When you take a look at the SEC football powerhouse teams, what do Georgia, Tennessee and Florida have in common?  Since 2005, there have been 73 arrests among their scholarship players. Yikes!

Lane Kiffin is starting out his coaching career at Tennessee a little rough, but you can tell he is running a clean program. Don’t laugh.

Why do players who have everything “handed to them” choose to break the law?  Maybe the scholarship grass isn’t as green as we all may think.

Clean programs with big booster support channel their funds into training, travel and of course coaching staff to make it all happen for a program.  When you get into the fuzzy area, is when you start to see players that are never in trouble.  Most notably, the programs will start to defend NCAA allegations that their teams are “illegally supporting players.”

Typically football scholarships will cover admission costs, laundry money, food stipends and of course team related expenses and books.   If you are a star athlete and quite possibly the first of your family to head to college? Chances are you are not going to be able to work or expect much financial support from home.

Maybe these schools who run a nice clean program would like to check into the possibility of extending a little more into the “living funds” column. It sounds like a lot of kids are adjusting to sports, but not liking scrapping the barrel.

** Shandra Blackwell is not only a sports fan, but founder and principle designer at Shea-Noel Interiors, the design firm of the South.  You can find Shandra on Twitter, or more likely hosting block parties with her husband and two well-behaved children.  Born in the North, and polished in the South, this native Michigander is rooting for the Wolverines this weekend.