An Eye for a Tooth

Quick - name the thirteen teams Ohio State beat last season during their 12-1 romp through a watered-down Big Ten and a putrid out-of-conference slate...

How did you do?  You may have gotten a half or most of the team based of your knowledge of the Big Ten.  And with up-and-coming programs like Marshall, Ohio and Eastern Michigan on every one's radar, these stellar match-ups probably produced the epic kind of entertainment that college football fans salivate over.

Today Ohio State proclaimed its vacating their wins from the 2010 football season, including its share of the Big Ten championship and the Buckeyes' victory over Arkansas in the 2011 Sugar Bowl.  Responding to the NCAA's investigation of a memorabilia-for-cash scandal that cost former coach Jim Tressel his job star quarterback Terrelle Pryor his place in school history, the university also said Friday it is waiving a $250,000 fine imposed on Tressel and changing his resignation to a retirement. The move contradicts a comment university president Gordon Gee made last month when he said Tressel "will pay the fine."  The ex-Buckeyes coach is taking responsibility for the NCAA inquiry, which developed after it was learned Tressel failed to report players receiving improper benefits. Tressel will also attend Ohio State's Aug. 12 hearing before the NCAA infractions committee, which is Judgment Day for Buckeye Nation.

The university also is putting the football program on probation for two years with harsher punishments probably on the horizon.

It certainly is difficult to impose self-imposed actions, but if you take away victories from games already played, what are you really accomplishing?  It doesn't help the Buckeye cause - at least in the eyes of the public - that the arrogant Gee made his university seem superior to the common man's college when he called Boise State "small potatoes." He thumbed his nose at most of college football, claiming supreme entitlement for big pay days and superior intelligence in the field of working the system.
Didn't Ohio State already pocket the money from ticket sales, memorabilia, television revenue as well as the benefit of showcasing your product to NFL scouts and potential recruits during this "lost" 2010 season?  Does anyone in Ann Arbor or East Lansing or Fayetteville feel greater satisfaction knowing they lost to a team but are now being told the team didn't exist? I can forfeit the flag football championship that my team won in college on the premise that we should have been studying, but does that really take away from who was the better team on that night?

If you want some retribution, payback or self-imposed action, try doing this:
* Right now, Ohio State is tabbed for three out-of-conference home games against Akron on September 3, Toledo on September 10th and Colorado on September 24th.  Have the institutions and the NCAA involve themselves to make each of these Ohio State home games changed into road games. 

Initially, this might be a logistical headache for Akron, Toledo and Boulder.  However, I think it's as fair of a proposal as any prescribed for the following reasons:
1) You don't punish the current Buckeye players by taking a possible post-season bid away.  You merely relocate them to a more advantageous venue for their opponent.  That's how you level the playing field - not by taking away two scholarships.
2) You punish the city of Columbus and the university where it matters most - their pockets.  All three of these schools would benefit tremendously from the increase in revenue when such a high-profile school visits.  Ohio State loses three opportunities for money, and that hurts everyone.  If you want to get the community to turn against you, take away some of their money and watch what happens.
3) These "road" games are not going to be as hostle since most Buckeye fans will travel to any destination to watch their precious team take the gridiron.



Imagine this face in your town...and Brutus, too...

 I'm not going to say my idea is the best alternative for self-imposed sanctions.  I do know that any change to the current system would be a better one.  I will be watching with interest when August 12th arrives.  Having no real passion for or against Ohio State, I'm curious to see how the NCAA handles such a large violation to such a large program.  If taking away games that were already played seems fair to the committee, that would be unfortunate.