Terrelle Pryor Not Innocent, but NCAA Regulations on Compensation Unrealistic

Once upon a time, being a college athlete didn't mandate stardom. Once upon a time, ESPN didn't exist. Once upon a time, being the quarterback for Ohio State was far less important than being a pro football quarterback.

Folks, these days have passed. College football is no longer the last step before national fame; it is the first step in being part of the now 24-hour, seven-day-a-week media spotlight. Players like Terrelle Pryor, Tim Tebow, Matt Leinart and Cam Newton are household names. They are already stars before they step foot in the pros, and quite frankly, that's not their fault.

Stars Are Bright, and Everyone Gazes

Perhaps if there weren't so many media outlets in the world, constantly channeling opinions and analysis of every sport from golf to college football to professional basketball, college players would not be such well-known figures. This is not the case, however, and college players of the big conference schools are made into stars. Once someone is a star, there is no stopping the number of eyes that fall on him. 

So these players, the Pryors and the Tebows, didn't walk out one day and say, "Everyone look at me, I'm important." It was everyone else—the public, the fans, the media—who screamed, "Everyone look at them, they are important!'

And that's that. Stars are born, and once something is born, it has to live out its life. 

The Popularity and Importance of College Football

An interesting fact of state universities in the US is that they are located, for the most part, in secondary cities or rural areas that lack professional sports teams. The University of Florida is in Gainesville, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, etc. All of these cities are dwarfed by the biggest cities in their states, which in this case would be Miami, Detroit and Nashville, respectively. 

The point of all this is that in these cities and their metropolitan areas, college football is not secondary to any NFL team. The people in these areas bleed the colors of these schools, regardless of whether they have any affiliation with the school whatsoever.

Columbus, Ohio, home of Ohio State University, is technically the biggest city in Ohio by population yet has only the 32nd-largest metropolitan area in the country. Due to this figure, the only professional sports squad based in Columbus is the NHL's Blue Jackets. 

Fellow Ohioan cities Cleveland and Cincinnati boast five professional sports teams between the two cities: the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers of Cleveland and the Bengals and Reds of Cincinnati.

Taking this into account, the importance that the Ohio State football program has in Columbus is unquestionable. Ohio Stadium, the Buckeyes' home field, has a capacity of 102,329 attendants. On September 12, 2009, when Ohio State hosted the University of Southern California, there were 106,033 people packed into Ohio Stadium. 

The capacity of Cleveland Browns Stadium is 73,200, and the capacity of Paul Brown Stadium, where the Bengals take the field, is 65,790.

To Ignore the Attention, Easier Said than Done

When you take into account how important and popular college football is in the school's area, it's really not very shocking that Terrelle Pryor was offered free tattoos in exchange for game-day jerseys or that he may have gotten a good deal on a sports car from a local dealership. 

In Columbus, Ohio, Terrelle Pryor is as much of a star athlete as John Elway or Dan Marino. He's led the Buckeyes to three consecutive big-time bowl games. He's been a Heisman hopeful since his freshman season. He's given the people of Columbus a reason to cheer, and that's more than they can say for any other athlete out there. 

Pryor certainly violated NCAA policy when he exchanged his jersey for tattoos. I understand that the NCAA wants athletes to be no different than any college students, yet they are, for all the aforementioned reasons, very different. No one wants the shirt off Joe Schmo's back, yet people would kill for Pryor's, and for a 21-year-old who will shortly be a pro football millionaire, it's tempting and difficult to ignore that attention.

A Plan of Action

The NCAA needs to do two things.

First, it needs to distinguish and explain what is exploited compensation based on player fame and what is simply a favor. If Pryor worked out a deal where he walked into a tattoo shop and the owner said in lieu of money, give me your jersey for the tattoo, then that would most likely qualify as compensation.

But what if Pryor walked into the shop and the owner said since you are Terrelle Pryor and I'm a huge fan, I'll just give you the tattoo for free? Does Pryor have to turn down that offer too?

The NCAA needs to accept that just because Pryor and other NCAA stars are not professionals, they are still very famous and very worshiped. They are not the same as everyone else, and they never will be.

The second thing the NCAA needs to do is better prepare Pryor and the other stars on what life is like as a college sports star and how they need to handle it. Being a professional athlete warrants more than receiving a paycheck to play, and the fame that Pryor and his contemporaries receive no doubt makes them feel like more than "amateur" athletes.

In Conclusion

There is no doubt Terrelle Pryor was immoral and wrong in trading memorabilia for tattoos, yet I find it important that the NCAA be vigilant as to not punish Terrelle Pryor for being Terrelle Pryor, the star Ohio State quarterback who people discuss and think about every day.

Sure he is an amateur, and sure he is unpaid, but he is so much more than just a kid in college. He is not normal. He has millions of fans. He is Terrelle Pryor, star of Ohio State, soon-to-be NFL quarterback, where he will sign a multimillion-dollar contract and be able to buy everyone in Columbus a tattoo.