The NCAA decided to cite Ohio State “for failure to monitor, preferential treatment and extra benefit violations,” which got them a postseason ban for one year. Not only will they not be allowed to participate in postseason play next season (including Big Ten championship game) but the NCAA also slapped them some additional penalties as well. Ohio State was placed on three years’ probation and a must give up nine scholarships in that amount of time.

People surrounding the Ohio State football program were stunned that they got such a harsh penalty, but with their history of breaking the rules they received the proper punishment.

* – Jim Tressel and Terrelle Pryor photo credit: Bleacher Report

Ohio State Infractions

Here is part of the NCAA report that that illustrates some of the infractions by Ohio State (a complete transcript of the NCAA public infractions report can be found here).

According to the facts of the case, eight football student-athletes received more than $14,000 in cash payments or preferential treatment from the owner of a Columbus, Ohio, tattoo parlor. In addition to free or discounted tattoos and cash for memorabilia received by these student-athletes, one football student-athlete received a loan and discount on a car.

The committee also found the former head coach concealed these NCAA violations when he was notified of the situation, which led to his unethical conduct finding.

Of great concern to the committee was the fact that the former head coach became aware of these violations and decided not to report the violations to institutional officials, the Big Ten Conference or the NCAA, the committee stated in its report.

Specifically, the committee noted that the former head coach had at least four different opportunities to report the information, and his failure to do so led to allowing several football student-athletes to compete while ineligible. Many of these student-athletes were key contributors to the team’s winning 2010 season.

Ohio State had realized that there had been some violations of NCAA rules and decided to give themselves a self-imposed punishment on their football program.  This self-imposed punishment included vacating all of their wins from 2010, including the Sugar Bowl, and two years of probation.  The only problem with Ohio State’s self-imposed punishment was that it did not include a postseason ban or loss in scholarships, which are key components for punishments that arise due to violating NCAA rules.

There were many violations of NCAA rules that occurred at Ohio State under Jim Tressel, and incidents go as far back as 2002 with Maurice Clarett. Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith also violated NCAA rules with his “$500 dollar handshake”, which got him suspended for the Alamo Bowl in 2004 and the first game of the season in 2005.

Proper Punishments

With the culture of violating NCAA rules that had surrounded the Ohio State football program, the NCAA issued the proper punishment for them. The sanctions might have been a bit harsh for Ohio State’s liking, but with their history of breaking the rules, they needed some type of action to prevent this from happening again.

There are numerous football programs that have made headlines by violating NCAA rules, and these stories have dominated the news over the past few years. This is a problem that has been plaguing college football, and the NCAA had to step in and make an example of a program.

Hopefully this incident will help continue to clean up college football, and hopefully players will think twice about their actions towards accepting improper gifts. Players, coaches, and boosters should now realize their actions can have major effect on a football program.

********

Before Pryor became eligible for the Supplemental Draft, Roger Goodell made it known that Pryor would be suspended for the first six weeks of the season. Yesterday, it was announced that Jim Tressel would similarly miss games during the first part of the season. This is good and a trend that needs to continue.

Pryor’s suspension includes practices as well as games. This suspension was one that he would have served if he stayed at OSU, so Goodell made a smart decision in suspending Pryor. Why should he be allowed to escape suspension by going to the NFL? He committed an infraction, and Goodell made sure that he served the penalty.

Pryor was picked up by the Raiders, who are not known for their great decisions regarding quarterbacks, in the Supplemental Draft.

Next in line for a job came Jim Tressel. He has been a visible figure at several teams’ training camps, as he was seen in Cleveland and in Indy. It was Indy who decided to give him a job, with his title being a game-day consultant on video reviews.

Tressel was just recently hired, but a suspension quickly followed. This time it came from the team itself, the Colts. The Colts suspended Tressel for the first six games of the year. He would have likely been suspended by the league anyway had the Colts not done it first.

The idea of committing major infractions in the college game and going to the NFL to escape the penalties should not be allowed by the NFL. It is an easy way out for those coaches and players who ruin the future of their respective programs.

Pete Carroll was one of these people, but he got out before the infractions were discovered. These infractions were largely brought upon by Reggie Bush, whose only punishment was to return his Heisman trophy. This is a tough penalty, but it has not had any effect on his NFL career.

So while Carroll and Bush both have their jobs in the NFL, USC is currently under a postseason ban that is in its second year. This is not fair for the program, but it is too late for the NFL to punish either of the two.

Hopefully the suspensions of Pryor and Tressel with set a precedent for any other players or coaches who are in the same situation. Punishments in college should not be escaped by heading to the NFL, and the sometimes unpopular commissioner Roger Goodell understands this.

Goodell crossing the line again – foxsports.com

Excerpt:

Power, privilege and exclusion are at the foundation of the NCAA and its outdated rule book. Intelligent, fair-minded sports fans should be celebrating its corruption-fueled collapse, the way women toasted the end of suffrage, blacks cheered the end of Jim Crow and Reagan welcomed the fall of communism in the Soviet Union.

That’s what is so offensive about Roger Goodell’s sudden interest in protecting the sanctity of the NCAA’s amateurism scam. His decision to uphold the NCAA’s five-game suspension levied against marginal NFL prospect Terrelle Pryor reeks of stupidity, arrogance and immorality.

In the last few days we’ve been subjected to the University of Miami investigation, Terrelle Pryor’s admittance to the NFL supplemental draft and Goodell subsequently upholding his NCAA suspension, and Michael Vick’s admission that Goodell may have steered him to the Eagles instead of the lowly Bengals or Bills.

