As sports fans and followers of the college recruiting game, we’re used to seeing some pretty shady stuff go on between coaches, players, and boosters. Whether it’s $100 golden handshakes to football players at postgame tailgates, negative recruiting tactics amongst coaches, or high school prospects who work the system for personal gain - there’s a lot of shady stuff hiding in plain sight.

(You are correct, ladies. This story *is* WAC indeed.)

And while a lot of stuff we’ve heard whispered and seen ourselves probably would constitute NCAA infractions of one sort or another, it’s important to keep these things in perspective. After all, shady recruiting or breaking NCAA practice guidelines isn’t illegal, no matter what rival fans might claim. You know what is illegal, though? Fraud, embezzlement, forgery, perjury, and animal abuse - they’re not your garden variety NCAA violations, but they’re what former University of Nevada soccer coach Terri Petraw claims occurred during her tenure with the Wolf Pack. Ruh-ro.

This is one hell of a bizarre story. Petraw, along with a geology professor and a former University cop, have been filing lawsuits against the school for at least a year, alleging all sorts of terrible things happening in Reno. But now, the Nevada Supreme Court has given the plaintiffs the opportunity to present evidence for their claims in hopes of assembling a grand jury.

From the RENO GAZETTE JOURNAL:

Former coach Terri Patraw, geology professor Richard Schweickert and former UNR police officer Lane Grow claim UNR and Nevada System of Higher Education officials are involved in criminal activity and conspired with the state attorney general’s office and local law firms to cover it up.

Their petition includes allegations of fraud, embezzlement, bid rigging, falsification of evidence and public documents, perjury, abuse of power, forgery, witness intimidation, civil rights violations, and animal abuse, Patraw said in an e-mail announcing the hearing.

They also say the UNR Police Department was used “as a tool to protect the public corruption operation and to harass and intimidate whistle blowers,” and said the attorney general’s office provided financial support and legal protection for UNR officials.

“This is a very important matter of public concern as taxpayers are being defrauded out of millions of dollars by university officials,” Patraw said. “We intend to present evidence that UNR is a racketeering influenced corrupt organization — a RICO operation.”

I live in Illinois, so I know a thing or two about government and university corruption. But if Petraw’s claims are even partially true, this could be one of the more galling examples of corruption in higher education ever. Nobody seems to have specifics about the alleged crimes, but it’s clear that Petraw is one hell of a disgruntled ex-employee. She also has a series of charmingly unhinged blogs accusing basically everyone in the state of Nevada of conspiring against her. I wonder if her apparent inability to land any sort of coaching job since being dismissed has anything to do with her anger - clearly, regardless of the merits of the lawsuits, these are people with major issues of one kind or another.