cincibuck;1843347; said:
As I understand it, the university initially understood the situation and took an ethical stance.
Money then took a conflicting ethical stance, that revenue supersedes precedent and pressured the the university into reversing itself.
When Ohio State discovered the violations, the university "understood" the NCAA rules and took the only "ethical stance" that was available to it at that time, namely self-reporting the violations and immediately suspending the players involved. When the NCAA, which is responsible for setting the "ethical" standard in college athletics, declared the players eligible for the Sugar Bowl, then that decision of the NCAA became the new "ethical stance" relevant to the situation. Ohio State initially followed both the general"ethical stance" required by the NCAA rules, and now Ohio State is following the new "ethical stance" set forth in the specific ruling of the NCAA. What more could Ohio State possibly do in this situation to show you that the school is acting "ethically"?
Here's the problem with the essence of your argument: What is the appropriate punishment that a person should receive for lawfully selling his own lawfully-acquired lawful property? Clearly, as a general principle, no punishment is appropriate, and any form of punishment would be inappropriate. The only reason that the players were "wrong" in this situation is that they violated an NCAA rule, a rule which does not have any general ethical component to it. In other words, what the players did was not "wrong" under Ohio law, federal law, natural law, Biblical law, sharia law, or any other body of "ethics" that I can think of (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mill, etc.). Therefore, there is no "higher ethical standard" for Ohio State to follow here.
cincibuck;1843347; said:
The precedent established that punishment is to begin immediately.
And the NCAA decided not to follow its own precedent when punishing the Ohio State players, which the NCAA has the right to do. There is no general principle of law (or "ethics" for that matter) that dictates that punishment should begin immediately after sentencing.
I agree that the NCAA turned some logical somersaults in reaching its decision, and one could criticize the NCAA for doing so. However, I simply don't see how anyone can criticize Ohio State for following what the NCAA has determined to be "right" and "ethical" and "proper" under the circumstances.
There is no principle of "ethics" that requires Ohio State to be the proverbial "martyr" in this situation.