Most notable in Whitlock’s piece is the ending.  Goodell has been able to use the NFL’s financial standing as a means to bully everyone else into submission.  Whitlock doesn’t provide many solutions, but the first step to recovery from corruption in “amateur” and professional sports is to show that there is a problem.  This article does that about as blatantly as possible.

Click play on the player below to listen:

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Pryor recently appeared on Jon Gruden’s QB Camp on ESPN, and he seemed very mature and showed why many OSU fans originally fell in love with his play. He is very knowledgeable on the game of football, but he just has lapses in judgement that overshadow his great plays.

Pryor has insisted that he is only a quarterback, even though many are suggesting that he play receiver or even tight end. There will certainly be one or even a few teams that would like to give him a chance at the quarterback position. One team who could benefit from giving Pryor a chance would be the Miami Dolphins.

Here are a few reasons why:

Chad Henne is an average QB at best

The Dolphins drafted Chad Henne in 2008 after he spent 4 successful years at Michigan. Since then, he has done nothing special. Henne was the main QB for the Dolphins throughout the past two seasons and has been very average. In 15 games last season, he went 7-8 with 3,301 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Henne is just one of the many mediocre quarterbacks that have played for the Dolphins since Dan Marino’s retirement. The only one who had success was Chad Pennington in 2008, when he led the Dolphins to the playoffs. Their offense has been centered around the dual threat of Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown in the Wildcat offense (though the future of both is in question), which leads to my next point.

Terrelle Pryor fits the Dolphins’ style of offense

The Dolphins offense has become centered around the running game of both Williams and Brown, mainly because of the lack of effectiveness at the quarterback position. It has worked, but the team has not been a consistent contender since the 90′s.

Unlike most teams, the Dolphins put their running back behind center when they run the Wildcat. Most teams use a WR, especially ones who were college quarterbacks such as Josh Cribbs and Brad Smith. Pryor could provide the ‘Phins with a QB who could run their Wildcat-oriented offense while still being a passing threat. Pryor has shown the ability to run, but if he works on his decision making in the passing game, he can be a great fit for the Dolphins.

Miami is the place to go for enemies of Cleveland/Ohio

Many OSU fans currently hate Terrelle Pryor with a burning passion and are blaming him entirely for the debacle at OSU. I myself was one of those people, but I realized that Pryor alone could not be labeled as the only wrongdoer. He was one of many.

The OSU fanbase stretches all over Ohio and across the United States. The fans that live in Cleveland are still disgruntled over LeBron’s departure to Miami, or South Beach, and would further hate the city if Pryor went there. He certainly does not want to be a villain, but going to Miami would just start a new trend for players who anger Cleveland/Ohio fans.

(This trend, of course, would only apply to basketball and football, because the Marlins are seemingly unnoticed by anyone who lives in Miami…except, oh yeah, there is that little memory of the 1997 World Series…)

**********

* – Terrelle Pryor photo source: JasonDavis22

Specifically, the age old question:  Is it time for NCAA athletes to start seeing some of the massive financial pie?

The key to this argument is the idea of exploitation.

We are all smart enough to understand that colleges are making lots of money off of college athletes. The students, in exchange, receive a “free” education. As long as no one is being unfairly exploited, the system works, and the discussion is over.

So what, then, is exploitation? Exploitation is when “one individual gains something by taking an unfair advantage of another individual.” ¹

It is important to point out that all exploitation is not necessarily bad. Some exploitation is mutually advantageous for both parties. Supporters of the current system would argue this point to the death.

“The athletes are getting a free education!”
“The athletes get to be on national television!”
“They are getting paid!”
“The athletes agree to the system! You can’t be exploited if you agree to the process!”

While there is a lot of truth in these arguments, the question has to remain, “Is each side getting fair treatment?”

Let’s say I needed someone to build a 1000 square foot deck for me and I offered you $5 to build the entire thing. Let’s also say that you are out of work, and really have no other options to make money, so you agree to the deal. Does exploitation exist, even though you agreed to the deal and you were getting compensation for it? Of course it does. Why? Because the entire deal was unfair.

This is exactly what’s going on in college athletics. There are two huge problems with the current system, and both issues lead to the blatant exploitation of the college athlete.

The Myth of a Good Education

Believe it or not, colleges were not initially intended to be massive money makers. Sports were not even played on college campuses until the mid-1800s when classes began organizing their own teams (for example, the freshmen would team up and play against the sophomores) for class pride. Ironically, most school authorities were against athletics in the 1850s when intercollegiate teams began forming. But as sports got more popular, college presidents realized that they could manufacture additional income by charging fans to come watch.²

The next steps were easy to predict. How could a school garner more prestige and money? By winning more games. How could a school win more games? By getting the best players.

Immediately, schools began accepting players who never would have been admitted previously. In the 1870s, colleges began to offer financial assistance to students who would play sports for their school.³

It wasn’t long before schools even began giving small cash considerations to players in order to lure them to their particular institutions. In fact, these “arrangements” got so bad that the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States was formed in 1906 in order to curb the “dangerous and exploitative athletics practices of the time.”⁴

So from their beginnings, athletic scholarships were used primarily for the school’s benefit, not the student’s. In addition to that, guess what these players were called? That’s right, they were called employees. It wasn’t until 1956 when the NCAA modified its constitution and coined the term “student-athlete.”⁵

Of course, nowadays, universities try to justify what they are doing by proclaiming that “Now, students who would not otherwise receive an education are able to go to college.” Even though this doesn’t by any means pass the “smell test,” they were actually right – for a while. Even if the whole goal of paying a kid to come to college was to exploit him for money and prestige, at the end of the day, the student was still getting to go to college for four years and get his degree.

