Another item I can't ignore

Given my history of criticizing the NCAA (and its corporate enablers), I have to at least mention my extreme displeasure with the organization's handling of the tattoo scandal at Ohio State University, even if it is a couple of days late (emphasis mine).

What started out as a trip to a Columbus tattoo parlor by a couple of football players has created all sorts of mayhem for star quarterback Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State.

Pryor and four teammates were suspended Thursday by the NCAA for the first five games of next season for selling championship rings, jerseys and awards. They also received improper benefits -- from up to two years ago -- from the tattoo parlor and its owner.

The NCAA said all can still play in the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas on Jan. 4 in New Orleans. Ohio State's first five games next season are against Akron, Toledo, Miami, Colorado and Michigan State. Ohio State plans to appeal, hoping the number of games might be reduced.

Conveniently, all five players in question are juniors, which means they are eligible to enter this spring's NFL Draft. So, if they choose to, each of these players can escape punishment altogether. So too can Ohio State--which won't face any repercussions in its bowl game--as well as the NCAA, ESPN, and all of the relevant corporate sponsors (most notably Allstate, who proved that they're in good hands with the NCAA). Pay no attention to the rumored "violations"--we can all continue to make money off of these athletes, as planned:

This punishment, like most recent NCAA punishments, is a non-punishment. Cam Newton was bizarrely declared ineligible and then immediately reinstated, and now Ohio State players are being suspended for games they may never play. The NCAA continues to show that when enough money is on the line, there is no violation too serious to be overlooked. Properly sanctioning Newton or the Ohio State players would have meant compromising two of their crown jewel BCS bowl games, which of course would have angered ESPN and other corporate sponsors alike. We can't have that.

If you read me often, you know that I tend to sympathize with the athlete in these types of situations. But in this case, everyone shares some of the blame. The Ohio State players broke the rules, whether the rules were just or not. And the NCAA decided that they didn't care, because the money at stake was too important. Multiple wrongs do not make a right--this system is broken.

Some of these players may indeed come back to play their senior years, but the point is that they don't have to serve any suspension if they don't want to. Suspending A.J. Green but not suspending Newton or Terrelle Pryor is just inconsistent--and that, ultimately, is what I take issue with. The NCAA has gone too far down the road of treating football like a business (rather than an interscholastic pursuit), and a correction is long overdue.

[ESPN.com]