Seems like opposite. They are portraying this as the worst thing a college football player has done. Worse than taking money, steroids, drugs, DUI, Rape. 5 years with no bowl games? Has any other school been penalized that harshly?
With the exception of rape, everything you listed is the type of bad mistake that a basically decent person could make and still rebound from with their integrity mostly intact. This hoax on the other hand is something that can and should define Te'o for the rest of his life. You have to be a sociopathic lowlife to engage in a fraud of this nature.