That is, until 1973, when the NCAA ruled that athletic scholarships could be terminated at the end of every year, for pretty much any reason.⁶

This may be good for the school, but it could clearly be detrimental to the player. It’s extremely possible (and happens quite often) that a player would travel all the way across the country to play a sport for a certain school, get injured, lose his scholarship, and have a hard time getting into any college anywhere.

The fact is this: if the NCAA was serious about educating its athletes, scholarships would be valid until the student graduated. Instead, the institution is protected, and the student is exploited.

So let me just recap. Universities never saw the usefulness of sports until they realized they could make money off of them. Immediately, they lowered qualifications, and decreased the educational atmosphere of their institutions in order to gain money and prestige. Other colleges began “cheating” in order to get ahead, so the schools built an institution that would “even out the playing field” for everyone. However, all this institution really did was make clever new titles for their players and create leverage for the universities at the students’ expense. At no point did the actual education of the student-athletes ever come into play.

To me, exploitation can’t get any clearer.

But it gets worse.

While college athletes have been exploited for years, it was only recently that we could begin saying that they weren’t receiving their fair slice of the financial pie. And why aren’t collegians getting paid? Because of the the next point.

The Myth of Amateurism

What is amateurism? Well, it basically means that athletes do not receive remuneration – outside of anything that is specified in the sport’s regulations – for their athletic services. ⁷

To most people, there is some sort of utopian and idealistic view of amateurism. It supposedly represents sports in its purest form.

In theory, amateurism is good – so long as no one is being unfairly exploited. The idea of amateurism worked in the 70s when schools simply weren’t making money on sports. Even icons like John Wooden only made $35,000 a year (the most he ever made was $38,000).⁸

It’s hard to believe how far sports have come, even in thirty years, but the revolution has been mind-blowing.

In 1967, the average Major League Baseball player made $19,000.⁹

Today, the average is over $3.3 million. That’s an increase of over 17000%. Over the same time period, NBA salaries have gone up 29900%, and salaries in the NFL have risen 5160%. If that’s not crazy enough, just think about this: in 1981, Larry Bird led the Boston Celtics to the NBA Title…and most of America didn’t see it live because it was on tape-delay.¹⁰

Professional athletes did not start becoming rich until the sports that they played began earning that money. It only makes sense, the bigger the financial pie is, the more each player can have. Unless we are talking about college sports. The amount of money that is driving college athletics has risen just as much, yet college athletes have not seen a dime of the profits.

For instance, the NCAA made $4 billion last year…JUST OFF OF VIDEO GAMES.¹¹

Yes, you read that number correctly. Many schools’ annual revenues reach above $260 million.¹²

The NCAA itself, a “non-profit educational organization,” has an annual budget of $32 million. Whether it’s a 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with CBS for March Madness, or the entire BCS system, everywhere you look, the dollar amounts are staggering.

And who is the reason for this unbelievable growth? Here’s a hint…it’s NOT the NCAA. Brown and Jewell used data from the NFL and NBA drafts to discover that the average draft-quality college football player earns $406,000 in revenue, EVERY YEAR, for his college. The average draft-quality basketball player makes even more, earning $1.194 million for his school.¹³

The point is this: in 1968, when Lew Alcindor was playing for the UCLA Bruins, the modestly paid John Wooden could look him in the eye and honestly tell the big fella that he wasn’t making gobs of money off of the kid.

Could Nick Saban, the $4 million-a-year man, really look at Mark Ingram and tell him the same thing?

Could EA Sports really tell Terrelle Pryor that the 6’6”, black QB #2 with a speed rating of 92 that plays for the Ohio State Buckeyes in their football game isn’t him?

Over the past 40 years, inflation has hit nearly every aspect of the entertainment industry. Professional athletes make more money. Actors and actresses make more money. Writers, singers, and entertainers are just reeling it in hand over fist.

However, only one of these industries has a governing body lording over making sure that the money stays within the very small tier of rich people at the top of it – the NCAA. Andrew Zimbalist was right when he called the NCAA a cartel – a joint group of members that creates a policy in order to promote the mutual interests of its members.¹⁴

As time goes on, the NCAA seems to be getting bolder and bolder in its hypocrisy. The undermining idea seems to be that anyone in the NCAA can make money…as long as it’s not one of the athletes.

Take, for example, AJ Green. The standout wide receiver from Georgia was suspended for four games last year for selling his football jersey to an agent for $1,000. ¹⁵

However, the very same year, the University of Nebraska put star quarterback Taylor Martinez’s jersey on the internet for auction. Ironically, it ended up being sold for around the same amount. It’s all good…as long as the money is going into the pockets of the cartel. ¹⁶

One of the biggest problems with all of this exploitation comes back to the law of opportunity costs, which states, “Every time you choose to purchase one thing, you are choosing against purchasing something else.”

Playing a sport for your university practically makes it impossible to get an off-campus job. In fact, many coaches prohibit their athletes from getting a job. If a student came to school on an academic scholarship, he would simply need to keep his grades up in order to keep his scholarship. Once his studying was over, he could get a job on or off-campus, and actually make money while in college.

However, an athlete is spending the majority of his time in practice, the weight room, or the actual game, and he is actively making his school money. He is denied the opportunity to make any money on his own working somewhere else. We don’t need to pay these players $50,000 a year, but the least we could do is give them a stipend that would be comparable to the amount of money that they would make in an average job.

Another important point to realize is that there are many athletes who are not on scholarship. NCAA schools are allowed to use 85 scholarships for football. However, this past year, the USC football team had 109 players. That means that there were 24 players that were basically paying to play football and probably not allowed to work on the side. Yes, it was their choice to play, but you better believe that USC absolutely loved milking these walk-ons for every drop they could.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. “Most colleges don’t even make money on athletics. How do you expect that we pay them?”

