Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

While speaking to a group of about a dozen reporters during the WAC media preview, Hawaii coach Greg McMackin used a homosexual slur to describe a dance Notre Dame performed at a banquet the night before last year's Hawaii Bowl.

"They get up and they do this little cheer, like this," McMackin said Thursday, while clapping. "You know, this little f----- dance."

After he begged and pleaded with the media at the WAC media preview in Salt Lake City to "cover" for him and not print the slur, and then later making a futile attempt at an apology, the media in attendance banded together and decided to run the story.

It was the right thing to do.

This wasn't the first time McMackin has made a gaffe at the WAC media preview. Last year, he spoke about a player he was recruiting, realized mentioning the player's name was against NCAA rules, and asked the media to cover. We refrained from writing about the incident mostly because McMackin was a new head coach and using the name of the recruit was inadvertent and insignificant.

But McMackin's latest comments were hard to let go and newspapers such as the Idaho Statesman and the Reno Gazette Journal did the right thing. The Idaho Statesman has even published the audio of both the initial comments and McMackin's WAC-encouraged apology.

So what now?

Well, Hawaii is supposed to issue a statement about the events this afternoon and the school should decide what, if any, punishment will be levied against McMackin. Then WAC commissioner Karl Benson, who was in the room for the initial comments, will determine a response from the league.

There might also be a backlash from gay rights activists as well as from Notre Dame.

I have to admit the published comments from McMackin's initial news conference and then his string of apologies were like a snowball running out of control. You kind of just wanted someone to tell him to stop talking. Then, in his final apology, he sounded like a child who got caught doing something he shouldn't have.

"I would sincerely like to apologize for the inappropriate verbage, words that I used," he said. "... I'm really ticked off at myself for saying that. I don't have any prejudices and it really makes me mad that I even said that and I'm disappointed in myself. ... What I was trying to do was be funny and it's not funny and even more it isn't funny to me. I was trying to make a joke and it was a bad choice of words and I really -- I really, really -- feel bad about it and I wanted to apologize. I'm going to apologize to my team. I'm going to apologize to the people in Hawaii."

So now we wait for what will likely be at least a week of deliberation about what to do with McMackin and how to quell the situation.