Rutgers University president Dr. Robert Barchi has come under fire for his handling of the Mike Rice scandal, which erupted after video of the head coach physically and verbally abusing his players was made public. (4:32)

So now people see how a university president would not take a half hour out of his schedule last year to view footage of one of his employees abusing more than one of his students. Robert Barchi was so overmatched in his televised news conference Friday, even resorting to inappropriate humor, you could actually imagine him underestimating the enormity of the Mike Rice case.

Barchi called the failure to fire Rice in December, with the tapes of the coach's abusive conduct in Rutgers' hands, "a failure of process." No, it was a failure of administrators who allowed a sad little bully to assault and degrade multiple students on their campus.

Robert Barchi didn't watch the Mike Rice tape until it was too late. Way too late. AP Photo/Mel Evans

The process didn't let down those students; the men running that process did. Barchi and senior university officials and Tim Pernetti, who resigned as athletic director Friday morning, will carry their staggering mistakes in this scandal to their graves, even if they try to downsize their roles in the decision to let Rice coach the same kids he abused after a lousy three-game suspension and fine.

This is what Pernetti wrote in his resignation letter to Barchi: "As you know, my first instincts when I saw the videotape of Coach Rice's behavior was to fire him immediately. However, Rutgers decided to follow a process involving university lawyers, human resources professionals, and outside counsel."

This is what Pernetti said when he finally fired Rice on Wednesday: "I am responsible for the decision to attempt a rehabilitation of Coach Rice."

Pernetti and Barchi and every other official in this case can talk and talk about lawyers and outside counsel, but lawyers work for you, not the other way around. John Wolf, general counsel at Rutgers, found that out the hard way this week when he joined the growing ranks of those who have lost their jobs.

Only now this turbulent story swirls about Barchi, a doctor and neuroscientist who started as Rutgers' 20th president in September. The board of governors chair at the campus news conference, Ralph Izzo, stood by his man before the cameras and microphones, but we've seen that movie before.

Barchi offered no satisfactory answers to the scandal's most pressing questions, especially this one: How is it possible that you knew of the Rice video for more than four months -- video that included homophobic slurs -- before you found time to watch it Tuesday at 10 p.m.?

Oh, and this one too: How is it possible that you are still employed by a state university?

Barchi conceded that if he did the common sense thing, the moral thing, and immediately dropped everything to review evidence of abuse of the very students he's charged to protect, "I am certain that this situation would have had a very different outcome ... "

Yes, everyone is fairly certain of that. And fairly certain Barchi's claim that Rice's conduct was "much more abusive than I had understood it to be" -- a direct shot at Pernetti and the board members who had already viewed the tape -- doesn't mean a thing to the students who had basketballs fired at their heads.