ShareThisHow did Ohio State think it was not going to get a one-year bowl ban?
Buckeye Nation is largely miffed that the NCAA went this far in penalizing it because of the Jim Tressel-induced mayhem in 2010.
Ohio State University believed the problem was head coach Jim Tressel -- and Tressel alone -- therefore, since it fired him, why should it be penalized any further?
Because the NCAA concluded that it was not just Tressel -- and Tressel alone -- who was not doing the right thing at Ohio State.
The NCAA went so far as to send Ohio State a report on Nov. 3 telling the school what it had concluded, and why.
If anyone in authority had read the report carefully they would have at the very least said, "Uh, guys, the self-imposed five-scholarship reduction along with forfeiting all the wins and bowl profits (roughly $350,000) of 2010 is probably not going to be enough."
The NCAA handed a two-year bowl ban to Southern California after it concluded only that the Trojans "should have known" about Reggie Bush receiving cash and gifts from an outside source while at school.
Was it really out of the realm of possibility that the NCAA would hit Ohio State with a one-year bowl ban for its own improper gifts scandal (no matter how ridiculously minor the gifts)?
Hardly.
But even if Ohio State was convinced there was no way the NCAA could ban the Buckeyes from a bowl in 2012, it never should have rolled the dice and bet on it.
Ohio State should have ensured that the damage to the football program from Tressel ended in 2011. It should have, like the University of Miami, voluntarily banned itself from any bowl games this year.
Miami volunteered to sit this bowl season out before its final game of the year, when the Canes were 6-5. Why didn't Ohio State do the same thing? By late November, Ohio State was also 6-5. The Buckeyes knew they were going to hire Urban Meyer and their likely bowl destination was the Gator Bowl.
Athletic director Gene Smith risked the 2012 season because he couldn't live without the money and exposure from the Gator Bowl?
If Buckeye Nation is miffed at anyone it needs to direct the frustration toward Smith. The NCAA was pretty lenient considering that the football team used players who broke NCAA rules and would have been ineligible had the Buckeyes reported them. The athletic director allowed them to play in last year's Sugar Bowl, because technically he could, even though it made a mockery of college football.
Not exactly a no-tolerance policy.
The bowl ban eliminates the Rose Bowl as a possibility, and makes the Buckeyes ineligible for the Big Ten championship game next year. Ohio State in 2012 is the USC of 2011.
It can be a spoiler, period.
So, Buckeye Nation, tell your athletic director how much you enjoyed the Gator Bowl, because you sure didn't want this season to end a month early -- especially now that the 2012 season is all but over in 2011, too.
(David Moulton is a sports radio talk show host and writes for the Naples Daily News in Florida.)
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