5 players suspended for 5 games in 2011 regular season (Appeal has been denied)

[Magua]

I'm kind of on the fence about this issue. IF (and it's a very BIG IF) some of these players did sell the memoribilia they helped our program earn to help their families, then I can't really sit here in my perfect world and bash them. I am fortunate enough to come from a family that never had to struggle to pay bills or make payments or buy groceries. However, I love my family enough to the point where if I had valuable items that others wanted to pay me 1-2k for and my mom was about to get her electricity shut off - I wouldn't think twice about selling a ring/charm to keep her heat/electrcitiy/water/etc on. However, by doing so I knowingly take the risk of getting caught and in trouble and would fully admit and accept the punishment like a man - while telling the NCAA to go fuck themselves politely.

After all that, do I honestly believe some of these young men sold these items to help their families and not themselves? No. But I won't go off and verbally abuse them because I do not know the facts and individual situations these young men are in.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

See this is what hurts the most of this situation. We fans love to espouse the 'family' aspect of Buckeye football and regularly talk up our Buckeye family but the minute one of our beloved players does something we don't agree with, we turn on them like rabid dogs. And it's not even like we're talking about 40 year-old or hell even 30 year-old people here. We're talking about kids who aren't even old enough to drink yet for the most part. I've done far dumber stuff than what these kids did at their age (and I'd wager a majority of us have as well) but my family still supported me to the best of their ability. To hear people discard these players like broken toys is honestly the most heartbreaking. A true family doesn't do that. A true family sticks with each other through thick and thin. Every single human being, both alive and dead, has done some incredibly dumb [censored] in their life and these players are no different.

on the flip-side, more than one of these guys it wasnt their first "mistake." sometimes the only way people learn is to go out on their own. maybe it is time for those who continually repeat their actions to face the full consequences. that says something about the "family" as well. unless you are referring to some sort of jersey "family" with a bunch of italian names... either way, im not a firm believer in allowing kids to play today but punish them in nine months (when their is theoretically less in play)

 

[jimotis4heisman]

The thing is, when they know - even if a year later - that they broke NCAA rules, not revealing that as a group put the whole program in serious jeopardy. Given the number of guys involved, and presumably the number of times it happened, it then becomes a not-so-secret thing that could get back to some lover level staff member or tutor or Grad Assistant. So if you are busted now - as they were - if the NCAA found out that this whole deal was known to some of the program staff and not turned in, you could be looking at major infractions for the whole team, including loss of scholarhips, bowl games, and loss of institutional control findings.

That many guys knowing and not reporting it when they found out what they did was wrong could have been a bomb that took out the guts of your program for years. It disturbs me that they did not reveal this stuff sooner, as how the NCAA works is not really a secret. You would be surprised at the number of hours of instruction that the players get on compliance issues.

Kudos to tOSU for getting this thing handled and the damage limited.

do you know the number of hours of compliance i get a year? that stupid 90 second video every single game! grrr. at 8 or so football games and two dozen basketball games it gets real old, real fast...

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

[censored]y [censored] [censored]. I'm sure Pryor haters are rejoicing. [censored] 'em(the haters, not the suspended players). We'll still win the Big-10 next year.

Damn right; 'cause that's all that matters here in the SEC. Wait, we're not in the SEC.

 

[Meyer]

See this is what hurts the most of this situation. We fans love to espouse the 'family' aspect of Buckeye football and regularly talk up our Buckeye family but the minute one of our beloved players does something we don't agree with, we turn on them like rabid dogs. And it's not even like we're talking about 40 year-old or hell even 30 year-old people here. We're talking about kids who aren't even old enough to drink yet for the most part. I've done far dumber stuff than what these kids did at their age (and I'd wager a majority of us have as well) but my family still supported me to the best of their ability. To hear people discard these players like broken toys is honestly the most heartbreaking. A true family doesn't do that. A true family sticks with each other through thick and thin. Every single human being, both alive and dead, has done some incredibly dumb [censored] in their life and these players are no different.

idk man... They are still Buckeyes and have every right to come back next year. But we have the talent to replace them and that's what happens in life. If you mess up you get the consequences; you get replaced. They chose to become a Buckeye football player and if they don't want to have that responsibility then there are plenty of people who would be willing to take their place, including people on this team. The rules are the rules and if they are laid out to you and you know what they are, then there's no reason to expect sympathy when you break them. It's part of growing up. They are a part of a team. Everyone on the team lives by the same rules.

I'm a college student and I worked at Jimmy Johns last summer. I went to McDonald's one day while I was supposed to be delivering and I got fired. I didn't get a break and I was hungry. Is that fair?? No. But I broke the rules and they replaced me. Who cares if my feelings are hurt. I was part of a team that was trying to succeed in achieving some kind of goal and I got in the way of that goal.

