Discipline is a word thrown around a lot in college football circles. 
From coaches commenting on the founding ideals of their programs to fans attempting to bring into question the integrity of an opponent’s best player, discipline is always deemed the key to success while the lack of it constitutes failure. 
For many, the Southeastern Conference is the most competitive conference in the game, holding seven-straight titles from 2006 to 2012 and having a representative in eight of the last nine national championship games. 
Off the field, the SEC is king in another category commissioner Greg Sankey is presumably not bragging about — arrests.
Since 2011, SEC football players have accounted for a total of 210 arrests with 14 LSU players tallying 16 arrests during that span, according to arrestnation.com. Every summer, LSU fans wake up to the same recurring nightmare of a star player being arrested and the possibility of a successful season being over before it even starts. 
In 2011, it was starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson. Although backup quarterback Jarett Lee led the Tigers to an undefeated start (9-0), Jefferson took over the starting role for the last five games, including the 21-0 loss to Alabama in the 2012 BCS National Championship game, after serving a four-game suspension. 
Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu’s dismissal from the team on August 10, 2012, for a violation of team rules dominated the preseason discussion. He never played another down for the Tigers after being arrested in October 2012 on drug-related charges just 10 months after finishing fifth in the Heisman
Trophy voting. 
In 2013, running back Jeremy Hill spent the offseason in limbo after being caught in a cell phone video hitting a man from behind in Tigerland . Hill returned to the team in August and led the Tigers with 1,401 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns in 2013 before being drafted in the second round by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2014 NFL  Draft. 
In 2014, defensive back Jalen Mills was arrested on battery charges after hitting a woman in the mouth, according to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He rejoined the team in August 2014 and totaled 62 tackles in his junior
season. 
Junior starting quarterback Anthony Jennings, junior defensive back Dwayne Thomas and sophomore reserve defensive lineman Maquedius Bain joined the Tiger-striped fraternity after their arrest in June 2015. The players still remain suspended from the program. 
Most of the time, coaches take the heat for their players’ off the field issues with sportswriters, fans and broadcasters blaming the coach for not supervising and educating his players on the right way to act. 
It’s true a strong coach can limit the legal issues surrounding his players. 
For example: South Carolina. Since 2011, the Gamecocks have recorded only nine arrests, which sits second behind only Vanderbilt for the least arrests in the conference during that span. 
When a reporter asked about his success at limiting discipline issues at SEC Media Days last week, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier replied with his usual candor.
“I’ve always had a rule as a coach that, if you ever hit a girl, you’re finished,” Spurrier said.  “We’ve lost two at South Carolina. Fortunately, they were not star players. If they were star players, it would have gone all over the country. So we quietly got them to transfer or leave or what have you.”
Spurrier was not the only coach focused on developing his players as men first and then as athletes. During his opening statement at Media Days, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze described his approach, “Chasing Greatness,” to teaching his players what it means to be men on and off the field this spring. 
“Our young men that we coach these days, they’re not sure what [greatness] means or what that looks like,” Freeze said. “What does it look like in how you treat a female and how you go about in a relationship and the things that we all can do better? What does it look like as a student? What does it look like as an athlete? What does it look like in society? “ 
Despite the impact of a strong leader, it’s time players take real responsibility for their own actions and learn to avoid places where they could get in trouble. 
These players deserve to have fun like every other college student, but they need to understand their position as a D-1 athletes elevates them as role models. 
 Morgan Prewitt is a 21-year-old political science senior from Alexandria, Virginia. You can reach her on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.