Ohio State Loses Dignity, But Likely Avoids Tangible Punishment
By Ty Duffy
The NCAA informed Ohio State there would be no failure to monitor charge and no new violations stemming from George Dohrmann’s reporting in Sports Illustrated. Scholarships could be forthcoming, but it seems likely Ohio State will evade a postseason ban. Nothing to see here, kids. Move along.
According to Dohrmann the NCAA would not grant SI’s source confidentiality. The NCAA has no subpoena power. Terrelle Pryor, by leaving the program, had no obligation to cooperate with an NCAA investigation.
A few things strike me as curious.
* OSU players were allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl because they weren’t properly educated about the rules. Now, Ohio State will avoid a failure to monitor charge because they did properly educate the players. What?
* How, when a head coach himself commits the violation, is that not a de jure failure to monitor charge?
* After crucifying USC for information they “should have known,” the NCAA is letting OSU slide for an “investigation” conducted by the compliance department last December that found no further evidence of wrongdoing and took a head coach’s word as gospel without bothering to verify it. Is the crime wrongdoing itself, or merely not being contrite about it?
The NCAA has Draconian rules it enforces neither effectively, consistently nor transparently. Subject to the schools that break them, it has no inclination to act unless goaded by earnest media members. It is adept at hammering kids for profiting modestly. It is woefully inept at stopping adults from exploiting them on a large scale. It is the great hall monitor. It serves its purpose as an artifice creating an aura of legitimacy, to keep the taxman away and the gravy flow torrential.
[Photo via Getty]