Here we were, thinking that the Baylor situation was enough of a bombshell to shake the game to its core.

With coach Art Briles — the same man who turned a doormat Bears program into a juggernaut — losing his job, finally, there was legitimate pushback on college football’s dangerous winning-at-all-costs mantra.

They apparently haven’t been paying attention in Starkville. The Bulldogs decided Thursday to let their prized five-star defensive tackle recruit from this past February’s class, Jeffery Simmons, enroll at Mississippi State. This despite viral video showing the 6-foot-4, 277-pounder viciously beating a woman.

Briles was the figurehead of a team that infested its Baptist campus in Waco with a terrifying rape culture.

Time and again, coaches and administrators heard a victim’s cries and looked the other way — or, worse, bullied her into silence. Players with dubious track records were given too many second chances.

The entire university is in tatters. Briles has more than likely coached his last game at the college level. Athletic director Ian McCaw has resigned. Former president Kenneth Starr also resigned. McCaw and Starr in particular made fools of themselves on their way out the door. Tone deaf is an understatement.

The next school to came under similar scrutiny would have to get it right. But Hail State got it so wrong.

Simmons, who is still awaiting adjudication on misdemeanor charges, now knows his punishment from MSU: counseling. It doesn’t stop there, though. He’ll be suspended for … the season opener vs. South Alabama.

That’s right. As Andy Staples from Sports Illustrated pointed out to Mississippi State director of athletics Scott Stricklin, Simmons gets the same suspension for smacking around a defenseless woman that he would for a mere targeting penalty. After all, both are just a momentary lapse in judgment.

According to Stricklin, Simmons got the benefit of the doubt because he wasn’t walking around with priors.

“Based on conversations our staff has had with school, community and church leaders in Noxubee County, this incident appears to be uncharacteristic of Jeffery,” he said in a statement released by the school. “It’s a highly unique circumstance to administer discipline to a student for an incident that occurred prior to that individual joining our university. However, it’s important that Jeffery and other potential MSU students understand that these type of actions and poor decisions are not acceptable.

“We expect the structure and discipline Jeffery will be a part of in our football program to benefit him. Jeffery will be held accountable for his actions while at MSU, and there will be consequences for any future incidents.”

The video is disturbing to watch. Simmons towers over the woman as she lies helplessly on the ground among a mosh pit of people. Outweighing her by 100-plus pounds, he punches her in the face double-digit times.

If Simmons had been a three-star signee staring a redshirt in the face, not a five-star stud expected to be an immediate difference maker, the Bulldogs would have pulled his scholarship — and done so in grand-standing fashion. It would be soapbox time for Stricklin and coach Dan Mullen.

However, five-stars don’t come around very often. They come around even less frequently in Starkville.

This was a chance for Mississippi State to take a stand. While Mullen may have the Bulldogs on the rise, they aren’t competing for an SEC title this year. Not with quarterback Dak Prescott moving on to the NFL.

Forcing Simmons to take a redshirt — suspending him for a season, essentially — sends the right message. Mullen and Co. wouldn’t be turning their back back on him that way. They’d still be giving him a shot at a free education, while allowing him the time that is clearly necessary to learn from a grievous mistake.

Suspending him for Cupcake U in Week 1 means he’ll just be that much fresher for South Carolina in Week 2.

Did Mullen learn nothing from Briles and his Icarus impersonation? Only weeks ago, Briles was an offensive genius outdueling mighty Texas. Today, he’s getting compared to Joe Paterno — for all the wrong reasons.

Hopefully, this will indeed turn out to be an out-of-character episode for Simmons. Perhaps his potential to be a better man is on par with his potential to be a better football player. If he’s a model citizen throughout his career in maroon and white, that’ll say more about him than a few All-American selections.

But if Simmons so much as lays a finger on a woman inappropriately, Mullen will be axed just like Briles.

The only winner here is college football’s aforementioned win-at-all-costs mentality. To men like Briles and Mullen, their job is to win games. Leave the safety and well-being of female students to the suits.

Maybe Simmons deserves a second chance — we all do at some point in our lives. That being said, time and again, the amount of chances a player gets is directly correlated to the number of stars present in his recruiting bio. Alabama can say goodbye to a five-star and hello to another. Mississippi State can’t.

Sure, throwing Simmons out on the street may have been a bit harsh for a supposed first-time offender.

That would have been the safe thing for Mullen to do, though. College football has become synonymous lately with its players’ deplorable treatment of women. Baylor was supposed to be a wake-up call.

Instead, Mullen decided that the on-the-field exploits of the No. 1 recruit in the Magnolia State were more valuable than said recruit’s off-the-field judgment. If he gets two sacks in the Egg Bowl, it will have been worth it. Highlight reels will eventually get more clicks than cell-phone footage of an assault.

If Baylor was a teaching moment for schools across the country, then Mississippi State failed the test.