The Front Row

It is my opinion that the NCAA had egg on their face when they reinstated the players for the Sugar Bowl and felt it necessary to get that game back. My gut reaction is self imposing a bowl ban this year would have given them that game back. It certainly seems, in hinesight, that the Administration should be anticipated this and pushed for a ruling before the bowl games were announced. It seems like this would have been a reasonalbe request given the circumstances. If either one of these things above would have been done, then I believe we could have avoided this embarrasment. And that is what this is for me as an alumni. Everyone from the guilty players, to the coach and especially the administration botched this to an epic level and represented the university in the worst possible way. I think those TAT gate players should have never played in the Sugar Bowl and I think the two time offenders (TAT and Bobbi G) should have never played again for OSU. No matter how good Posey and others are, I find it hard to rationalize their continued playing time at this point. They have put OSU in a very difficult situation and do not deserve the opportunity to represent. Let someone who does it the right way play, regardless of their talent level.

The problem I have with the bowl ban is that the NCAA actually is punishing innocent kids. The guilty kids were punished by suspensions. The coach had his college coaching career effectively ended. The team was punished by having their season vacated. The University returned its share of the bowl proceeds. The program was punished by losing three recruits each of the next three seasons. So who is being punished by the post season ban? KIds who as far as we know had nothing to do with violations.