Well, first of all, making money should not be the sole purpose for having sports.

I coach soccer at a small private school. We don’t even come close to making money with the program. But that’s fine, because our overall purpose in having a soccer team is not to make money. Instead, we want to teach our kids how to appreciate camaraderie and teamwork. Most importantly, we want to force them into pressure situations and see how they respond.

To be honest, if the only reason a school had sports was to make money, than the only college sports that would exist would be men’s basketball and football. Non-profit sports are not a waste of time, but since these athletes are not making their school any money, they are not getting exploited – that is, neither side is being unfairly taken advantage of.

But secondly, if a sport is making the school an inordinate amount of money, the athletes that are participating should be compensated in some manner.  The reason that most schools aren’t making money off of athletics is because they have adopted the socialistic tendencies of our welfare society by using their profits from football and basketball in order to fund all of the other sports. When you build an institution, you understand that certain parts of your program will make you more money than others. However, it is unfair to the basketball and football players, aka, the players who are making the school all the money, to refuse to pay them – just because you have to fund the less popular sports that aren’t making money.

That is why we should not pay everyone, just the football and basketball players.

You might ask, how come? Is that really fair?

Well, simply put, because that’s how America is supposed to work. If you make money, you deserve to get paid. On the other side, if you create a business that nobody wants or likes, you don’t receive money “for trying.”

Even though they end up losing the school lots of money, the non-revenue sports still add a lot of important things to a school. And honestly, if we stop funding their programs with our football/basketball surpluses, I bet they would waste a lot less money. The girls’ volleyball team doesn’t “deserve” to go on cross-country trips just because the boys’ football team got to go to Hawaii for a bowl game. They can still learn about camaraderie and teamwork by playing schools in their own conference twice a year.

In conclusion, it all comes back to one thing – is somebody getting exploited by being unfairly taken advantage of?

In the case of NCAA sports, especially basketball and football, in the year 2011, the answer is a resounding yes.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the NCAA is some gracious organization that is traveling the country, seeking to give poor, troubled kids the education that will change their lives.

Don’t be hypnotized by the idea of amateurism and the myth that it leads to a simpler and purer game.

The NCAA has you right where it wants you: reaching into your wallet and putting the money into their pockets.

It’s time the NCAA did the right thing and stopped exploiting their employees (ahem, “student-athletes”).

**********

Special thanks to Tony Miller, who put in countless hours researching and laying the groundwork that it took to write this column.

Image credits:

• Heisman with cash: TheFasterTimes.com
• EA Sports College Football ’12 Cover: AP via MockingTheDraft
• Football with money: Bold Sports Talk

Footnotes:

¹ Wertheimer, A. “The exploitation of student athletes.” Ethics in sport. 2007.

² Flowers, R.D.  “Institutionalized hypocrisy: The myth of intercollegiate athletics.  American Educational History Journal. 2009.

³ Ibid.

⁴ http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/About+the+NCAA/Who+We+Are/About+the+NCAA+history Yes, that’s right.  The NCAA’s very own website admits that from the start, schools began to exploit their players.  I should just end my argument right here.

⁵ Byers, W.  Unsportsmanlike conduct:  Exploiting College Athletes. 1997.

⁶ Sander, Libby.  “Justice Department Examines NCAA Scholarship Rules.”  http://chronicle.com/article/Justice-Department-Examines/65430/ 2010.

⁷ “Definition of amateurism.”  American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000.

⁸ Henderson, John.  “Wooden’s Wisdom.” The Denver Post.  http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_5351758

⁹ MLBPA Average Salary Report.  http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=563&Itemid=42

¹⁰ “1981 NBA Finals.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_NBA_Finals

¹¹ Laird, Sam. “Shoe Marketer who Enriched NCAA Takes on His Creation.” 2011.

¹² Meggyvesy, D.  “Athletes in big-time college sport.”  Society. 2000.

¹³ Brown, R.W., Jewell, T.  “Measuring marginal revenue product in college athletics: Updated estimates.” In J. Fizel and R. Fort (Eds.). Economics of College Sports. 2004.

¹⁴ Zimbalist, A.S.  Unpaid Professionals:  Commercialism and conflict in big-time College Sports. 2001.

¹⁵ “NCAA Upholds AJ Green’s Suspension.”  http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5585220

¹⁶ “Nebraska Offering Pre-Sales of Game Worn Jerseys.”  http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/nebraska-offering-pre-sales-of-game-worn-jerseys/

Speaking for nearly all of OSU fans, all I can say to him is “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

Before this news was reported, there were two ways to look at Pryor. One way would be to see him as one of many players who participated in activities that led to Jim Tressel’s resigning. The other way to look at Pryor involved seeing him as the major reason why Tressel had to go. Either way, Pryor was involved and was a main factor in Tressel’s resignation.

Coming into OSU, Pryor was expected to be the next big thing. He was the top recruit in the nation and chose OSU over that hated team up North. He seemed like a good enough kid who had the body to be a future NFL quarterback, and this gave Buckeye fans a new sense of hope; but many now wish that he would have taken his “talents” to Ann Arbor.

In 2008 the starting QB for OSU was Todd Boeckman, who many wanted out in favor of Pryor. They split time early in the year, but as the year went on Pryor began to see most of the playing time. He was helped by star running back Chris “Beanie” Wells, who took the pressure off of Pryor. Pryor finished 2008 with 12 passing TD’s and a loss to Texas in the Fiesta Bowl. After that tough loss, Buckeye fans could not wait for 2009 to come around.

2009 was a good year for Pryor, but still not a great one. He went 10-2 with a Rose Bowl win over Oregon, but his weaknesses began to be apparent to many OSU fans.

