The NCAA College Football season kicked off earlier this month to the delight of football starved fans everywhere. But that cannot mask one of the most turbulent off-seasons in recent NCAA history.
The Ohio State University
This proud program began to suffer last season when, bit by bit, bad news regarding the actions of their players and then coaches began to make noise. Finally, when it became known that head coach Jim Tressel knew a great deal about what was going on and didn’t report the violations, the pressure became too great and the coach that led them to so many championship games finally resigned. Ohio State has vacated their 2010 season.
Terrelle Pryor, the source of many of the violations, decided to leave Ohio State and enter the supplemental draft where he was picked up by the Oakland Raiders in the 3rd round. The NFL took the unprecedented move of banning Pryor for five games during the regular season, essentially enforcing the NCAA ban of five games had Pryor played this season for Ohio State.
University of Miami
Yahoo! Sports dropped a bomb when they released their investigative reporting into special player treatment at the University of Miami last month. At the heart of the matter appears to be the actions of a ‘rogue’ booster who showered athletes, many now prominent NFL players, with expensive watches and other assorted gifts. For a week after the story broke it seemed like Sports Talk airwaves were filled with commentary from just about everyone, including Luther Campbell of the group Two Live Crew. New head coach Al Golden has been left to deal with the consequences that could include loss of scholarships as well as bowl game ineligibility.
LSU
Les Mile’s LSU squad was sitting pretty just two weeks before the opening of the season. They were awarded an impressive Top 5 ranking in the pre-season polls and the future looked bright for this SEC powerhouse. That changed with a rowdy night at a Baton Rouge bar called, of all things, ‘Shadys.’
The details are still coming out, but it seems to involve a bunch of LSU players standing around in the parking lot and someone in a pickup truck honking for the players to move out of the way. The man honking his horn was apparently taken out of his truck and roughed up, a Marine who had been kicked out of the bar earlier in the night joined in the ruckus, and things spiraled out of control. An eyewitness says they saw LSU Quarterback Jordon Jefferson attacking one of the victims. Jefferson, who the coaches at LSU have been spending a lot of time working with, perfecting his technique, has been indefinitely suspended. However, as a testament to the program, Quarterback Jarrett Lee has stepped in and handled the offense without missing a beat.
Now that the college football season is in full swing we can focus on the actions on the field and not the circus of tattoos, fast cars, and who knew what when. Hopefully these programs can learn from the mistakes of the past and generate headlines from victories instead of arrests.