Commentary: Colorado officials should be ashamed

? If they’re not blushing in Boulder, Colo., they should be.

Bring on the beer and the babes; the party’s on, boys, and there’s no stopping it now.

Come on back, coach Barnett. All is forgiven.

Sorry, but that three-month paid vacation had to end sometime.

The whole sordid mess in Colorado — and especially the so-called resolution this week — is enough to make me want to puke.

Nine sexual assault allegations. “Nine!” All involving Colorado football recruits and players.

And does anyone lose his job over this kind of behavior? Anyone lose one penny of salary?

Nope. Not one.

Gary Barnett gets a free pass. So does see-no-evil, hear-no-evil athletic director Dick Tharp and Chancellor Richard Byyny. And, of course, CU President Betsy Hoffman is taking no responsibility for what happened.

So who done it? Who’s responsible for the lack of institutional control that’s so blatantly obvious in this case? Who turned a blind eye to the strippers and the drinking and the nonstop partying that was happening right under their noses?

Why, nobody, that’s who. And everybody, that’s who.

But nobody’s out of a job. Heavens, no.

Ridiculous.

The only thing lost is innocence, and who has that anymore anyway?

Barnett should have been fired for his insensitive comments about the Buffaloes’ female place-kicker alone, after she revealed that she, too, had been sexually assaulted.

Instead of offering sympathy and understanding and immediate repercussions, Barnett criticized her kicking ability.

Unbelievable.

Equally unbelievable is the notion, however, that these kind of recruiting activities, which take old-fashioned “wining and dining” to a new and unacceptable level, happened only at Colorado.

Barnett seems to think ignorance is an escuse, but there’s a pattern developing there. When a gambling scandal broke while he was head coach at Northwestern, he pleaded total ignorance of the situation.

Now, when an investigation reveals not just sexual assault allegations but that a Colorado football employee was soliciting women for liaisons with Buffalo football recruits, Barnett once again does his best Sgt. Schultz impression and says, “I know nothing!”

That’s just not good enough.

The only way for Colorado to get out from under this stain is to make sweeping changes. Barnett and Tharp should be gone, and the chancellor and school president should resign.

Instead, Hoffman was gutless. Instead, she blamed “the actions of a few,” but that’s a vague cop-out from someone who just wants to sweep it all under the rug as quickly as she can.

It’s not over, of course. There are still civil lawsuits to be dealt with and a grand jury watching Colorado’s every move.

And then there’s the most “important” matter of all facing Barnett — winning.

For while he may think he has all-powerful friends in high places, looking out for him while he makes a lifetime habit of looking the other way, let the Buffaloes slink in with another 5-7 season and see how quickly those “friends” dump him out on the street.

Allowing his players to run wild in the streets and strip joints of Denver is one thing. Not winning, that’s just not going to be tolerated.

Colorado, after all, has its priorities in place.

Party on, Buffs. Party on.