First off, he never seemed to get enough zip on the ball when he threw a pass. He tended to lob passes, even ones into tight spaces. However, this did not matter during his fantastic Rose Bowl. He went 23-37 with 266 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also rushed for 72 yards en route to OSU’s 26-17 win over Oregon. Many analysts said that he would be an early Heisman candidate in 2010, which only made OSU fans forget everything that they didn’t like about Pryor.

2010 came around and OSU had another solid year. It was also Terrelle Pryor’s best year statistically, but maybe his worst mechanically. He finished the year with 27 TD passes and 2772 yards. The downside of his performance is shown by his 11 interceptions. He also threw at least one interception in every Big Ten game except the one against Indiana. The season ended with a win in the Sugar Bowl, but this came after the controversy began.

In reality, Pryor and the other OSU players caught receiving illegal benefits should not have been allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl. I am an OSU fan, but the NCAA made a joke of itself by allowing these players to play. It was clearly all about the money; that goes for the NCAA and the players.

As time went on, things only got worse for the Ohio State program. Pryor and the other players were suspended for the first five games of next season, along with then-coach Tressel. Once Tressel left, it was only a matter of time before Pryor left, which many OSU fans began to call for after he was seen driving around Columbus in a brand new car while he had a suspended license.

Did I mention that the car did not have a license plate on the back? This showed how ignorant Pryor truly is, and this announcement that he is leaving is great news for fans of OSU football.

**********

* – Terrelle Pryor image source: LifeSource

He is banking on his future career in football, but he will need to learn a few things before that is even a possibility.

Pryor has insisted on the fact that he is a quarterback, and that it is the only position he wants to play in the game of football. Unless he drastically improves his skills in the near future, this will not be a possibility for him.

He never showed great passing skills, often lobbing the ball, which is easy for experienced NFL defenders to intercept. He also relied too much on running the ball, which cannot be done in the NFL. Guys like Michael Vick can get away with it, but Pryor, who stands at 6 feet 6 inches, would get injured if he rushed often.

In any level of professional football, Pryor would have to play either wide receiver or tight end. At his current weight, receiver seems more likely. He has the athleticism and body type to play receiver. He could even play quarterback in the Wildcat formation, like a Brad Smith or Josh Cribbs.

Because of this uncertainty about where he’d best fit, the NFL might not be the place where Pryor begins his pro career. He is reportedly interested in entering the NFL supplemental draft, but with the current lockout the Canadian Football League is another likely possibility. The UFL is another possibility, but this is simply speculation.

There is nothing wrong with the CFL or UFL, as nearly any American man would love to have the chance to play in either or the two, but it is very sad that this is what Pryor’s career has come to.

He went into Ohio State as the top recruit in the nation. He could have gone to any school in the country, and he chose to play for Jim Tressel in Columbus. OSU fans were in full support of him and had high hopes for him. Then the news of his NCAA violations came out and everything changed. He began to be seen with flashy cars everywhere he went, and OSU fans quickly turned on him after the resignation of Coach Tressel.

After his promising start, Pryor is now a college dropout and has no job. He certainly has money from all the sales he made, but not enough to live on for years to come. With no degree and no money, Terrelle Pryor is not just another college dropout in search of a job.

Dear Terrelle,

We are so disappointed in you. What you did was terrible…horrible…inexplicable. It was so bad, you really leave us with no choice. We have to suspend you immediately…starting NEXT year. What, you thought we would kill the golden goose before dinner time? There is no way we would turn our back on you until after you make us boatloads of money in the Sugar Bowl next month.

We understand what this means for you. This will probably force you to go to the NFL early. We know you aren’t ready and that you would need another year of school to develop to possibly make yourself a good pro. We understand that because of this, we are potentially ruining your life. Unfortunately for you, you just aren’t that important to us anymore.

With Denard Robinson running all over the Big Ten and Taylor Martinez coming in, you wouldn’t even be one of the two most athletic QBs in your own conference. To be frank, you are expendable. Sure, it would have been nice to have a triumvirate in our precious conference next year, but we have to keep you from making ANY of OUR money while you are still in school.

That money is rightfully ours, not yours, you dumb, poor, black kid. This is what angers us more than anything. You could have just given it back to your school and they could have sold it for a pretty penny. How dare you take profits away from us. Who did you think you were messing with? Did you think we WOULDN’T find out? Why don’t you ask your friend AJ down there in Georgia. Call up your buddy Dez Bryant. They will tell you what you should have known already.

We…are…everywhere.

Don’t you understand that we pay thousands of middle class Americans very good money to make sure that you dumb athletes don’t make ANY? The race card is so easy to play here, we won’t even do it. All we can say is, Child Please. Some day, you will learn.

Sincerely,

NCAA Official X

The likelihood of that happening, of course, is very slim. While the Wolverines can put up points, their defense offers little to no resistance. Thus, expect Terrelle Pryor (whose recruitment still represents Rich Rod’s first loss to Tressel) to run wild and the Buckeyes to beat Michigan…again.

Wondering how Rodriguez is dealing with the waning days of his maniacal rule in Ann Arbor, I traveled there this week to take lots of photos and record the conversations I heard. The result is the photo story below, which tells the tale of a man being forced to come to grips with the legacy he is leaving at one of college football’s Mount Rushmore programs.

The legacy of a loser.

Note: if for some reason you can’t view the image above, view it here.

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This post and all of our weekly Ohio State previews are made possible by Steamatic by Carrara Companies, which proudly provides restoration, cleaning, and construction services to all of Central and Northeast Ohio including Columbus, Cleveland, Akron and the surrounding areas.

