BCS Bowl Preview: NCAA Hypocrisy and Those Who Profit from It

The Ohio State University is a national program and the perception of programs that attain that status is that they simply cannot run a legitimate program. That is sadly a fair assessment and Ohio State will not be the last big-time football program to be in the limelight for the wrong reasons.

We have heard about the arrest record of the Florida Gators under Urban Meyer. Michigan under Rich Rodriguez was practicing too much but, ironically, that did not translate to better play on the field. Nick Saban brought Alabama back from their sanctions to their place as an elite national program.

Reggie Bush and Pete Carroll have left USC in what could be the beginning of a decline. Cam Newton might be giving back the Heisman Trophy he earned with his stellar play this season. Auburn did declare him ineligible for a day before the SEC Title Game and it was the NCAA that declared him eligible for the game.

The NCAA has such a strong tie to the BCS that the hypocrisy can no longer be hidden. The five Ohio State Buckeye players caught in Tattogate are superstar Terrelle Pryor, Devier Posey, Mike Adams, Dan Herron and Soloman Thomas. If those players were suspended for the Sugar Bowl against the Arkansas Razorbacks then the BCS would be affected with lower ratings.

As it is the BCS has a real dog of a game in the Fiesta Bowl with the appearance of the Connecticut Huskies who should get boomered by the Oklahoma Sooners. The SEC/Big Ten showdown of Arkansas and Ohio State was one of the marquee bowl games so the thought of those five players missing that game put the NCAA in a position where they had to pull back the curtain and reveal to the nation what a lapdog they are for the BCS.

The NCAA will make the Ohio State Buckeyes a non-entity next season with these suspensions yet they want them to be ever-so-relevant for the Sugar Bowl.

Doing the right thing should not be put to the choice of a board. Doing the right thing is simple in that you simply do the right thing. The five Buckeye players broke one of the millions of NCAA rules and they should be barred from playing in the Sugar Bowl as well as the suspensions spreading into next year.

I am a huge Ohio State fan and am very excited to have a chance to play another SEC team in the BCS. At first I was glad that these players were going to play because I figured that Terrelle Pryor would go pro after the game. He did say that he wanted to come back for his senior year but missing half of the season will not help his draft stock go any higher than it is right now.

I realize that he is not a sure-fire first-round pick but he has the prototypical size for the quarterback position in the NFL. If he is around in the third round then there are many NFL GMs that would be fools to pass him up.

Instead, Jim Tressel has made the five players commit to coming back or else they would not be allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl. As a fan of the Buckeyes, I truly wish that Pryor would have simply gone pro and not played in the Sugar Bowl. The BCS gets its big-time game to remain valid, while Tressel has to make it through five games, including what could be a huge one with Michigan State. And the players that make all of this happen are once again pawns in the hypocrisy of the NCAA as the small group who run the BCS get to giggle at the bottom line for another year.

What if ESPN took a stand and said that they would not televise the game? Then it would be picked up by another station and the BCS could use that as leverage to cancel their contract with ESPN for the remainder of their pact with the BCS.

Well, let me get off of my soapbox and make this article legit by giving my BCS bowl preview.

Oregon wears down Auburn to win a tight BCS title game.

TCU wears down Wisconsin and pulls away late for a Rose Bowl win.

Arkansas takes advantage of a distracted Ohio State squad to run away with the Sugar Bowl.

Stanford and Virginia Tech play in what will be remembered as an epic Orange Bowl that Virginia Tech wins with a late drive.

No one watches the Fiesta Bowl as it is over by halftime.

The BCS inner-circle laughs all the way to the bank.