wallace and Kyrie Irving.

Of course, his play would grant him that same credibility soon enough—it wasn’t long before he dazzled the Pro-Am crowd with an array of deep three-pointers and baseline dunks.

That performance showed that Rivers’ game is perfectly suited for a summer league-type of an environment. Simply put, he is an individual in a team game—the anti-thesis of a typical Blue Devils recruit. But by all accounts, he has pretty much conformed to the structure imposed by Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski ever since he arrived in Durham.

Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn recently relayed a story about an October scrimmage in which Rivers didn’t give full effort on defense after a poor offensive possession. Krzyzewski immediately stopped practice and called his freshman star out in front of his teammates. From that point on, Rivers dominated the remainder of the practice session.

“It’s all about becoming a member of a team,” said CBS college basketball analyst Bill Raftery when asked about Austin Rivers. “That’s part of the process, too.”

The process will begin with a 19-year-old who is used to playing in an offense where he was the first, second and third option. A 19-year-old with questionable shot selection at times, and one who gambles more often than he should on the defensive end of the court.

If Rivers conforms, the process could very well end with Duke capturing its second title in three seasons. If he doesn’t, the Blue Devils could see a repeat of last March 24 when the Arizona Wildcats blew them out of the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.

March Madness is still four months away, however. Until then, there’s quite a bit of work to do. 

To be clear, Rivers isn’t the most vital player to Duke’s success this year—junior point guard Seth Curry is the Blue Devils’ top returning scorer and provides invaluable veteran leadership. Rivers may not even be Duke’s best recruit in recent memory—Kyrie Irving was a more polished prospect when he arrived in Durham last summer.

Even so, Austin Rivers is one of the most exciting talents to come onto the college basketball scene in quite some time. But if you just can’t allow yourself to enjoy what he brings to the table—especially those of you who have Carolina blue running through your veins—feel free to express your disdain.

Go ahead. He’s used to it.

“I was probably hated before I ever even stepped on the court,” said Rivers, referring back to his time in high school and on the AAU circuit. “The funny thing is, a lot of those same guys who yell things at you from the stands come down after the game and shake your hand and want to get their picture taken with you.”

If you are a fan of college basketball, then the following few statements are undeniable truths:

At some point this season, Austin Rivers is going to lead Duke on an impressive run during a game. After the opposing team takes a timeout out to quell the rally, Rivers will implore the crowd—and those watching at home—for a reaction.

Wherever you may be when this happens, you can choose to join in the adulation, or you can engage in your finest version of a Bronx cheer.

The choice is yours. But you will make a choice. Rivers is simply too good to ignore.

For over a decade, former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is alleged to have sexually assaulted at least eight minors, with some of the reported incidents occurring on the main campus of the university.

Over that same time period, several members of the Penn State administration failed to report the details of these incidents to the proper authorities, thus allowing the long and disturbing pattern of behavior to continue.

Even after news of the scandal broke, the university continued to drop the ball when it came to dealing with the case in the court of public opinion. And while Penn State’s handling of the fallout is far less important than the fact that they allowed it to occur in the first place, it is noteworthy nonetheless.

If Penn State is teaching the same public relations strategy that they’ve employed over the past 10 days, then every student who is currently studying PR at the university should immediately change their major.

In late March, the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported that a grand jury was investigating sexual assault allegations against Sandusky for an incident that occurred in 2002.

Several Penn State employees—including Joe Paterno, athletic director Tim Curley and former university Vice President Gary Schultz—testified in front of the grand jury back in January.

At the very least, as soon as news of the grand jury investigation was made public, the university should have conducted a full investigation of the 2002 incident, as well as all previous allegations against Sandusky.

Instead, months went by with no official comment from Penn State until Sandusky was officially charged on November 5 with more than 40 counts of sexual abuse against minors. As part of the investigation, it was announced that Curley and Schultz would also be charged by the grand jury with perjury and failure to report suspected child abuse.

A grand jury isn’t assembled on a whim—the chance that an indictment will be produced as a result of an investigation is close to 100 percent. So it was strange, to say the least, when Penn State said that both Curley and Schultz would have their legal fees paid for by the university.

Just as the scandal began to simmer last Tuesday, university President Graham Spanier canceled the school’s weekly football press conference. It should be noted that he didn’t explain the decision, nor did he speak to Paterno prior to pulling the plug. It wouldn’t be the last time that either of the two parties acted without informing the other.

Last Wednesday, Paterno issued a personal statement saying that he would retire at the end of the season. Paterno isn’t a target of the investigation, but by his own admission, he wished that he had done more to prevent the events from occurring on his watch.