I know it's hard to be perfect all of the time. But just because you play football for Ohio State doesn't mean you are too good to be replaced. When you grow up you learn lessons.

It's a shame that they have all of this pressure placed on them by thousands of people but I'll take all that pressure if you pay for my college.

Maybe some of these kids don't want to go to school. But they are part of a team where most of the kids aren't NFL players and that education is a huge deal to them. First they are letting their other teammates down. And second there are other options if you don't wanna folllow the rules. You don't have to go to college. You can probably play in the United Football League or something, right???

These dudes aren't my family. I'm sorry but most of them wouldn't give two shits about me. And if they did they would probably not do something like this to their teammates and their coaches who work their asses off with them every day. If anyone is my "family" it would be these Ohio State fans. I love OHIO STATE. I love the team. I don't love a player that throws the team under the bus. I know the rules suck. But it's not always about YOU.

idk maybe I'm wrong. I feel terrible for them because they have all this pressure on them and all this attention. But I don't feel terrible that they can be replaced when they let their teammates and coaches down.

 

[Gatorubet]

But he didn't claim he was offended and walked away from the offensive offer... he had dealings about that arrangement.

Who is "he"? If you mean cecil, he was the one offering the deal.

It is completely ridiculous that Cam is ineligible if Cecil meets with Miss State folks and offers his services...

...but if Cecil meets with Miss State folks to discuss the exact same arrangement, but Miss State broaches the subject...then he's eligible.

Yep. I did not write the rules. They are written like they are written and have to be adhered to as they are, and not as we wished they were written. They can be amended. Hopefully they will be amended.

It's also not believable that he was meeting with folks about a pay for play scheme with the losing school but not the winner.

Everyone agrees. I agree. But that has nothing to do with proof of Auburn's complicity in any wrong doing.

I have a hard time believing Cam Newton is still eligible if he was playing for a 6-6 Gator squad instead of being the face of the heisman, national championship, SEC and college football. At the very least, it seems like he would have had to wait longer than 24 hours to be reinstated as things were sorted out.

The 24 hour reinstatement thing was discussed to death. It is not the end of things, and is like the NCAA ruling in a few days on tatgate when the Bush investigation took years. The two things are not the same, the 24 hour investigation is not the same investigation process as the Bush investigation process. Different animals. Aubie is not out of the woods.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Ohio State mess fuels notion NCAA is making up rules as it goes along

The NCAA can send out all the press releases it wants. It can trot out obscure bylaws. It can send its new enforcement chief on an "outreach" tour, as it did earlier this month when newly appointed vice president of enforcement Julie Roe Lach visited several media outlets, including SI.com.
None of it will change the perception -- fueled further by Thursday's Ohio State suspensions -- that the organization is making up the rules as it goes along.
You have every reason to be puzzled as to why five Ohio State players -- most notably stars Terrelle Pryor, Dan Herron and DeVier Posey -- will be suspended for the first five games of next season for selling various rings, awards and apparel, yet will be allowed to play in the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl against Arkansas.
If you're an Ohio State fan, you have every reason to be confused about why former star Troy Smith was suspended for the 2004 Alamo Bowl for receiving $500 from a booster while the aforementioned five will suit up despite pocketing between $1,000 to $2,500 from some other nefarious figure.
If you're a Georgia fan, you have every reason to be miffed that receiver A.J. Green had to sit the first four games of this season for a very similar transgression (selling a game-worn jersey) while the offending Buckeyes sold some of their stuff more than a year earlier yet never missed a game.
And if you're just a general college football fan, you have every reason to be puzzled, outraged and perhaps even despondent that the NCAA came down harder on Ohio State players for selling rings than it did on Heisman winner Cam Newton, whose father shopped Newton's signature for $180,000.
Just nine days away from the New Year, this Ohio State mess marks the latest chapter in an unusually busy year for the NCAA's enforcement division. From the USC/Reggie Bush sanctions to the North Carolina agent suspensions to Bruce Peal, Tom Izzo and Newton, the headlines have been never-ending.
In the heavily layered NCAA bureaucracy, however, different personnel groups handle infractions cases (USC, Tennessee basketball), agent issues (Georgia, UNC), Basketball Focus Group (Izzo) and athlete eligibility reinstatement (Newton, Ohio State).
It's no wonder the rules and the punishments seem so wildly inconsistent.
You can read the full release here, but in a nutshell, this is how the NCAA arrived at the punishments it did for the Ohio State players:
? The rules state clearly that a player must be suspended "four games, or 30 percent of a season," for receiving the level of benefits Pryor and Co. did.
? The NCAA added a fifth game because "the student-athletes did not immediately disclose the violations when presented with the appropriate rules education," which, according to the school, happened in November 2009.
? That date, however, was also the key in justifying why the players won't miss the bowl. AD Gene Smith claims the school was "not as explicit with our student-athlete education as we should have been in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years regarding the sale of apparel, awards and gifts issued by the athletics department." Translation: The players didn't know they were breaking the rules as they were breaking them. (Suspend disbelief starting now.)
? Because of that, the NCAA broke out language almost no one (including, by his own admission, Smith) had ever heard: "NCAA policy allows [lifting] penalties for a championship or bowl game if it was reasonable at the time the student-athletes were not aware they were committing violations."
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Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/12/23/ohio-state-suspensions-ncaa/index.html#ixzz18yXBpmKt

