Hypocritical NCAA

Suspension of Ohio players should prompt talk of a college sports overhaul.

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Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor was suspended but will be allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl against the Hogs.

Last Thursday, the NCAA got a head start on its Christmas giving, presenting each college football fan with a stocking full of hypocrisies, each gift-wrapped in tissue-thin logic.

Quick recap: Six Ohio State football players — including the three stars — were suspended for selling various rings, awards and apparel from 2007 to 2009.

So far, so good.

Until you dive into the specifics — these players, five juniors among them, must miss the first five games of next season, but will be allowed to play the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl against Arkansas.

Why? Because of a ridiculous NCAA policy that allows lifting penalties for a championship or bowl game “if it was reasonable at the time the student-athletes were not aware they were committing violations.” And yes, we are to believe quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Dan Herron, receiver DeVier Posey and others had no idea that swapping swag for hundreds of dollars and reduced rates on tattoos could ever possibly veer toward the verboten. Even though OSU has seven full-time staffers and two interns in its compliance office.

Didn’t these players know they could have stayed clean by simply directing their prospective clients to the fan shop link on the official OSU website, where one can buy official game-worn jersey with the players’ numbers at merely $300 a pop?

It’s enough to make one wish for the old days, when compliance folks were apparently more on the ball. Like in 2004, when Buckeye quarterback Troy Smith had to sit out the Alamo Bowl and the 2005 season opener because he’d taken $500 from a booster, or just four months ago, when Georgia receiver A.J. Green had to sit out his first four games for selling a game-worn jersey.

Indeed, this is the same We Didn’t Know defense used to spring Auburn quarterback Cam Newton from culpability regarding knowledge of his father’s black-market activities before the SEC Championship Game. It’s an excuse wearing mighty thin with fans, as is the farce that the NCAA puts the student-athlete’s best interests above its own bottom line. Pryor and Newton’s talents will help pack stadiums and couches during their bowl games, they will help earn their schools and the NCAA millions and they will almost assuredly leave college to finally get paid for their unique skill sets beyond the annual $25,000 they now receive for tuition and board. But the system, broken and sclerotic, will wheeze on next season, wrapping its quivering hands around some other program … perhaps one closer to home. It’s clear the status quo isn’t good enough, and it’s important fans discuss possible remedies.

I don’t pretend to have them myself, but I am leaning toward one interesting possibility from economist Andrew Zimbalist. In his book Unpaid Professionals, he asserts one of the saddest charades in college sports occurs when schools must prostitute themselves by accepting “special admits” — talented athletes who have little academic talent and/or academic preparation — and offering them phony curricula.

Zimbalist says one way to cut out the hypocrisy and cynicism infecting this process is to professionalize big-time college sports. For instance, the University of Arkansas could own the Arkansas Razorbacks football team as a separate entity. The team would still play in Fayetteville and Little Rock, and from the outside look very similar to how it does now. But the players would be paid like minor-league professionals and not have to attend classes, although some would take advantage of reduced tuition rates and become part-time students. The players would be able to sign endorsement deals and collect royalties whenever their likenesses are used in DVDs and paraphernalia. This first-hand experience, combined with learning how to budget their income, may bring home marketing and finance classes at the Walton College of Business in ways that would never have resonated with them as full-time students. The UA itself would still earn money by renting and operating its stadium, retaining student athletic fees or providing room and board for the players. If for some reason the UA decided to not own the Razorbacks, then the organization may be able to find financial support from the NFL (likely Dallas) as a developmental team.

Zimbalist points out that there is ample precedent for this type of pro or independent presence on a university campus. Take, for instance, the Loeb Theater at Harvard University, which is owned by the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Students perform their own plays on the main theater, as does a professional company, the American Repertory Theater. Harvard graduate students, and occasionally undergraduates, have been able to act or otherwise assist in the professionals’ productions. The American Repertory Theater has run theater workshops and done advising for the students.

There is a better future for college sports, but we have to care enough to form it.

Speaking of, here’s a chance for those traveling to the Sugar Bowl to help create a better future for the 9th Ward. The New Orleans Beacon of Hope Resource Center, a nonprofit agency serving as a model for sustainable neighborhood revitalization, wants Ohio State fans to help clear lots, paint and clean. Those Arkansas fans who prize humanism over factionalism, though, may also be of use. Meet at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, 2 Poydras St., at 8 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 3. for registration. Buses leave at 8:30. Call  (504) 309.5120 for details.

What’s your idea for fixing the college football industrial complex? Throw me a line at thesportsseer@gmail.com

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