“We want Tim! We want Tim! We want Tim!”

So chanted Rutgers students about Tim Pernetti — the athletic director forced out in the wake of the Mike Rice saga — Friday morning after he tendered his resignation. Though the footage of Rice’s verbal and physical abuse of his players was both shocking and disturbing, the video clip of Rutgers students calling out in support of Pernetti en masse was even more sickening.

The students — many of them student-athletes — were defending the man who chose not to fire but to merely suspend and fine Rice after seeing video evidence of his rampant abuse.

This was the man who gave Rice what amounted to a wag of his finger behind closed doors as punishment for shoving, kicking, hitting and calling his players “f—— fairies” and other homophobic slurs. This was the man who failed in his duty to teach and protect the student-athletes who could not speak up for themselves out of fear of ruining their college basketball careers.

One might think that students, and certainly fellow student-athletes, would choose to side with the abused players, not the person who failed to do all in his power to stop cruelty happening right under his nose. However, such thinking is the epitome of optimistic naivety: As we’ve learned from past college sports scandals, students and the larger university community are quick to prize sporting success over the well-being of the vulnerable.

The Rutgers-Mike Rice-Tim Pernetti scandal is eerily similar to the Penn State–Jerry Sandusky–JoePaterno scandal, right down to the severely misguided students who threw their support behind a person who did not deserve it.

Paterno, the late former Penn State football coach, was told about Sandusky sexually assaulting children and effectively did nothing, but because he was the paragon of the mighty Nittany Lions football program, the students literally rioted to show their support for him. In a similar story, Pernettiwatched video proof of Rice’s abuse and for some reason did not fire him, but because Pernettisuccessfully navigated conference realignment and secured Rutgers a place in the Big Ten, students protested on his behalf.

It is both easy and necessary to call for the firings of people who actually perpetrate abuse; it is equally necessary, but apparently not as easy, to hold accountable those who let it happen. Just like at Penn State, however, the wildfire of public outrage surrounding the Rutgers scandal will not be extinguished with the firing of Rice and Pernetti. And if history is any indication, the same fate suffered by former Penn State President Graham Spanier awaits Rutgers President Robert Barchi, who inexplicably did not even watch the video of the abuse until months after he received it.

While there is no shortage of public outcry over this scandal, the Rutgers community seems to be ambivalent about Rice’s abuse and skeptical about Pernetti’s cover-up. In fact, for the most part, students appear to be firmly rooted behind Pernetti. The Rutgers women’s lacrosse team painted Pernetti’s initials on their calves before Sunday’s game, a tribute that seems more appropriate for honoring a teammate or coach who has passed away than for an athletic director who was complicit in the abuse of students.

Former Rutgers football players Eric LeGrand and Ray Rice also showed their support for Pernetti on Twitter and in person. The Baltimore running back’s support of Pernetti is especially disappointing considering his involvement in and outspokenness about anti-bullying campaigns.

How can Rice not care that Pernetti was guilty of allowing a bully to remain a bully? The answer can be found on Rice’s own Twitter feed.

“Big 10 doesn’t happen without Mr. Pernetti. He has done a GREAT job for RU, our future is bright with him leading us. #greatman,” Rice tweeted April 5. In less than 140 characters, Rice candidly sums up why, time and time again, university communities are willing to let terrible decisions slide: Sports matter more than people.

Just like the Penn State sex abuse scandal, the guilty — Paterno, Pernetti, Spanier, Barchi — have all been martyred. Sandusky’s victims and the Rutgers basketball players, the real victims, are simply forgotten.

This is our fault.

There is always discussion about how college sports programs are too powerful, how coaches have too much influence and how there is too little NCAA oversight, but really it is the students and their tuition dollars that make these programs the empires that they are. If students were to change the way they think about college sports and realize that sports are, in fact, not everything — that integrity, safety and basic human respect all matter more than winning games or protecting a team’s reputation — coaches and administrators might follow suit.

When students defend students, universities will do the same. When the emphasis is on the well-being of student-athletes and other people who can’t always speak up for themselves, we will find that there will be no more cover-ups.

NCAA regulations can only do so much; if we want to truly change the culture of college sports we must recognize that it starts with us.

The next time a college sports scandal rocks the country, which it inevitably will, I hope the students again gather to chant the names of the guilty. Not in support this time, but in condemnation.

Laura Wagner is a sophomore in the College. Game of Change appears every Tuesday.