Jim Tressel has pulled a Pete Carroll, taking his sweater vest and walking away before it all hits the fan in Columbus. I can't say I'm at all surprised by this development. The only thing that's at all upsetting is that he resigned on his own, rather than being forced out like he should've been. Bruce Pearl got fired by Tennessee for a lot less. But, considering the school that he worked for, the fact that he wasn't actually fired wasn't all that surprising.
I can't wait for the NCAA to come down on Ohio State. Hard. The school thinks it's better than everybody else and has this ridiculous sense of entitlement. Seriously, how pompous do you have to be to insist on referring to your school as "THE Ohio State University," then get all pissed off when other people don't say it? (From now on, I'm only going by "THE Joe Brackets.") I have a suspicion that university officials knew exactly what was going on and turned a blind eye. After all, these weren't blatant NCAA violations or anything. How could Ohio State do anything wrong?
Well, here's what the Buckeyes did in a nutshell. Quarterback Terrell Pryor and others traded championship rings, jerseys and other memorabilia to the owner of a Columbus-area tattoo parlor in exchange for free tattoos. Some of them were also selling their Ohio State stuff. These are pretty clear and pretty blantant NCAA violations. Tressell knew about it, but didn't tell anybody so that the players would remain eligible. Well, that was also bad. The NCAA, of course, found out and suspended the players for the first five games of the 2011 season. Tressell's punishment was nothing more than a slap on the wrist: two games and a $250,000 fine. He later had suspension extended to five games so that it would be the same length as the players'. He should've been fired right then and there.
Now let's compare this to the situation at USC. USC got nailed because Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo accepted gifts from agents. Was that bad? Yes. What made it worse is that then-AD Mike Garrett threw the basketball team under the bus in an attempt to protect the football team. But this was an isolated case involving two players, and everyone involved is no longer at USC (Bush is in the NFL, Mayo's in the NBA, Garrett got fired, and Carroll got out of there just in time and is now the coach of the Seahawks). In fact, all traces of Reggie Bush have been removed from the USC campus. At Ohio State, it's a bunch of players who knew they were breaking the rules and simply didn't care. I'm not sure if the fact that nobody other than Tressell knew anything is better or worse.
My favorite part of this entire Ohio State thing is the wide receiver who came out and point-blank said he knew he was breaking the rules. So you knew you were breaking the rules, but you did it anyway? That's smart. The reason he gave for selling his Ohio State memorabilia is because he needed extra cash to pay for his car and live in Columbus. Here's a plan, if you can't afford a $600 a month car payment, don't buy a car that costs that much! Or why don't you try living on campus, where you won't have to pay rent? What a concept!
In response to this, instead of actually acknowledging any wrongdoing on Ohio State's part (again, how could Ohio State do anything wrong?), the Big Ten bigwigs decided to get together and suggest paying the student-athletes. Not only is this a terrible idea, it'll open up a gigantic can of worms. And create a whole lot more problems than they're trying to solve.
For starters, who's going to get paid? Football and men's basketball players at BCS schools. Not soccer players or volleyball players or tennis players. Even within the football and men's basketball programs, do you want to tell me that the star quarterback and the punter will receive the same "compensation?" I didn't think so. And what about the non-BCS schools that don't have the same kind of money to throw at recruits? These schools don't have the funds to even offer to pay players. So, now you could potentially have a situation where a player is being heavily recruited by two schools, one of which is offering a free ride plus a "stipend" while the other isn't. Hmm, that's really a tough decision. Free tuition plus room & board is more than enough compensation! (Using the rough figure of $40,000 as an estimate for the amount of tuition plus room and board, that means student-athletes are being given $160,000 worth of a free education for their services to the university.)
So, what should be done about the Ohio State scandal? They should be given the NCAA sactions that they deserve. And they should shut up and take them like men! Drop the "holier than thou" crap. You broke the rules and you got caught. Simply being Ohio State isn't going to get you off the hook. And it shouldn't.
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