Philadelphia ? The University of Michigan possesses all of the qualities guaranteed to engender undisguised envy ” it is staggeringly large, wildly prosperous, and enormously successful.

Plus, its teams win with a frequency that strikes opponents as piggish.

Now Michigan also finds itself in deep doo-doo. It has turned itself in, donned a hair shirt of shame in public, and thrown itself on the mercy of the court.

But rather than gloat over UM’s plight, every other school with a big-time sports program should be exhaling and offering up prayers of thanksgiving: “There but for the grace of God go we.”

For this is the epitome of a cautionary tale, a reminder of how thin the line is between a scrupulously clean program and one wracked by scandal in big-time college athletics.

Every program is always just one indiscretion away from probation, one envelope stuffed with cash given to a kid who feels, and not necessarily without some justification, that he is entitled to something more than free room and board because look at how much the school makes off him.

Michigan has been undone by a booster, an overzealous fan of Wolverines basketball who, over the years, bestowed upon former players $616,000.

That was, and emphatically still is, against the rules.

It is also intriguing because the booster, Ed Martin, is identified as a former auto worker, which leaves you thinking that the assembly line sure does pay good. Martin has testified that the money came from gambling winnings, which leaves you thinking that maybe he should have forsaken the assembly line for the casino.

Michigan probably wishes, desperately, that he had.

The school has executed a pre-emptive strike against itself, hoping to be spared greater punishment by the NCAA. The purge has included the removal of all banners commemorating assorted titles won by those teams on which the former players performed, the forfeiture of all victories (113) amassed by those teams, probation, ineligibility for the postseason, and the repayment of $450,000.

Much of it is eyewash. Cosmetic.

The self-inflicted punishment is laudable, if blatantly, and understandably, self-serving. But it also penalizes the innocent. None of the current players or coaches was at Michigan at the time of the transgressions, yet they are going to pay for the sins of others.

It’s been a bad stretch for college athletics, especially in the state of Michigan. Just before the Wolverines blew the whistle on themselves, Michigan State fired its head football coach, the quarterback acknowledged he was being treated for substance abuse, and half a dozen players were suspended or booted off the team.

And then a former high school football coach from Memphis pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering charge for accepting $150,000 to steer a player to the University of Alabama. He also admitted arranging for someone else to take the player’s entrance exam.

And for all that, you are left thinking: The wonder is that it doesn’t happen more frequently.

Then again, maybe it does.