A star athlete in a championship season is found to possess a massive amount of banned performance-enhancing drugs. His university hushes up the situation and lets the athlete keep playing. Were this to happen at a major Sports U., the public might see it as just another example of utterly failed values at the university in question, the improper dominance of sports entertainment over academic priorities, the chasing of fame at the sacrifice of common sense. When it happened this fall at the University of Maine, it looked just that terrible, and the report issued this week by UMaine President Peter Hoff reflects this.

But this is also more to the story. After all, the player found with 1,000 steroid pills, Stephen Cooper, was said to be a model student-athlete, the guy who went to class and never cut corners in the weight room, a player whom coaches could trust. He had tested clean before being found by police to have the drugs and tested clean a few weeks later. There were no NCAA violations. Was this a case of a broad failure by university officials to understand how serious the situation was or merely a misjudgment by an otherwise exemplary young man?

Yes, in both instances. Mr. Cooper’s case was fairly straightforward – however strong a leader he was on the team, he broke school rules by possessing steroids; he should have been punished appropriately; he wasn’t. He awaits sentencing on the drug arrest. Then it gets complicated. Enough people knew about the arrest to act in the interest of the student, the state university and, ultimately, the state itself and insist that definite action be taken be publicly taken, that the star player should not be on the field without a word of what had occurred. Head Coach Jack Cosgrove knew and failed to act properly. The interim athletic director, Paul Bubb, knew. The vice president for student affairs, Richard Chapman, knew. President Hoff knew something was up, but didn’t look further.

Equally important was who did not know. The athletic compliance officer, Scott Hobbs, and the faculty representative to the NCAA, George Jacobson, were not told even when it was unclear whether the player’s actions broke NCAA rules. Intentionally or unintentionally, the situation was covered up, compounding the problem and, fairly or not, presenting to the sports-reading public nationwide a view of Maine as unscrupulous and conniving.

No one will be penalized by the university as a result of this, except that President Hoff has publicly “admonished” AD Bubb, Coach Cosgrove and Vice President Chapman. This may seem meaningless but it is not for two reasons. First, President Hoff also reassigned reporting duties for athletic compliance directly to himself. Second, by going lightly on the penalties he is personally accepting the responsibility for any further lapses in judgment from the football team and, to a lesser degree, other sports. Should such a lapse occur in the future, the public properly could and should hold him directly responsible for allowing the situation to exist.

In that sense, President Hoff is taking a risk with those he is admonishing, and it may turn out to be a risk well taken. Certainly, the president provided a thorough and unflinching report of the university’s misdeeds in the Cooper case, suggesting how seriously he considered this issue. That is a cause for hope that such an episode will not arise again.