Good article :)

 

[ScriptOhio]

Suspended Buckeyes should cut ties with unfair system, turn pro

To the gentlemen starring in this week's episode of Columbus Ink:
Go pro. Do it immediately after the Sugar Bowl. Play the game, take a shower, and sign with the agent of your choice. Then go drink a Hand Grenade at Tropical Isle to celebrate.
Think about it, Terrelle Pryor, Boom Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams and Solomon Thomas. You don't need this aggravation.
You can go to the NFL or the CFL or the UFL, where you'll be paid when someone profits from your name or likeness. You'll be fairly compensated for your contribution to your team's gross revenue. Should you benefit from your notoriety, you won't be punished.
Or you can stay at Ohio State, where the NCAA will force you to miss the first five games of next season for selling signed game-worn gear and memorabilia in exchange for cash and tattoos. (Terrelle, it probably wasn't very sportsmanlike to sell your Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award, but I'm not sure I'd want to keep a trophy memorializing my trip to a bowl that is under investigation by an Arizona grand jury.) You'll have to sit out while your teammates play against Miami, Colorado and Michigan State. Then you'll get to return just in time for a trip to Lincoln to play Nebraska. Certainly, those NFL scouts won't downgrade you if you get mangled trying to shake off the rust against one of college football's best teams. Will they?
And don't even bother asking why you're suspended for those games instead of the upcoming Sugar Bowl against Arkansas. That's an entirely different can of worms.
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Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...tate-suspensions-nfl/index.html#ixzz18yXe00we

Another good article.:)

 

[BuckITilEyeDie]

Most of you are a bunch of 2 faced pansies! Dont knock the players or coaches or we will ban you. These players did nothing wrong and should not be held accountable for something that is a far more political cause then anything. Saving face is all the NCAA is worried about and the continued support of the money tree. I hate everything about CFB except for the game itself and the kids.

 

[Onebuckfan]

I didn't comment on the Newton or Bush things because we are dealing with Kids that are on all kind of agendas...not just loyalty to old alma-mater..and it can hit any program at any time. I agree with the rule not to bash inividual players neither should we canonize them because they chose tOSU over some other school.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

The most shameful thing is the selling of the championship rings and pants... I hope Tressel benches them for the bowl game and I never see them play again. There is more pride in a freaking Iowa State locker room right now.

Serious hyperbole here. The accomplishment is the important thing, not the trinket that commemorates it.

But if all Buckeye fans felt the way that you do, then there wouldn't be a secondary market for those trinkets.

 

[NFBuck]

Most of you are a bunch of 2 faced pansies! Dont knock the players or coaches or we will ban you. These players did nothing wrong and should not be held accountable for something that is a far more political cause then anything. Saving face is all the NCAA is worried about and the continued support of the money tree. I hate everything about CFB except for the game itself and the kids.

Um, yes they did. Is the punishment fair? Does it make sense? Probably not, but lets not act like they're innocent here. They broke the rules, they should be punished.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Most of you are a bunch of 2 faced pansies! Dont knock the players or coaches or we will ban you. These players did nothing wrong and should not be held accountable for something that is a far more political cause then anything. Saving face is all the NCAA is worried about and the continued support of the money tree. I hate everything about CFB except for the game itself and the kids.

For a moment, I was actually going to attempt a reasoned response to this gibberish. Ultimately, I just felt that the most appropriate response was this:

 

[BuckITilEyeDie]

Um, yes they did. Is the punishment fair? Does it make sense? Probably not, but lets not act like they're innocent here. They broke the rules, they should be punished.

But why must they resort to selling personal achievements when the U itself is making millions because of them and their achievements?

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

If they were smart, they would have given the trinkets to their parents and then their parents could have sold them without their knowledge. Sure, we'd have to have them declared ineligible for 20 minutes, but...