I see more and more people calling for the death penalty for the Ohio State football program. I'd find it funny if it weren't such a serious situation. Someone posted the question today if Ohio State should get the death penalty and this is my response:
Even as bad as it was, the NCAA later admitted they didn't realize the massive effect on SMU and wouldn't do it again.
If they did the same thing to Ohio State, they'd basically be shutting down 30+ other programs that were totally innocent. The NCAA knows they are dancing with the devil when it comes to college football and the funding for all the other sports. They can't kill the golden goose for fear of killing the whole thing. Colleges are already hemorrhaging money from rising costs/government cutbacks so they depend on their football teams to pay for everything else. Without football you don't have college athletics.
Players are paid comparatively very little when you consider their counterparts in the NFL. Keeping kids away from people that want to buy access is impossible to achieve 100% of the time. The colleges and the NCAA don't have near the amount resources available to police this so eventually every school is going to get hit. All it takes is one kid that does something stupid and somehow it gets documented. At that point the NCAA has to go through the motions and while the media points to the program and says, "Shame on you!" while behind closed doors their opponents all breath a sigh of relief, thankful that it isn't them.
((I'm in no way saying that I feel a lax compliance atmosphere or Jim Tressel's omission was acceptable. I expect tough compliance at Ohio State and lying from the head coach is inexcusable.))
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