No, I don’t think Charlie Partridge is evil.

He could be a good guy. I don’t know.

But somebody attributed two master’s degrees to his 2001 football media guide when he had neither.

Before I delve into this, if you’ve been more out of it this week than Nate Newton on a cross-country trip, here’s what happened at Iowa State.

The Iowa State Daily reported Tuesday that Partridge, Iowa State’s director of football operations, earned master’s degrees from Iowa State and Drake.

And both registrars questioned in the story said No he didn’t.

When asked about this, Partridge said it was a mistake made in the media guide. Not his r‚sum‚.

So the Daily asked him about the inaccuracy in the 2000 media guide, which says he’s “earned a master’s degree in higher education from Drake and is a semester from receiving a master’s degree in leadership and policy studies from Iowa State.”

Partridge said, “I can’t speak for the 2000 media guide.”

(For the record, the ’99 media guide said he was “currently working on a master’s degree in higher education at Iowa State.”)

In Wednesday’s Daily, Partridge said he’s had “ample opportunity to proof read the media guide, and that puts the responsibility with me.”

So maybe he skimmed over that masters’ stuff, huh?

Well, Bruce Van De Velde, Iowa State’s athletics director said, “This information in the bio was not put there by our media relations department. It was put there by Charlie, and he has to accept responsibility.”

All right. I’m sorry to bore you if you knew this. But, from the e-mails and feedback I’ve seen, you didn’t.

Partridge put the information in the 2000 media guide.

Partridge put the information in the 2001 media guide.

So what? It’s not like he lied on his r‚sum‚, you say.

But it’s the media guide that’s presented to the public.

If anyone wanted to run a feature about Partridge, and forgot to ask about degrees, he or she would look to the media guide.

I don’t think Partridge should be ostracized. But he shouldn’t have lied.

And whatever punishment he has coming, he deserves.

If you don’t think so, should Dan McCarney include that he blocked for John Elway in the 1998 Super Bowl in next year’s bio?

Should basketball coach Larry Eustachy say he owns the rights to the Adidas mock T he wears?

Should wrestling coach Bobby Douglas say he won five national titles and two U.S. Olympic Trials?

Oh wait. He did.

Anyway, the Daily was right in everything it reported.

And I know what you’re thinking:Yeah, it’s the first time.

I’m not going to deny it. The Daily makes a lot of mistakes. Not only factually but also in the “proofreeding.”

Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s Cincinnati Bengals bad.

The Daily is, in a word, a college newspaper.

It did not publish the story on Tuesday knowing football signing day was Wednesday.

News is news, regardless of when Federico Samuel makes himself available to boosters and the press.

As for looking for the big story – and you’re free to interpret whether Partridge warrants the front page – you’re damn right the Daily looks for the big story.

If no one looked for the big one, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil wouldn’t have been exposed, Nixon wouldn’t have resigned and Michael Jordan would be some 38-year old in shorts.

No, Charlie Partridge isn’t evil.

He could be a good guy. He could even be an honest guy.

But he made a major mistake, one he’s paying for right now.

And one he shouldn’t be fired for.

Paul Kix is a junior in journalism and mass communications from Hubbard. He is the senior sports reporter for the Daily.