NCAA Hypocrisy: Ohio State vs. Auburn

     

Today the NCAA ruled that five Ohio State football players will be ineligible for the first five games of next season, but they will be able to play in the Sugar Bowl. Granted these players either knowingly or unknowingly have broken a NCAA rule, this ruling raises a basket-full of issues


1. Why are these five players allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl if they broke the rules?  Answer: The Sugar Bowl would be devalued without these five players. The bowl would lose money. They can't have that. The NCAA makes it very clear: it's all about money.


2. If a player receives an award, a ring, a jersey, or whatever, it is their property, and they should be able to decide what to do with it. If they wish to sell their own property, can the NCAA declare them ineligible for five games? Does the NCAA and the university attach an engraving saying "Cannot be sold by penalty of NCAA suspension"?


3. This decision may in effect encourage two or three of the star players to leave college and jump into the NFL draft. Does the NCAA want to push their star players out of college and into the NFL?  Apparently so Thus, none of this has anything to do with a college education..


4. What about Cam Newton? He left the University of Florida rather than defend himself against  charges of academic cheating. Instead he went to a junior college, and then apparently chose to go to Auburn rather than Mississippi State because Mississippi State would not pay the fee his father was demanding. Although there are text messages indicating such, the NCAA very quickly ruled that Cam would be eligible  to continue to play because he was not aware of what his father, Cecil, was doing. Reggie Bush would have liked to have claimed such a defense.


5. Based on the NCAA rulings, Tyrelle Pryor should have given his rings, jerseys, and pants to his mother and she could have sold them for more money (more than $2,500)  and as long as Tyrelle did not know the details, he would have been able to have the full senior year.


6. Maybe the Ohio State players would have been better off giving Cecil Newton their awards and having him selling them and giving the proceeds to their families -- minus his surcharge. And, of course, the player would be innocent because he, just like Cam, did not know what good old Cecil was doing.


The NCAA has to get its act together!