Today we got word that Terrelle Pryor and his Ohio State teammates Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams, Solomon Thomas and Jordan Whiting were afforded an extended vacation from football in 2011 by the NCAA.
(New Buckeye Tradition? Pantload of Dough)
That those players are eligible for the Sugar Bowl defies logic but we’re way past the point of holding the NCAA or its member institutions accountable for anything.
Another part of this saga that might be upside-down to some is the fact that the majority of Ohio State fans I’ve been tracking since today’s suspension announcement also want Pryor to be benched for the Sugar Bowl.
If you’ve never lived in Columbus, that might come as a surprise, but if you know anything about the innumerable, mind-numbing traditions of Ohio State football you understand why Buckeye fans are more upset with Pryor than other charged Buckeye stars like Posey and Herron.
Pryor broke a golden Buckeye rule by selling his gold pants, which is a charm given only to OSU football players who are members of Buckeye teams that beat Michigan.
Pryor hawking his Big 10 Championship Ring is also a dagger in the scarlet heart of Buckeye faithful, but the gold pants are viewed as nothing short of priceless by all devotees to the poisonous nut, including Jim Tressel.
Three weeks ago Tressel talked about the gold pants thusly:
UNDEFEATED VS. UM: Ohio State’s seniors have never lost to Michigan. Some of them were redshirted as true freshmen, so they have five sets of the gold pants all Ohio State players get when the Buckeyes beat the Wolverines. In addition, those seniors won or shared the Big Ten Conference title in each of their seasons.
“Well, we’ve got probably half the senior class that has five - will have five Big Ten rings and five pairs of gold pants, which is a big deal,” Tressel said. “It won’t do anything for us in a bowl game. It will do something for us in our dresser drawer or wherever you keep your stuff, but it’s just a feeling of accomplishment.”
Such treasured mementos appear on eBay in excessively small quantities. Today, the only pair of 2008 gold pants currently on the auction site was sold for $695.00 one hour after Ohio State announced the NCAA-mandated suspension of Pryor.
Can’t say the same though for the “starting player’s” 2008 Big Ten Championship ring on another auction site. The $2,900.00 asking price probably has something to do with that, and the fact that the identity of the original owner of the ring hasn’t been made available by the seller. (Not that it probably matters at this point.)
Per the NCAA announcement, Pryor must repay $2,500 for selling his 2008 Big Ten championship ring, a his 2008 Gold Pants and a 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award.
Based on the asking price of the merch online, that sounds about right.
Follow Brooks on Twitter for real-time updates.
6:22 pm on December 23rd, 2010
Thank goodness I live on the west coast where this cheesy live and die rust belt crap isn’t as important… Oh yeah, the NCAA is still a joke.
6:57 pm on December 23rd, 2010
Maybe they should say their dads sold the items! LOL
7:08 pm on December 23rd, 2010
These little pices of ,what I see as junk jewely, should never be brought into a persons career. They are gifts. What a person does with a gift should be , and theirs only,up to them what they do with them. If these trinkets are that important to the ncaa, then maybe they should not allow any of them to knell and pray at the end of any game. If trinkets are that impotrant to smith or ncaa, then there is a very big , back up and regroup warning to ncaa! Pryor, if you leave the ncaa over this ,fine. Take anyone you can with you. Hope they wise up, ha ha.If this does go that way I will stop watching OSU Football… College football has always been my favorite sport. Why? Because those boys played for the fun of the game. They didnt play for millions of $. Why are you people trying to destroy a fun sport and turn it into something that I hope it never will be about, money. If you all do then let me be the first to say smith- tressel, take a hike. Let this remain to be a sport that kids start playing, for the love of it!!!!!!
8:54 pm on December 23rd, 2010
Brooks, apparently these stories of *actually* cheating and breaking the rules (like this with Ohio State) don’t get nearly as many comments as the conspiracy theorist stories involving Alabama and Auburn. But at least you’ve got a nice amount of traffic.
For all the times I’ve disparaged you lately, good job on this story - you nailed it.
11:23 pm on December 23rd, 2010
You can take the brother out of the hood, but you can’t take the hood out of the brother.
12:30 am on December 24th, 2010
Ohio stat is the second most corrupt program behind bama. They have a holier than thou attitude, but have nothing to show for it accept for some useless rose bowl tropheys. Who the hell cares about the rose bowl. It’s not 1920 anymore. Buckeyes have not beaten an SEC team in 8,120 days.That’s 22 years. War Cam Eagle
2:50 am on December 24th, 2010
It kills me to read these SEC posts that are made in broken English. Unless WDE is an international student, he should keep his piss-poor grammar and idiocy away from public forums. Additionally, I would like to note that Auburn just BOUGHT a conference (and likely a national) title. No major program is clean, especially Auburn. Enjoy giving back that heisman in a couple of years WDE.
