Due to the infractions committed by Jim Tressel, the NCAA has added additional penalties to the Ohio State football program. The university put itself on two years of probation and cut back on 5 scholarships, hoping that the NCAA would be happy with that. They weren’t. The NCAA put the Buckeyes on a one year bowl ban, meaning no post season bowl game, no conference championship game, and no chance for a national championship. They also took away 3 more scholarships over the next 2 years.
I’m not going to argue that they don’t deserve it. They do. They broke the rules. They got caught. They deserve to get punished for it. I’m actually surprised they didn’t get a more severe punishment.
The hiring of Urban Meyer put high expectations on the program, but with a bowl ban in his first season, those expectations are obviously tempered. I wasn’t expecting a championship season next year, anyways. I was expecting them to do better than they did this year, but I didn’t think they’d contend for the national championship. They had a good chance at the Big 10 championship, but that’s gone now.
There is something I don’t understand about this. After the Reggie Bush situation, USC got a two-year bowl ban. The Ohio State scandal involved multiple players, plus their head coach, but they only get one year? Not that I want the Buckeyes to be more severely punished, but shouldn’t the penalties at least be equal? If the NCAA wants to be taken seriously as a legislative body, they need to punish schools evenly. I just don’t get it.
The NCAA is a fucking joke.