In Atlanta, Bobby Petrino is a cancer, a coward, a fraud, a hypocrite, a jerk, a liar, a philanderer and a quitter.

In Arkansas, he is an excellent hire.

Whoa, Nellie! College football has lost its soul.

The bowl games haven’t even begun, but you can already make a conclusion about this season.

The predatory nature of coaching searches continues to damage the game.

It’s true for college hoops, too, but basketball is not quite as out of control as its gridiron peers. It feels like anarchy. Coaches are loosening their morals, and even more unforgivable, schools are dismissing honor, too. The race to get the best coach by any means necessary is turning a great game into a public-relations disaster.

Over the past week, Petrino’s latest weasel act stole headlines. He’s a habitual con, having embarrassed himself in job pursuits for five straight years, but this was his worst moment. He left the Atlanta Falcons with three games remaining in his first NFL season to return to college and accept the Arkansas job. He spent 30 seconds on the phone explaining the move to Falcons owner Arthur Blank, gave a brief speech to his assistant coaches and notified his players with a 78-word letter.

Petrino coached the Falcons in a game Monday night, and the next night, he was chanting “Wooooooooo, Pig! Sooie!” while being introduced as the Razorbacks’ coach.

Rightfully, Petrino has received nasty criticism, but in order to be a sleaze, he had to be offered a job. Arkansas was so desperate for a coach that it created a situation in which Petrino felt the need to sneak away. The Razorbacks thought they needed to be sly to compete in the Southeastern Conference, a college football superpower. If they didn’t try this, some other college would have.

The problem is bigger than Petrino and Arkansas. Les Miles signed a new contract with Louisiana State, which is playing for the national title, and a day later, he had a phone conversation with Michigan. He says he was just giving advice. Reports suggest that Miles, who has strong ties to Michigan, was trying to keep Michigan from making a decision until after the championship game.

Just a year ago, Nick Saban pulled a Petrino, jumping from the NFL to Alabama after publicly professing his commitment to the Miami Dolphins.

There are numerous other examples of coaches either negotiating the terms of a new job in a dishonorable manner or releasing statements denying interest while continuing to flirt in secret.

An old recruiting joke: When a kid orally commits, it just tells other schools who the competition is. In college hiring, when a coach denies interest, it just shows how much more money he would need to bolt.

No coach is off-limits. No games are too important. No contract extensions are generous enough to sustain a mutual commitment. In this culture, coaches are perpetual free agents, only as loyal as the market allows.

That’s not to say a coach under contract shouldn’t be allowed to pursue other jobs. But there’s a proper way to do it, and clearly many coaches and schools aren’t worrying about being classy.

The lies and deception create an impossible atmosphere. Even coaches with good ethics must endure speculation. If they tell the truth, people will still think they’re lying. If they refuse to comment, it only fuels the innuendo. When a coach is a potential candidate for a job, there’s no longer a good way to handle it.