Ed Board doesn’t like to indulge itself in conspiracy theories. We shy away from talking about things when we don’t have the facts – that would be bad journalism.

This business with former men’s basketball coach Jimmy Tubbs, however, is bringing out our inner skeptic. What exactly happened last week in the bowels of Moody Coliseum?

We have our crazy theories up here at The Daily Campus, but we’ll spare you. We do think this is absolutely vital: SMU needs to tell us what it knows.

Several allegations against Tubbs, which have been minor in nature, have surfaced in the Dallas media and in this publication. Tubbs took money from a booster to buy two recruits hamburgers, he gave freshman Bamba Fall less than a cup of laundry detergent (whether it was spring fresh scented is unknown), and he held practices for more than the NCAA-mandated 20 hours per week.

Here’s where things get interesting.

SMU’s official statement released last Thursday reads in part: “The few incidents described in recent media reports are not the sum of the alleged violations in the program. Those incidents would not, in themselves, warrant significant action on the part of the university.”

So with much of the south Dallas basketball community, of which Tubbs is a well-liked member, enraged at SMU and Athletic Director Jim Copeland, there is one obvious solution: The truth must come out.

Ed Board cautioned the athletic department two weeks ago not to move on Tubbs without compelling evidence. Now, whatever your opinion on the issue, the move has been made, and only SMU knows why.

Not even the NCAA, which has yet to conclude its investigation, knows what was the real impetus behind the firing. The ball, so to speak, is in Copeland’s court to clear SMU’s good name.

If Tubbs was seriously, and we mean seriously, violating NCAA rules, we need to know.

If three games under .500 wasn’t good enough, fast enough for two seasons’ work, we need to know.

If Steve Orsini wanted Tubbs fired so that he can bring in his own guy, we need to know.

At this point there is no hiding what was done from the NCAA. If we found it out, so will they. They sniffed out the sham that was our football program in the ’80s when we were looking the other way — with this much focus on SMU, we can’t hide anything from them.

If Tubbs really was up to no good, and the firing was a preemptive strike against possible NCAA sanctions, why not clear the air? The longer SMU lets fans, recruits and Dallas guess, the harder it will be to make people believe the truth when it eventually emerges.

And that’s the great thing about the truth: It always emerges.