Now that Ohio State has finished their season with a perfect 12-0 mark, talk is emerging about how the team will not be able to compete for a National Championship. Thanks to what many feel were unfair penalties set upon a team where none of the violators are still wearing scarlet and grey, Notre Dame will battle the winner of the Alabama-Georgia SEC championship game for the title.
2012 is the sixth time a Buckeye team has accomplished an unbeaten and untied season. Yet this year was different. It was the first time in School history they will be denied a bowl game after such a momentous feat. Yet there were ways the NCAA could relieve this monumental error in judgment.
The five players who traded mementos for tattoos are gone. The coach the NCAA blames for the violations and is accused of lying to them is also. Yet the NCAA, whom let the same players and coach perform in the 2011 Sugar Bowl game because had they not, would have cost the governing body money and viewership on the game, are still around.
I am not a fan of the NCAA. In fact, I find there sole interest is in making money, rather than patrolling the college athletic scene. However since we are stuck with them, a proposal should be made for a new type of penalty for teams like Ohio State.
Why should a team, without the perpetrators of the crime, be punished. That would be like someone arrested and convicted of theft, and the entire family must pay the penalty because he cannot. That is not in the best interest of justice.
Keep in mind I state this solution only because Ohio State already has been sanctioned and will pay. In no way do I agree the violations committed by Ohio State, the players and former coach meet the standards of a one year bowl ban. If exchanging tattoos for mementos get’s one year, how can the molestation of a child and subsequent cover-up receive four? The NCAA makes no sense.
Neither does the Big Ten, or whatever they will be called once Maryland and Rutgers join. To have Wisconsin playing Nebraska this weekend for the “so called” Big Ten title is embarrassing to the conference, the schools and to the game. Wisconsin finished third in the Leaders Divison behind Ohio State and Penn State, yet they will play for a title. Never was an asterisk called on more.
With that in mind, I propose Ohio State should be allowed to partake in a bowl game, without receiving any of the proceeds from it. No money whatsoever. In fact, to add more onto the penalty, the school, if they agree to participate in a bowl game, must pay their own way to the game site, along with lodging and meals. But the school nor the conference would not be allowed to take a dime from the game.
This makes more sense than the NCAA and the BCS currently looking foolish. And make no mistake this is a foolish endeavor. If their were any justice the NCAA and BCS would have to explain why a school that over the past three years has had a death, rape and assault of a police officer is allowed to play for the National Championship, yet another that traded memorabilia for tattoos isn’t.
