Commentary: NCAA must make example of OSU or change expectations

By Zack Meisel (TheLantern.com) -

The NCAA has two choices: Set an example or set a new standard.

The oft-criticized collegiate policymakers must either make an example out of their current troublemakers – Ohio State, in particular – or adapt to the evident revolution taking place in college towns across the nation.

Bob Knight, the 70-year-old retired college basketball coach, probably isn’t a whiz around iPads and Androids. But even he recognizes the change in societal pressures college athletes face.

“I understand what’s happened and there was a rule that was violated. But it was an idiotic rule,” Knight told reporters last week, referring to the situation at OSU. “I think this NCAA that we’re currently involved with is so far out of touch with the integrity of the sport that it’s just amazing.”

Each morning, the paperboy delivers new allegations to the doorsteps of millions of Buckeye fans. Car improprieties here, free rounds of golf there, money changing hands everywhere.

It started Dec. 23, when the NCAA suspended quarterback Terrelle Pryor and five other Buckeyes for selling memorabilia and receiving discounts on tattoos.

OSU athletic director Gene Smith said at a press conference that day that Tattoo-gate was “an incident isolated to these young men, isolated to this particular instance.”

As it turned out, Tattoo-gate was merely the tip of a titanic iceberg cumbersome enough to sink…..
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