Thoughts on the NCAA Suspensions

It has been a day now, and we have all had time to at least start to digest everything that has happened with Ohio State football.

In the event that you have been living under a rock or are just an ass who wants to keep bringing it up to embarrassed OSU fans, yesterday the NCAA suspended the following players for the first five games of the 2011 season due to receiving "improper benefits" dating back to 2009: QB Terrelle Pryor, RB Boom Herron, WR DeVier Posey (should I keep going?), LT Mike Adams and reserve DE Solomon Thomas. Backup LB Jordan Whiting will serve a one-game suspension to begin the 2011 season against Akron.

The transgressions for the players serving five game suspensions include selling various items such as Big Ten championship rings, gold pants and game-worn apparel for values ranging from 1,000-2,500 dollars, along with exchanging autographs for tattoos.

The NCAA is allowing the players to participate in the Sugar Bowl mainly because they determined that Ohio State did not educate the players well enough that it was not acceptable to sell things of that nature for profit, but lets be honest for a moment here. The real reason in my opinion, which has come to my attention after reading and hearing many different opinions the past few days, is because the NCAA doesn't want to lose the money that would come from having OSU and Arkansas feature all of its stars on one of college football's biggest stages in New Orleans. Players such as Pryor and Posey represent dollar signs for bowl sponsors, advertisers, etc. and no organization wants to see an investment lose money or interest. It is simple business.

How do I feel about all of this? Not that it matters, but there is a lot that needs to be said here and I really do not have the energy to express every little thing that I think. I do have the time to try and sum up some of the major points, though.

First of all, whether or not it explicitly says in the NCAA's overly augmented and hypocritical rule book that you cannot sell ANYTHING that belongs to you is a debate that I'll leave to the people that are supposed to make those rules abundantly clear. The issue is how does one determine if something that an athlete receives is truly his/hers to sell? The argument that you shouldn't want to sell something like a trophy at all to begin with is beside the point, because if you are like me then you would cherish something like that for the rest of your life. I believe that it needs to be made crystal clear that the NCAA and school still technically own things such as trophies, awards, etc. until the student is no longer an amateur. If I earn something for my achievements on the field, regardless if I would actually sell it or not, I am under the impression that is is mine. Not partially the universities or the NCAA's, but MINE. To quote Vince Vaughn from Wedding Crashers, "The painting was a gift, Todd. I'm taking it with me".

Do I condone what these players did? No. Do I believe that there were circumstances that lead me to believe that in the long run what these players did is forgivable? Yes. Do they deserve to be suspended? HELL YES. They should be suspended for the bowl game and have a lesser suspension next season in a perfect world, but it isn't a perfect world and they are allowed to play in it. You have a problem with that? Talk to the NCAA about that. Don't bash OSU for this, but the NCAA. It was their ruling, and OSU is abiding by it (by the way, I have a gut feeling that the suspensions will be reduced).

I know plenty of people that have done things that they are not especially proud of (myself included) in order to accomplish a goal at hand. Families that struggle around the world do things to put food on the table, put their kids through college, etc. People rob, steal and kill in the name of love. And sometimes people with the means do things to help those that are less fortunate. Whether it is true or not that a lot of these players sold their gold pants and rings in order to help their families pay the bills and put food on the table is not exactly clear considering I do not know any of them personally. If they did it, although it was definitely handled in a very bad way, I can understand why.

Those are my thoughts, and there is still a game to play. Almost a week until game time.

Let's shut the SEC, ESPN, and the world up.

GO BUCKS!!!!!