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The Ohio State University is 37-13-2 all-time versus the Purdue Boilermakers. Reeling from the smackdown they received in Madison last weekend, the Buckeyes are looking to avoid losing two games in a row for the first time since 2004 (a remarkable stat, by the way).

Add the embarrassing loss to Purdue in 2009, and I think you can figure out what the outcome will be this Saturday.

Here is the game data:

#10 Ohio State v Purdue

• Ohio State-Purdue Location: Ohio Stadium – Columbus, OH
• Ohio State-Purdue Time: Saturday October 23rd, 2010 – 12:00pm EST
• Ohio State-Purdue TV: Big Ten Network
• Ohio State-Purdue Announcers: TBA
• Ohio State-Purdue Spread: Ohio State -23.5
• Ohio State-Purdue Over/under 47.5 (via Betus.com)

Ohio State-Purdue Preview

PURDUE (4-2, 2-0 in the Big Ten):

• Danny Hope (44-31 career, 9-9 at Purdue, 2^nd year)
• Last Week: 28-17 win over Minnesota

Considering all of the injuries on offense for the Boilers this year, they have looked pretty good lately. They had a big road win against Northwestern and after defeating Minnesota we saw the inevitable as Tim Brewster got the axe less than 24 hours later. But heck, 2-0 is what it is in Big Ten play, and that’s more you can say for big boys like Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Penn State.

The Boiler offense has been relying on a solid running attack (202 ypg), which is something coach Danny Hope was hoping to transition to sooner rather than later with a lot of Tiller’s pass happy talent still hanging around. And they have.

Based on last year’s result in West Lafayette, maybe Danny Hope has a good bead on how to stop Ohio State on offense. Either way, the defense is incredibly solid again this year. Senior DE Ryan Kerrigan is leading the way with a Big Ten best 13 TOFL, 6 sacks, and 4 forced fumbles. Kerrigan was a huge disruption in West Lafayette last year against the Bucks with three sacks and two forced fumbles against Terrelle Pryor’s offensive unit.

There is no way Ohio State will overlook Kerrigan and the Boiler defense this year, so it is just a matter of drawing up schemes that don’t give Purdue enough time to get into the backfield. Look for Purdue’s defensive backfield to play a lot of zone so Pryor has to take time to make reads and give the line time to get to the quarterback. After that, any turnovers will give them a legitimate chance to make this game an upset or a close one.

#10 OHIO STATE (6-1, 2-1 in the Big Ten):

• Jim Tressel (235-79-2 career, 100-22 at Ohio State, 10^th year)
• Last Week: 31-18 loss at Wisconsin

We are seven games deep into 2010 and the Buckeyes have looked inefficient on offense in just two of them. That is not a perfect ratio, so the knock on Coach Tressel (as it is at least once a year) is that they are too inconsistent with the amount of talent they have. Really the game in Madison was a bigger special teams and defensive letdown, though the offense didn’t play well enough to offset the other units. Fortunately for the Bucks, they are back in Columbus where the defense and offense have played well all year.

The defense really got manhandled in the first half and a couple drives in the second half against Wisconsin. Purdue may not have the same talent or home field advantage as the Badgers did last week, but they are no slouch running the ball and controlling the clock.

If Ohio State falters on special teams and in slowing down the run again, this game will be much more closer than the experts think. This puts the fans into a trap game of sorts though. The more people say the spread is too big (-23.5) or Purdue has covered the spread in 5 of the last 6 meetings makes me lean further from the masses.

UPDATE: Starting LB Ross Homan and Nickelback Christian Bryant are out with foot injuries for Saturday’s contest.

Ohio State-Purdue Prediction

After the loss at Purdue last year, and the 38-7 recovery victory over Minnesota the following week last year, I feel confident in this pick.

Ohio State-Purdue Prediction: Ohio State 38 Purdue 9

Ohio State-Purdue Spread Pick: Ohio State -23.5

Ohio State-Purdue Over-Under Pick: Under

KVB is 5-1 straight up and 1-5 against the spread on Ohio State this year.

This post and all of our weekly Ohio State previews are made possible by Steamatic by Carrara Companies, which proudly provides restoration, cleaning, and construction services to all of Central and Northeast Ohio including Columbus, Cleveland, Akron and the surrounding areas.

Call 888-502-5326 today!

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The Ohio State University is 53-17-5 all-time versus the Wisconsin Badgers. With Ohio State’s lack of schedule strength getting press this week with a 5^th place BCS projection, that all changes this weekend.

Wisconsin is 40-4 at home since 2004. During that time the Buckeyes only went to Madison once and won the 2008 night game 20-17 on the legs of Terrelle Pryor during a clutch last minute touchdown drive.

Ohio State-Wisconsin Game Info

• Ohio State-Wisconsin Location: Camp Randall Stadium – Madison, WI
• Ohio State-Wisconsin Kickoff Time: Saturday October 16th, 2010 – 7:00pm EST
• Ohio State-Wisconsin TV: ESPN
• Ohio State-Wisconsin Announcers: Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews
• Ohio State-Wisconsin Odds: Ohio State -3.5, Over/under 49 (via Betus.com)

Ohio State-Wisconsin Game Preview

#18 WISCONSIN (5-1, 1-1 in the Big Ten)

• Bret Bielema (43-15 career, 5^th year)
• Last Week: 41-23 win over Minnesota

Let me first review before I preview. Minnesota’s head coach Tim Brewster was a bitch last weekend.

He runs a terrible football program and cries when Wisconsin goes for two in the fourth quarter. He preceded to not shake anyone’s hand after the game. Worry about improving your declining football team, not the things that you cannot control Coach Brewster. You are currently a disgrace to the Big Ten and your athletic department. And this is after they built you a new awesome outdoor stadium for you.