From an individual standpoint, it was a shrewd PR move by Paterno to get in front of the story, but there was no way he should have been allowed to say anything of consequence to the media prior to consulting the school’s legal counsel.

Approximately 12 hours after Paterno stated his intention to retire, Penn State’s Board of Trustees announced that Paterno and university President Graham Spanier would both be relieved of their duties, effective immediately. The decision to fire the school’s long-time head coach sparked a riot on campus that led to light posts being toppled and a television news van to be turned onto its side.

The news conference during which the decision was announced was just as frenetic as the campus would be later that evening. It didn’t take long before random students (non-media members) began peppering the Board of Trustees with pointed questions that completely destroyed any positive spin the school’s administration attempted to put on the events from the previous week.

In the aftermath of the riot, it was clear to anyone paying attention that assistant coach Mike McQueary (who witnessed the alleged incident in 2002) should not have been allowed anywhere near Beaver Stadium this past Saturday. Yet on Thursday, interim head coach Bob Bradley was adamant that McQueary would be on the sidelines against Nebraska. The school reversed its course mere hours later when word came out that McQueary would miss the game due to multiple threats against him.

The lack of institutional control is readily apparent at Penn State, as is the school’s inability to employ the basic fundamentals of public relations. One of the keys to effective PR is to get the story straight. Being a state-related institution, Penn State is obligated to explain their actions and/or decisions to the public.

However, they also owe it to themselves to get the story right. Or, at the very least, they owe it to everyone to convey a consistent message. After all of the mistakes that they’ve made, it’s the least they could do.

And the missteps continue: Sandusky’s autobiography (“Touched”) is still available in the university’s bookstore, and Sandusky and Curley continue to receive state-funded pensions.

Penn State is no longer thought of as the ideal college set in an idyllic, little hamlet known as State College, PA, nor should it be. 

So perhaps it’s fitting that Penn State has repeatedly failed in taking the proper steps to protect its image in a time of crisis. As the details of the 23-page grand jury report have shown us, they’ve been failing us all along.

Ten years ago, the Temple University football program was on life support.

The school was not-so-politely asked to leave the Big East Conference in 2001 for a number of reasons, one of which included the notion that the Temple Owls were considered “non-competitive.”

Four years later, the school’s Board of Trustees agreed—by an 8 to 7 margin—to keep Temple football at the major college level. Along with that vote came a pledge to commit the resources needed in order to restore the program to its former glory.

That commitment appears to be paying off rather nicely these days.

Following Saturday’s 34-0 homecoming win over Buffalo—the team’s fifth victory this season by more than 30 points—the Owls have won 20 of their past 27 games.

In junior Bernard Pierce, Temple boasts one of the best players in the nation: a running back capable of breaking off touchdown runs reminiscent of those typically seen in video games. And the man who leads the latest iteration of the Owls—head coach Steve Addazio—previously earned two national championship rings as a member of Urban Meyer’s staff at Florida.

In a few short years, the Owls have risen from the proverbial ashes of the late 80s and 90s. Not only are the Owls dominating their own conference, they’re winning games against nationally-recognized programs that boast dozens of four-star recruits.

Even those who had completely written the team off are beginning to pay attention once again. The renaissance on North Broad is rapidly approaching its final stages.

When it comes to Temple football, everything is different now.

In the not-too-distant past, Temple gave away thousands of football tickets to area schoolchildren.

For the kids, it was a rare opportunity to watch a football game in an NFL stadium. For the university, it was a philanthropic way to fill the building.

Attendance was a priority for Temple in those days, especially since the Big East was threatening to revoke the school’s membership due to lack of fan support.

However, even with free tickets readily available, convincing people to spend their Saturday afternoons watching college football at Veterans Stadium was a hard sell.

It’s not hard to figure out why: Temple simply wasn’t very good.

From 1985 to 2006, the Owls had exactly one winning season. There were two years (1985 and 2005) in which the team didn’t even win a single game.

To borrow a phrase from Malcolm Gladwell, the tipping point for Temple football came on December 6, 2005. On that day, the school announced that their new head coach would be former Virginia defensive coordinator Al Golden—a fitting last name for the man who would spark the rebirth of the Owls’ football program.

Golden was all of 36 years old when he accepted the job, and the former Penn State tight end brought with him an energy and a passion that hadn’t been associated with Temple football in decades.

The season before Golden arrived on campus, the team finished 0-11. Four years later, Temple ended the regular season 9-3 and earned an invitation to the EagleBank Bowl—the school’s first postseason appearance since 1979.

