by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY

Just what’s going on out there? This is September, when college basketball is never seen and seldomheard, but Midnight Madness has come early, and in the middle of the day. So what’s with all the peculiar headlines?

One minute, Notre Dame suddenly shows up in the ACC. Not as one of the really big guys, you understand. Not inmen’s basketball, anyway. When it comes to past national championships, the Irish might as well be Clemson.

The next minute, Jim Calhoun is retiring. Not that anyone can be shocked. What else is supposed to happen whena 70-year-old man limps into the room on crutches?

Still, Sept. 13 is not the most common retirement date for a college basketball coach, and it’s a scary new world at Connecticut, since Calhoun has meant to that program what ColonelSanders meant to fried chicken. The Huskies won three national championships with him. Before him, they won four NCAA Tournament games.

The minute after that, Brad Stevens kicked off a starter at Butler. Butler? Nobody gets in trouble at Butler, except someone just did. Guard Chrishawn Hopkins.

You’ve heard of the Butler Way. Apparently, there is also the Butler Way Out.

Oh, there’s more.

An academic scandal at Harvard. Reports in Boston say it is something about students sharing answers in an exam for the course, “Introduction to Congress.” So they may have cut a few ethical corners. Can you think of a better way to get introduced to Congress?

Two basketball co-captains are expected to withdraw from school, according to various reports. Harvard facing an academic scandal? And you thought Peyton Manning throwing passes in an orange uniform looked odd.

Then there is the really intriguing one. When’s the last time anyone found the phrases “Duke basketball” and “NCAA investigators” in the same sentence? They fit together like lo-cal pizza.

By now, you’ve heard the one about the Blue Devils power forward who allegedly went on a $100,000 shopping spree for jewelry in December 2009. That’d be Lance Thomas, last seen by many hugging Mike Krzyzewski after helping win the 2010 Final Four.

So we are talking about a national champion,and we are talking about … [For more on Bizarre is in style for college hoops, click here.]