Tressel-ized

I have written before about NCAA big time college football. What a joke. Maybe one of these days I will research some statistics as to what happens to those young men who shoot for the NFL moon and fail. How many find jobs? How many end up in jail? How many actually use their degree if they get a degree?

This past week, Ohio State coach and Youngstown hero Jim Tressel was called on the carpet for violation of NCAA rules relating to the age old question: “what did he know and when did he know it” vis-a-vis his players who exchanged championship rings and autographs for tattoos and other sundry stuff. Tressel, true to form, said he was acting to protect his kids. OK, we will go with that. But there does seem to be a trend with players who don’t want to follow the rules.

Tressel was apparently made aware of his players indiscretions last April when a Columbus lawyer emailed him that his two star players had inadvertently fallen into a Federal drug investigation aimed at the tattoo guy. The players were collateral damage to the main event. Tressel failed to notify the NCAA per rule 3.4.6.7.999.2(a)(b)Section 2345 at paragraph 254 sub-paragaph (j). More importantly, when asked about it last September by his Ohio State superiors, he denied any knowledge...and it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!

So now Coach will be sitting out the first couple of games in the fall with his suspended players. He is not allowed into the stadium so I assume he will be watching the game at the Varsity Club with the rest of the hoy ploy. Let’s not forget the $250,000.00 fine…there goes last year's Michigan win bonus. Easy come! Easy go!

And those are just the Ohio State penalties. The NCAA has yet to complete its investigation, and given that Ohio State never seems to be a favorite among the BCS set…I expect them to recommend life without parole. Maybe Obama or Kasich could give him a pardon!

Here’s the thing. I don’t blame Tressel one bit. He is a good guy, and faces pressures that are beyond the imagination of any of us. In all seriousness, the only job worse than being coach at Ohio State, Michigan or Notre Dame would be President of the United States…and then it would be a toss-up. Tressel knows, and so do we, that this “trinkets for tattoos” exchange is penny-ante stuff in the scheme of NCAA/BCS football

There's the real racket. Hundreds of millions of dollars is generated from the sweat of these kids who are playing their hearts out for a chance at the NFL gold ring that the vast majority will never achieve. Meantime, the schools give them “scholarships” in exchange for owning them for four years. Any business man will tell you that’s a hell of an exchange. The education the schools give these kids cost the schools….nothing...not one dime. And the money that is generated is almost limitless. And while the players are let into the candy store, they are told not to touch. The NCAA should be ashamed. The NFL should be ashamed. The television networks should be ashamed. The universities should be ashamed.

So if Tressel wanted to look the other way to protect these guys, or even to protect the integrity of the team for his own purposes, so be it. It’s time the NFL and the NCAA sit down and work out something so that these kids get some cash for their efforts in what is a de-facto farm system for NFL football players. There is no pretense of amateurism left in big time college football, and everybody knows it. Just as the Olympics had to rightfully redefine “amateur” status of its participants, the NCAA at the BCS level should do the same. Enough is enough!!!