Golden was showered with accolades for his work reviving a program many had left for dead. And with those accolades came job offers: last December, he decided to take his talents to South Beach to become the head coach the Miami Hurricanes.

Many wondered if Temple would be able to find a coach who could continue the success that Golden ignited during his five years in North Philadelphia. Those worries were put to rest less than three weeks later when Steve Addazio was formally introduced as the 25th head coach of the Temple Owls.

As a former offensive coordinator and associate head coach for the Gators, Addazio is keenly aware of what it takes to compete at the major college level.

He wasted little time in garnering his first major win—a 38-7 rout over Maryland in College Park on September 24. The victory marked the first time Temple had ever defeated an ACC school.

“[The win] was great for recruiting, and it was also great for the development of our football team in the big scheme of things,” said Addazio in an interview on The Broad Street Line last week.

The energy surrounding Temple this season is hard to ignore.

The team has been featured in a number of national articles, and the Owls routinely find their way into ESPN highlight packages, thanks in large part to the on-field exploits of Pierce.

The Bristol-based network seems to have something of an affinity for the Owls. When ESPN was forced to find alternative programming after the NBA canceled the first two weeks of its regular season, what did it choose?

Temple football.

Last week, the Owls’ early November matchups against Ohio and Miami University were moved from ESPN2 to ESPN. The Miami game will mark the third time that Temple will appear on ESPN’s primary network this year, and the contest is one of the school’s record-setting eight national TV appearances this season.

Seemingly overnight, the Owls have turned into appointment television. More than 1.9 million people watched Temple nearly upset Penn State earlier this year—a record TV rating for the university.

There are still a few things missing, however.

The pomp and pageantry that surrounds most other Division I schools isn’t yet present on North Broad Street.

There is no ceremonial walk through the heart of campus, nor is a singular hand gesture that unites the team with the fans. Traditions such as those will come with time and, most importantly, success.

Success is precisely what the Owls have enjoyed in recent years—barring an epic collapse, they will likely be bowl-eligible for the third consecutive season.

Even so, fans have been slow to warm up to the new-look Owls.

More than 57,000 came out for the Temple-Penn State game, but the Owls have averaged less than 27,000 for their other three home dates this season.

“I think [the fans] are missing out on a great experience,” Addazio told The Broad Street Line. “The atmosphere is electric.”

The recent revival of the Temple program has led to the belief that the school may soon receive an invitation to a major conference, possibly for all sports.

Temple would seem like an ideal candidate for the Big East, but according to several reports, Villanova (who competes in the conference in all sports except football) balked at the league adding another team from the Philadelphia market.

However it shakes out, Temple clearly has the credentials worthy of major conference membership.

This season, they’ve defeated a top-level ACC team (Maryland) and almost beat a nationally-ranked Big Ten team (Penn State). Last year, they notched a victory against Connecticut—the team that would eventually win the Big East title.

Off the field, the school’s Board of Trustees recently approved a $9 million expansion to the team’s practice facility. The upgrades will quadruple the size of the current complex, and will allow Temple to be more aggressive when it comes to recruiting.

It’s hard to imagine that the Big East—or any other conference, for that matter—would refer to the Owls these days as “non-competitive.”

The school’s mantra this season is “Philly Proud, Temple Tuff”, and Addazio and his charges do their best to fulfill that motto every time they step out onto the field. And with each passing week, the renaissance of a proud Philadelphia football institution comes closer to completion.

Joe must go.

The genesis of that phrase—at least in a sports context—dates back more than 40 years to when Philadelphia Eagles fans organized a movement to oust head coach Joe Kuharich, who began the 1968 NFL season 0-11.

Buttons supporting the cause were sold by the thousands, anti-Kuharich signs were made, and one disgruntled fan even hired an airplane to fly over Franklin Field with a “Joe Must Go” banner attached to its tail.

In recent years, many have expressed their desire to start a similar campaign. In this case, the “Joe” in question is Joseph Vincent Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions.

This time, however, there will be no aerial display over the skies of State College, Pennsylvania, nor should there be. With two national championships and a legitimate argument for at least one more, Paterno has earned the right to leave his post at his own discretion.

But the fact remains that, with each passing year, the movement to replace the legendary coach gains a little bit more traction. There are two separate and distinct camps in the battle, but fans on both sides of the aisle can agree on what appears to be the most likely outcome:

Joe must go…on his own terms.

The resume is too impressive to ignore. With 405 wins (and counting), Paterno holds the record for most victories by a head coach in Division I-A/FBS. He is four wins away from passing former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson as the all-time winningest coach in college football history.