7:52 am on December 24th, 2010
To OSU Alumnus,
Please don’t lump all of us in with WDE. Not all SEC fans speak in broken English. Some of us went to real institutions of learning, not Auburn. Your right an Auburn fan throwing insults about a dirty program is ironic. Best of luck in the Sugar Bowl OSU alum, should be a great game.
8:37 am on December 24th, 2010
Tuhrelle has to pay $2500 to a charity? Natch…….that’s just walking around $$ for a stud like Tuhrelle. And I hear that ESPN is going to do a segment around the Sugar Bowl to show all the nice things he did for his family with the money.
9:33 am on December 24th, 2010
This is absolute BS…Some idiot talking about playing the game for the love of it while all coaches and administrators are getting filthy rich! Furthermore, only a very small % of them(football players) ever get Big money for their services but you rabid fans get to judge them as cheaters! What frauds you all are!
9:40 am on December 24th, 2010
Pryor will have the same trouble in the NFL.
1:35 pm on December 24th, 2010
….as WDE so clearly stated, I will modify his words…….you can take the Brothers out of the “Hood” but you can’t take the “Hood” out of the Brothers. Ther be no prde in de schol!
2:02 pm on December 24th, 2010
Bandit … before you wax poetic on your institution of higher learning: “your right” is much, much different than “you’re right”.
Maybe the SEC should spend a little more dough on academia, rather than Cam’s daddy’s church, and Dr. Phillips High School football facilities.
Flebno
Brick City
2:28 pm on December 24th, 2010
Don’t know why we starting attacking the academic side of SEC schools, but then again folks get off topic here all the time. There are many quality academic programs in the SEC (just like in the Big Ten and Big 12 and Pac Ten).
I have a novel idea. Let’s talk about the article!
3:53 pm on December 24th, 2010
@coachslife, they get a FREE education! Which, studies have shown, is worth hundreds of thousands, if not a mil or more, in future earnings over those with just a high school degree. So spare us the ‘exploitation’ silliness.
I won’t get into the Big 10 vs SEC stuff - two non-comparable situations (as of right now). But the ‘the money went mostly to their families’ story is sad. Blacks and leftist, apologist whites may buy that but no one with an IQ over 90. They sold stuff to get tats - and raise their street cred. Idiots.
6:33 pm on December 24th, 2010
It’s hilarious to hear someone from a public university knock the academics of any other school. OSU, for example, is a safe school people apply to in case they can’t afford or don’t get into better schools. It’s laughable to knock the SEC when you look at the profile of OSU students. Not one OSU student would go to OSU over Vanderbilt if they had any academic interest.
SU? Iowa? OSU? Average.
6:35 pm on December 24th, 2010
Who doesn’t the Big Ten accept - it’s the safe conference to apply too
8:29 pm on December 24th, 2010
Big Ten Education Chuckle,
Are you really going to weigh in on academics when you don’t know how to use a question mark, the difference between “too” and “to,” or that you shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition? You displayed all of that in one sentence. I’d hate to see how much damage you could do with a paragraph.
Bandit,
Vanderbilt is a great school. However, putting all of the schools in the SEC in the same class as Vandy is like saying every school in the Big Ten is as good as Northwestern. I was addressing the depth of the league, not the top school. Every major conference has at least a few great schools, but not every league has Mississippi State, Auburn, etc. at the bottom.
OSU Average Academics,
If you went to Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, an Ivy League school, or one of a few other elite private schools, then good for you. However, let’s not get into the habit of thinking that all private schools are created equal. I’ll take the top half of the Big Ten over Miami (FL), Boston College, Wake Forest and the private schools of that ilk. When you consider the cost of tuition and the time value of money, are you so sure that you wouldn’t rather spend $40,000 for 4 years at a quality public school over $100,000- $150,000 at one of those schools?
12:05 am on December 25th, 2010
1. I typed from my blackberry
2. I typed fast and wrote informally, hence the choppy sentences and lack of transitions
3. This is not a dissertation website
4. You split at least one infinitive
5. The post was a response to a moron who elevated OSU and made us all guffaw
12:08 am on December 25th, 2010
Your post was credible until you spun the money into all of it. Go buy a Honda Accord. I’ll work and pay more for quality that I value for my education and my transportation. Value = punting.