Certain recent developments probably rendered this a foregone conclusion, but just in case there was any doubt: The NCAA has officially upheld its original decision to suspend five Ohio State players ? four of them senior offensive starters expected to form the core of another Big Ten and BCS championship run ?�for the first five games of the 2011 season for selling jerseys, rings and other tokens of Buckeye pride to a local tattoo parlor.
That much we expected. This, we didn't: Coach Jim Tressel has decided to join them for the duration. The Senator has "voluntarily" extended his university-imposed suspension from two games to five games in atonement for sitting on information about potential violations for some eight months before the tattoo parlor case came to the university and NCAA's attention last December, then remained silent for another month still. "Throughout this entire situation my players and I have committed ourselves to facing our mistakes and growing from them," Tressel said in a statement. "We can only successfully do that together." OK then. They'll be on ice together ?�barred from the stadium or communicating with anyone in the stadium during games ?�until mid-October.
Initially, Ohio State had appealed to reduce the players' suspensions, even by just one game, in hopes of getting quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Boom Herron, wide receiver DeVier Posey and offensive tackle Mike Adams back in time for the Big Ten opener against Michigan State on Oct. 1. Instead, the Buckeyes will be operating without their head coach, starting quarterback, starting tailback, most reliable deep threat and starting left tackle until Oct. 8, when they visit Nebraska. They'll have to wait three more weeks to make their return to Ohio Stadium, when Wisconsin comes to Columbus on Oct. 29.
Whether the Buckeyes' championship ambitions can survive that long is anyone's guess. The interim quarterback in Pryor's absence could very well be a true freshman, prized local signee Braxton Miller, or a redshirt freshman who's never taken a college snap, Taylor Graham. That's fine for the first two games, MAC-rificial visits from instate lambs Akron and Toledo; after that, though, there's an ominous trip to Miami on Sept. 17, followed by home dates with Colorado and Michigan State that threaten to derail the season before it really begins. On the bright side, the decision to add a fifth game to the players' suspensions (on top of the usual four) in exchange for keeping them eligible to play in the Sugar Bowl seem to work out exactly as Ohio State hoped.
In the meantime, OSU continues to brace itself for the verdict that could inflict a much deeper, more lasting wound, as the NCAA continues its probe into how, when and why Tressel kept his mouth shut for so long with direct knowledge of the players' infractions and likely ineligibility. Here, Ohio State's initial response ?�a two-game suspension and $250,000 fine for Tressel ?�seemed woefully inadequate for a major, intentional violation of an NCAA bylaw (10.1) that has eventually cost almost every other coach who's run afoul of it their jobs, in multiple sports. The sterner wrist-slapping Thursday seems like a bare minimum penance in response to a week of steadily negative press from all corners.
And frankly, anyone who's followed the NCAA for any extended period of time can see the association buying that: It's always tended to look favorably on programs' efforts to police themselves, and typically upholds self-imposed penalties with only very minor adjustments. If it can plausibly spare its few investigative resources by checking the university's work and declaring "case closed," it usually will.
On the other hand, the NCAA does not tend to look favorably on being essentially lied to and/or manipulated in investigations, and it has more than ample ammunition in Tressel's silence and subsequent mea culpas to vacate wins (Pryor, Herron, Posey, Adamas and Thomas were ineligible for the entire 2010 season, at least two of them with Tressel's knowledge, putting all 12 victories at risk) and impose at least a one-year bowl ban ? it was for the Sugar Bowl, after all, that Tressel not only kept quiet when the NCAA came calling in December, but actively lobbied to keep the offending players on the field. In the long run, the next judgment still has the potential to make the first five games of 2011 look like a fleeting pinprick.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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