The NCAA’s suspension of six players on The Ohio State University football team for selling uniform apparel, championship rings and trophies was an appropriate punishment, given the seriousness of the players’ transgressions. What’s entirely inappropriate is the fact that the suspensions will have no impact until after the team has played in the upcoming Allstate Sugar Bowl.
An Ohio State announcement cited by CNN confirmed that five of the players – Mike Adams, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Terrelle Pryor and Solomon Thomas – will be barred from playing in the first five games of the 2011 season. A sixth player, Jordan Whiting, will only have to sit out the first game. According to CNN, Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs, said this about the suspensions: “These are significant penalties based on findings and information provided by the university.”
If Lennon’s point was that these student athletes will have learned a valuable lesson about there being consequences for their actions, the words rang hollow. The fact that the punishment has been postponed until next year sends them the message that they are a commodity whose value lies in playing in a bowl game. It appears that the NCAA is once again showing that it’s enforcing the regulations by flexing its muscle, but only to the point where it has a minimal impact on revenues – for the schools, for the conferences, and for the NCAA.
Also troubling is the NCAA’s arrogance in making it so obvious. With just a little forethought, it could have made the announcement after the Sugar Bowl, and at least had a little bit of cover. Although the NCAA contends that its actions are consistent with its policy, its handling of the Ohio State case is inconsistent with its prior actions, which raises the question of why it engages in selective enforcement.
Allowing these players to play in the bowl game, in the wake of allowing Cam Newton to emerge unscathed from the financial improprieties that surfaced prior to his acceptance of the Heisman Trophy, shows that the NCAA’s priorities are defined far too extensively by dollar signs, and that it considers its own actions to be impervious to consequences.
100% agreed. Recently, West Virginia and Georgia Tech suspended multiple players for their upcoming bowl games. Both schools citing academic reasons for the suspensions. Are theses academic issues less or as severe as the actions taken by the Ohio State players? That's debatable, however the NCAA ruled multiple players from the University of North Carolina ineligible for the ENTIRE 2010 season for reasons tied to academics. With a lack of consistency, the NCAA is losing their credibility as quick as some of these suspended players.
ReplyDeleteThe NCAA has a long string of bad decisions and inconsistent penalties, so we shouldn't be surprised of the deferral of light penalties until after Ohio State's bowl game.
ReplyDeleteIn view of the massive revenues generated by intercollegiate football and basketball, the tunnel-vision NCAA should consider establishing a firm, well-defined compensation plan for what they laughingly call student-athletes.
The archaic NCAA rules were devised when amateurism was alive and when universities didn't bank millions for post-season play.
The era of amateurism is gone, and we (and the NCAA) might as well recognize that. Pros are allowed to compete in tennis events that previously were limited to amateurs, and the Olympic Games are dominated by pros.
As an aside, Carolina has now ruled the team's top rusher out of the Music City Bowl for academic reasons. Given the number of NCAA suspensions, team suspensions and injuries, Carolina will be lucky to show up with enough guys to play the game.