Not surprising in the least! That said, imagine the uproar from the West coast and the Northeast if this were an SEC team instead. There would be daily articles in the NY Slimes, SF Chronicle, and other rags denouncing the players, teams, fans, schools, and heck, even their dogs.
I guess the rules are different when you belong to protected conferences like the PAC-10.
Yes the rules are different. The SEC schools are generally inferior in their emphasis on education than the Big 10, ACC, Pac-10. Just check out the test scores.
This also applies to SEC graduation rates of their athletes in general.
So yes, a person who has a relatively clean record gets a lighter sentence than someone with a checkered past would get for the same crime.