On to Wisconsin…

Not only are they looking to be spoilers to Ohio State’s new #1 ranking, but also they could win out and be co-Big Ten champs if Michigan State falters once before the season ends. I am going to be glad to never have to say “Co-Big Ten Champs” after this year, but that is motivation for the Badgers. As if that and playing at night in Madison against the Buckeyes was not enough motivation, Coach Bielema is looking for his first victory over Ohio State (0-3).

Losing LB Chris Borland to injury hurts them a lot defensively, so it is a must to control the clock on offense. They did that last year in Columbus with 43 minutes in time of possession but still lost 31-13. If they duplicate that this year and limit mistakes ,they will win this time.

It is easy to predict what Wisconsin will do on offense. The two-headed monster in the backfield of James White and John Clay have combined for 17 touchdowns and over 6 yards a carry on the ground this year. That’s just it; you know what they do, but they are not easy to stop. Ohio State’s 29-game streak without giving up a 100 yard rusher is definitely on the line this weekend. Michigan State is the only team to hold John Clay under the century mark this year with 80 yards.

#2 OHIO STATE (6-0, 2-0 in the Big Ten)

• Jim Tressel (235-78-2 career, 100-21 at Ohio State, 10^th year)
• Last Week: 38-10 win over Indiana

Ohio State had a bye week–er, I mean a dominant victory over IU last week and they should be ready to go on only their second road game of the season this weekend. Last year the defense only gave up 59 yards rushing to John Clay, which was the Big Ten offensive player of the year’s 2^nd lowest total in 2009. The defensive backfield will have to be ready to help tackle against the run and play one-on-one coverage against the pass most of the game.

Expect Pryor to do whatever he has to do on offense to lead Ohio State to victory. He will make the decisions (similar to the Miami FL game) that will make or break the outcome no matter if it is typical Tresselball or a wide-open attack that we have seen glimpses of. But this is the biggest road test of the year by far since the game is at night and the hype has College Gameday coming to town.

So the motivation is there on both sides of the ball, meaning taking the crowd out of the game with an early lead might be a key to victory. If not, Wisconsin may have a lot of reason to jump around during and after the game.

Ohio State-Wisconsin Prediction

Ohio State is 4-2 against the spread vs. Wisconsin in their last six meetings. The total score has been UNDER in Ohio State’s last five road games and UNDER 5 of the last 7 against Wisconsin.

Ohio State-Wisconsin Pick: Ohio State 21 Wisconsin 17.

Ohio State-Wisconsin Spread Pick: Ohio State -3.5

Ohio State-Wisconsin Over-Under: Under

KVB is 5-0 straight up and 1-4 against the spread on Ohio State this year.

This post and all of our weekly Ohio State previews are made possible by Steamatic by Carrara Companies, which proudly provides restoration, cleaning, and construction services to all of Central and Northeast Ohio including Columbus, Cleveland, Akron and the surrounding areas.

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This Saturday, the Indiana Hoosiers travel to Columbus to take on the #2-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. This is a series that has been dominated by Ohio State, to the tune of a 66-12-5 all-time record. And when Indiana does win – as it did a couple of times in the 80s – it is referred to as “the darkest day in Ohio State football history”, as Earle Bruce referred to IU’s 31-6 victory at Columbus in 1986.

Can the Hoosiers cast a similar dark pall over Buckeye nation with an upset this weekend? They certainly have the offensive firepower to pull it off; the question is can they stop the Buckeyes?

#2 OHIO STATE-INDIANA GAME INFO

• Ohio State-Indiana Location: Ohio Stadium – Columbus, OH
• Ohio State-Indiana Date and Kickoff Time: Saturday October 9th, 2010 – 12:00pm EST
• Ohio State-Indiana TV: ESPN
• Ohio State-Indiana Announcers: TBA
• Ohio State-Indiana Point Spread: Ohio State -22.5 (via Betus.com)

INDIANA HOOSIERS (3-1)

• Bill Lynch (98-91-3 career, 17-24 at Indiana, 4^th year)
• Last Week: 42-35 loss against Michigan

I cannot figure out if Indiana looked really good last weekend or if Michigan’s defense looked really bad. A little of both is most likely, but you can’t throw out the fact the QB Ben Chappell is leading the Hoosiers’ passing offense to a #4 national ranking at 348 yards per game. Their wide-open attack has looked good all year long.

Chappell’s favorite targets last week were junior WR Tandon Doss, who had 15 receptions for 221 yards, and Junior Darmarlo Belcher, who had 10 catches for 91 yards and a touchdown. They should get plenty of action again considering Ohio State’s banged up secondary and stout run defense.

Indiana’s defense looked okay last weekend from the standpoint that Michigan was only 2 for 7 on 3^rd Downs and only had 18 minutes in time of possession. Where they didn’t look good was giving up 42 points and giving up 5 of 6 touchdown drives in 5 plays or less. Denard Robinson ran on them for 217 yards, but then again who has stopped Denard this year?

Indiana may have a similar problem containing Terrelle Pryor, even though he has a strained quad. Ohio State may keep their attack conservative a week before their tilt in Wisconsin, so that may save IU’s defense from looking as bad as they did a week ago.

#2 OHIO STATE BUCKEYES (5-0)

• Jim Tressel (234-78-2 career, 99-21 at Ohio State, 10^th year)
• Last Week: 24-13 win over Illinois

The overall performance in the first road game of year for the Buckeyes was mediocre at best. So here we are in Big Ten play and Ohio State looks to bounce back at home in their comfort zone. Also, Coach Tressel is going for 100^th career win at Ohio State and they will want the win to be comfortable for him early on.

