My wife and I were friends with a young married couple who seemed to have everything going for them.

But the wife, who looked like a young Cheryl Tiegs, left her husband for a doctor whose own wife had given birth just five weeks earlier.

Since I had been in the couple's wedding, I thought I could talk some sense into our friend.

"If this guy is willing to cheat on his pregnant wife," I told her, "don't you think he's going to do the same thing to you?"

That's what the University of Michigan should be asking itself today.

If Rich Rodriguez was unwilling to pay West Virginia University the $4 million buyout he owed them, what makes them think he will pay U-M the $4 million he owes the Wolverines when/if he leaves them?

Rodriguez was not Michigan's first choice for its new football coach. Now we can see why.

The West Virginia alumnus spent seven months trying to get out of the $4 million he owed the university. He claimed the school had failed to make good on some of its promises to him so the signed contract didn't matter, a laughable premise.

West Virginia justifiably sued to get the money that was owed to the university. Just as U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and Athletic Director Bill Martin were about to be deposed in the case, Rodriguez agreed to pay the full $4 million last week before the case came to trial.

Of course Rodriguez -- not exactly a stand-up guy -- won't pay most of the buyout cost. U-M, which is raising student tuition 5.6 percent this year, somehow found an extra $2.5 million lying around to pay most of the buyout, plus the coach's court costs.

Michigan must pay West Virginia $2.5 million immediately. Rodriguez, who makes $2.5 million annually under his six-year contract with U-M, will have his $1.5 million share spread over three years, and he won't pay anything until 2010.

The university tried to make it look like the multi-million-dollar settlement is pocket change, like the loose change you drop into the penny canister at Dairy Queen.

It says the $2.5 million will come from athletic department reserve fund surpluses such as licenses, sponsorships and media-rights payments. But no matter how U-M tries to sugarcoat it, this is money that could have been used for other things that would benefit the university and its students.

If Rodriguez doesn't have the up-front money, as I strongly suspect, then U-M should take a portion of it out of his salary (plus interest) until he pays the full amount. Instead, the university is essentially paying money to Rodriguez to avoid any further embarrassment caused by him.

And if the U-M athletic department has millions of rainy-day dollars lying around -- it ran a $14.2-million surplus last year -- maybe it ought to be lowering ticket prices. It can start by reducing student season tickets for football, which now cost $205 annually.

Rodriguez isn't the first West Virginia coach to join the Michigan program owing his old school a buyout. Michigan basketball John Beilein is paying WVU $1.5 million with no help from his new athletic department. That must be great for morale. It shows where basketball ranks in the pecking order at U-M.

From what we now know, Rodriguez is a carpetbagger more than a man of honor. Michigan had to lower its standards to hire him.

Ask yourself this. If Michigan knew then what it knows now, would it still have hired Rich Rodriguez? If the answer is yes, then there's something terribly wrong at the University of Michigan.