It’s been a rough week for the NCAA, which is under fire (specifically president Mark Emmert) for the way it has handled recent scandals. Speaking of scandals, Auburn is accused of playing players (shocker!) and Rutgers is doing its best Penn State impersonation (it will never reach Penn State levels, but it’s blowing every other school out of the water).

And speaking of shockers, at last we have the Final Four to temporarily shield us from the aforementioned problems. It’s a Final Four that features a powerhouse overcoming adversity (Louisville), an improbable upstart (the Wichita State Shockers), and a tantalizing matchup (Michigan vs. Syracuse).

(All odds provided by Sportsbook.ag unless otherwise indicated).

Rutgers. Not even a weekend is going to cure Rutgers of what is ailing that university. In fact, this is only going to get a lot worse before it gets better — regardless of the day of the week. Head coach Mike Rice has already been canned for his reckless behavior and homophobic slurs at practice after multiple videos were leaked this week. Athletic director Tim Pernetti also got his walking papers. These guys have done an expert job at stealing headlines from the Final Four, but enough is enough. Louisville is the favorite to win it all at -125, followed by Michigan (+325), Syracuse (+400), and Wichita State (+1200).

Kentucky. All you need to know about the current state of the Kentucky basketball program is that Kyle Wiltjer returning to the team for next season is considered news. That’s right. Kyle Wiltjer. Ryan Harrow and Archie Goodwin, on the other hand, are leaving. Harrow announced last weekend that he is transferring to Georgia State, and Goodwin is going pro. You can be sure Nerlens Noel will follow in Goodwin’s footsteps soon enough. On the bright side, UK’s recruiting class is loaded, and it would get even better with the addition of undecided prospect Andrew Wiggins. As for some of the nation’s best players that are still focused on this season, Louisville’s Russ Smith is favored to win NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors at -125, while Peyton Siva of UL and Trey Burke of UM are both +300.

Finishing. It was a rough week for “sealing the deal,” at least if you’re David Ferrer or Yu Darvish (by the way, what are the odds those two fellas would ever be mentioned in the same sentence?). Ferrer was one point away from winning the biggest ATP title of his career on Sunday, and he was about an inch away from winning it when Andy Murray’s forehand clipped the back of the baseline (Ferrer stopped play and challenged, incorrectly). Murray eventually won the Miami final in a third-set tiebreaker. Much more well-documented was Darvish’s Tuesday night flirt with perfection, which ended with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Houston’s Marwin Gonzalez ripped a single up the middle. Darvish left immediately thereafter, having struck out 14 batters during his performance. The Rangers are +1000 to win the American League and +2000 to win the World Series. As for Ferrer, he now heads to clay, and he is the sixth favorite to win the French Open at +2000 (odds provided by Bovada Sportsbook).

Carson Palmer. If Palmer didn’t like playing in Cincinnati, how’s he gonna like playing in Arizona? To be fair, the Cardinals were terrible last year mainly because they sported the worst quarterback corps in the history of the NFL. Still, it’s not like they are about to go from league laughingstock to Super Bowl Champion just because they are going from John Skelton, Ryan Lindley, and a pot-luck assortment of other garbage items to Palmer. Following Tuesday’s trade from Oakland, Palmer signed a two-year deal with Arizona — which means we have to sit through two years of the 33-year-old saying he will never play for Arizona ever again. As if Palmer’s team isn’t bad enough by itself, keep in mind that it has to go up against both San Francisco and Seattle twice per season. The Cards are +5000 to win the NFC Championship and +10000 to win the Super Bowl.

Manchester United. United is still on course to win the Premier League, but it was already out of the Champions League and it has now made its unceremonious exit from the FA Cup. Wayne Rooney and company failed to find the back of the net in a 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Chelsea on Monday. Chelsea, which has won four of the last six FA Cup installments, advances to face Manchester City next Sunday. The first semifinal on Saturday pits Wigan Athletic against Millwall. Man City is a +125 favorite to win it all, followed closely behind by Chelsea at +150. Wigan comes in at +450 while Millwall rounds out the field at +2000.

Rory McIlroy. McIlroy can’t be feeling good about his game with the Masters less than one week away. Things have gotten better since he walked off the course at the Honda Classic in early March, but the improvement has been marginal at best. The world No. 2 (yes, he has been surpassed by Tiger Woods) salvaged an eighth at Doral thanks to a final-round 65 before stumbling to a T-45 last week in Houston, where he made the cut right on the number. McIlroy opened in San Antonio on Thursday with a mediocre even-par 72. He is +1500 to win the Masters, trailing Woods (+300) and Phil Mickelson (+1200).

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