A significant development last week was Terrelle Pryor hearing “a pop” and falling to the turf holding his quad in the third quarter, although he came back in and will start against Indiana. The most significant injury that no one is talking about outside of Columbus, however, is the season ending injury to DB Tyler Moeller. Before tearing his pectoral muscle, Moeller was leading the team in tackles for loss, having over twenty tackles, a sack, and an interception. Depth has taken a hit in the OSU secondary, but true freshman safety Christian Bryant looked really good in Moeller’s place against Illinois. He needs to grow quickly into his defensive role before the Buckeyes start facing the meat of the Big Ten schedule coming up.

Ohio State wants to be explosive on offense even without the legs of Pryor. They have the athletes to make big plays and put up points against the Hoosiers. Plus, the defense should feed off their home crowd by creating more turnovers this week, so Ohio State should get back to looking impressive overall. Look for tailback “Boom” Herron to have a big game running the ball as well. He looks healthy, confident, and ready to pound his Big Ten opponents this year. Brandon Saine is still an awesome threat receiving, so Herron knows he has to prove himself every weekend.

OHIO STATE-INDIANA PREDICTION

Ohio State is 5-0 against the spread versus Indiana in their last five meetings. Coach Tressel will get his 100^th victory easily. (insert goofy smiling Tressel pic here.)

[Editor's note: here is your goofy smiling Tressel pic...one of the greatest in college football history.]

Ohio State-Indiana Pick: Ohio State 45 Indiana 17

Ohio State-Indiana Spread Pick: Ohio State -22.5

KVB is 4-0 straight up and 0-4 against the spread on Ohio State this year.

This post and all of our weekly Ohio State previews are made possible by Steamatic by Carrara Companies, which proudly provides restoration, cleaning, and construction services to all of Central and Northeast Ohio including Columbus, Cleveland, Akron and the surrounding areas.

Call 888-502-5326 today!

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THE Ohio State University is 62-30-4 all-time against the Illinois Fighting Illini. The winner of this game receives the wooden turtle Illibuck Trophy. This is on the long list of Big Ten trophy games and the tradition started way back in 1925.

Somehow I don’t see this trophy game being preserved in the new divisional alignment starting next year (see lopsided all-time record above).

Look! Ohio State is on the road for the first of only four trips this year!

Now on to the game data and preview:

Ohio State-Illinois Primer

• Ohio State–Illinois Location: Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois
• Ohio State–Illinois Date and Kickoff Time Time: Saturday October 2nd, 2010 – 12:00pm EST
• Ohio State–Illinois TV: Big Ten Network
• Ohio State–Illinois Announcers: Eric Collins, Chris Martin, and Charissa Thompson
• Ohio State–Illinois Odds: Spread – Ohio State -19, Over/under – 50.5 (via Betus.com)

ILLINOIS Fighting Illini (2-1)

• Ron Zook (46-54 career, 6th year at Illinois 23-40)
• Last Week: 28-22 win over Northern Illinois

The Fighting Zooks have their toughest Big Ten game of the year in week one of conference play. Head Coach Ron Zook is on the hot seat but may be able to save face with a good overall year end record. You see, the two conference teams they don’t have to play this year are Iowa and Wisconsin, two of the three teams expected to challenge for the Big Ten Championship.

Illinois’ offense is all run, no pass again, as it has been during the Zook tenure. Leading the team in rushing is junior 230 lb RB Mikel Leshoure, who hasn’t fumbled in his career and is averaging 6.9 yards a carry on almost 20 carries a game in 2010.

Expect them to try to keep Ohio State’s offense off the field and pound the ball with Leshoure and Freshman QB Nathan Scheelhaase who is averaging 5.9 yards a carry. These two in the backfield will run, run, run, unless they get down early. If they do, things could get ugly if Scheelhaase has to prove his arm throwing to his inexperienced wide receivers.

Or their stubborn running attack could simply just end up being the only difference between giving the Buckeye offense an opportunity to score 50-plus points or only 30-plus points.

#2 OHIO STATE Buckeyes (4-0)

• Jim Tressel (233-78-2 career, 98-21 at Ohio State, 10th year)
• Last Week: 73-20 win over Eastern Michigan

Terrelle Pryor passed (four to Sanzenbacher), ran, and caught touchdowns last week against EMU en route to a 73 point output. His talent was on full display and I bet he felt like he was in high school again. But this is Illinois and the Big Ten he facing up against now. Now is the time when he has to keep his stock rising and avoid a mental lapse on the field if the Bucks are truly primed for a special season. The difference from last year is Pryor looked beatable at this time, but now he and Buckeyes look unbeatable.

The Buckeye defense has the obvious game plan to stop the run first and force Illinois to pass, especially if they have an early lead. They have not given up a 100 yard rusher in 27 straight games and plan on extending that streak despite Illinois’ style of play. Even if Illinois can eat up a lot of yards on the ground, forcing field goals and punt situations is key so their offense can get time on the field to put points on the board.

They are focused, so don’t expect Ohio State to overlook Illinois before their home game against Indiana October 9th.

Ohio State-Illinois PREDICTION

All year I have been against and wrong on the spread picks for the Buckeyes. I NEVER bet for or against my favorite team because it takes the fun out of watching it. But with what I thought were too large spreads all year, I’m buying into the Ohio State -19 spread in this one. That is Easily attainable for this team even if you plan on it being “another tough Big Ten conference game” as the Sweater Vest would say. The weather won’t be perfect but don’t expect a downpour.

Ohio State-Illinois Pick: Ohio State 42 Illinois 16

Ohio State-Illinois Spread Pick: Ohio State -19

KVB is 3-0 straight up and 0-3 against the spread on Ohio State this year.