Of course, when you coach for 46 years, there are bound to be some losing seasons. Penn State went a combined 7-16 during 2003 and 2004, and the calls for a coaching change began in earnest.

The stubborn, Brooklyn-born Paterno responded the best way he knew how, guiding his program to a stretch of five consecutive seasons in which they won nine games or more, including four bowl victories.

His accomplishments both on and off the field simply can’t be denied. Joe Paterno isn’t merely the head coach of the Penn State football team. Joe Paterno is Penn State.

So, as the head of an iconic program that hasn’t had a losing season in seven years, why are there so many people clamoring for his departure?

One look at his birth certificate will tell you all that you need to know. On December 21, 2011, Joe Paterno will turn 85 years old. At such an advanced age, it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to handle the day-to-day obligations required of a head coach at the FBS level. The fact that he continues to excel at the most challenging of those functions is a testament to his resiliency. According to Rivals.com, Penn State has had top-35 recruiting classes each of the past three years.

That run of success on the recruiting trail will likely end sooner rather than later. Ideally, Paterno will step aside before there’s any negative impact on the program he inherited nearly five decades ago.

More than anything, most potential student-athletes pick a school in order to play for a particular coach. In the coming years, it will be increasingly harder to convince 17-year-old kids to commit to four years in Happy Valley for a coach who is five times their age.

It’s common knowledge that recruiters are ruthless when it comes to battling other schools for talent. But there’s no reason to be underhanded when competing against Penn State for a blue-chip recruit—Joe Paterno’s Medicare card is the only ammunition that they need.

Earlier this year, former Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden revealed that he received prostate cancer treatments prior to the start of the 2007 season. Bowden, who was 77 at the time, didn’t disclose his illness because of the negative effect it would have had on his program.

“I didn’t say anything because of coaching,” Bowden said. “In recruiting, if people find out you have some kind of problem, they’re going to magnify it.”

Paterno has had medical issues of a different sort over the past five years. Since 2006, Paterno has been hurt on three separate occasions on the football field. Several broken bones and a hip replacement later, he doesn’t hide the fact that the injuries have had a significant impact on his role with the team.

“Because I’ve been banged up physically, I can’t do some of the things I would do,” Paterno said during his weekly radio show on Thursday. “I’ve spent more time looking at tapes and have probably put more into what we’re going to do than I’ve done in a long, long time.”

The above quote is telling, regardless of which way you spin it. Not only is his health limiting his duties, he freely admits that he’s more involved now than he has been over the past few seasons—a sign that he maybe should have stepped down years ago.

Then again, with the success that the program has had over the past several seasons, whatever they’re doing in Happy Valley seems to be working.

It’s no secret that quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno (Joe’s son) and offensive coordinator Galen Hall call most of the plays on offense for the Nittany Lions. But it is fair to question exactly how engaged the elder Paterno is on game day.

“I don’t do much play calling anymore,” Paterno said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. “I’m a cheerleader.”

Two days later, Paterno recanted that statement, explaining that he was “horsing around with the media.” The die had already been cast at that point—the damage had already been done.

Whatever the case may be, that isn’t just cause to force the man out of his job. And Paterno is clearly more than a “cheerleader” when it comes to selecting the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback, much to the chagrin of those in the “Joe Must Go…Now” camp. Five games into the season, Penn State has yet to settle on a signal-caller, frequently shuffling sophomore Rob Bolden and junior Matt McGloin in and out of the lineup.

Quarterback battles are nothing new in State College. Just ask Jeff Hostetler, Todd Blackledge, Pat Devlin, Daryll Clark, Anthony Morelli and about a dozen other quarterbacks during Paterno’s tenure in Happy Valley.

And in his defense, neither Bolden nor McGloin has done anything on the field to distance himself from the other, though McGloin has put up the better numbers this year.

So, despite the pleas from Penn State fans across the nation, Paterno will make a decision on a quarterback whenever he sees fit to do so.

Sound familiar?

Unlike many other schools with older head coaches, there is no succession plan in place for whenever Paterno decides to step down. Those connected with the program believe that defensive coordinator Tom Bradley will be the next head coach of the Nittany Lions, but Bradley shouldn’t place much stock into those rumors.

After serving 30 years as an assistant coach under Paterno, longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky left the program after it was clear that he wouldn’t be assuming the head coaching responsibilities upon Paterno’s retirement.

That was 12 seasons ago.

If the Brooklyn-born Paterno had his way, he’d coach the Nittany Lions for another 12 seasons. But even he knows that at some point in the very near future, he’ll have to hand the reins over to someone else.

It’s on him to figure out exactly when that time is, however. He’s earned that much.