By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
Jan 3, 4:23 pm EST
Pryor is a godsend to anyone who believes the business of college athletics is little more than a smoke-and-mirror show of situational ethics, selective enforcement and tightly controlled public relations designed to dodge taxes and make millionaires out of administrators.
Perhaps no player has ever exposed the system and its handlers more clearly than Pryor leading into Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl against Arkansas. He may not have consciously planned to do what he’s doing – although I suspect he has a clue – but he’s become a WikiLeaks in shoulder pads; a “30 For 30” special in real time.
Every time Terrelle Pryor says something, the system responds in some embarrassing way that only makes things worse.
When he isn’t violating some NCAA rule, he’s shining a light on the absurdity of how the sport’s power players managed to rewrite said rule so its cash flow could continue unabated. Each Pryor quote seems to prompt the system to respond in some bumbling, embarrassing way that only makes things worse.
Consider The Truth’s last two weeks and the suits constant scramble to clean everything up.
On Dec. 22, Fox 28 in Columbus reported Ohio State was dealing with a compliance issue involving a number of players receiving tattoos from an area parlor in exchange for signed memorabilia.
The move sent Buckeye Nation into a panic as rumors swirled of potential mass suspensions for the bowl game.
Pryor took to his Twitter account and boldly declared: “I paid for my tattoos,” a seemingly innocent man putting speculation to rest. OK, everything was cool.
At least until the next day when Pryor and four teammates would be suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season for selling gifts and memorabilia. In Pryor’s case, he netted $1,250 for dealing his 2008 Big Ten ring, his 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award and his 2008 Gold Pants.
So that might be where he got the money for the tattoos. The tweet was deleted, naturally.
We’ll use this moment to remind readers of our longstanding opinion that most of these rules are ridiculous and players such as Pryor, who earn millions for their schools, deserve a better compensation model than just tuition, room and board. This isn’t an argument justifying the NCAA. If it’s going to have rules, though, shouldn’t it enforce them? And, yes, Ohio State’s creative defense would be employed by nearly every other school.
The initial reaction was that a five-game suspension for selling trinkets seemed rather harsh. Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples noted the irony of selling a “sportsmanship” award from the Fiesta Bowl, which is currently facing a grand jury probe for violating federal and state campaign finance laws.
The strange part, though, was that Pryor and the others would remain eligible for the Sugar Bowl, effectively pushing their suspensions back. That allowed most of them the choice of avoiding any penalty by simply turning pro.
Ohio State and the NCAA cited an obscure rules interpretation that claimed a suspension could be postponed to preserve a “unique opportunity.” They then decided a bowl game was such an opportunity. Ohio State further claimed Pryor and the others hadn’t been properly educated on the rules, an excuse that caused laughter across college athletics.
It isn't easy to focus on the Sugar Bowl with all the off-field stuff about Terrelle Pryor.
After all, we’ve seen entire NCAA basketball tournaments stripped from the record books for such acts. And what about the “unique opportunity” two seasons of Southern California players can’t have because Reggie Bush once took money from agents? Or as Rich Brooks, who spent 25 years as a head coach before retiring from Kentucky last year, tweeted: “You are kidding that players at Ohio State did not know it was illegal to sell their rings and awards!! Can play in bowl game?? Crazy!!”
And while a bumbling compliance staff is always an easy scapegoat, the Ohio State student newspaper, The Lantern, quoted former Buckeye Thaddeus Gibson (2007-09), who claimed players were repeatedly told not to sell items.
“Oh yeah, they [OSU athletic director Gene Smith and the coaches] talked about it a lot,” Gibson told the paper.
Oops.
AD Smith promptly declared that the issue with memorabilia sales and free tattoos was “isolated.” That led to former Buckeye Antonio Pittman to tweet to the contrary: “cats been getting hookups on tatts since back in 01.”
Then SportsByBrooks.com reported the tattoo parlor’s owner had pictures of all sorts of Ohio State player memorabilia, including some from Pryor, on his Facebook page. The website also reported Gibson, among nine Buckeyes, got tattoos to the same tattoo parlor.
Every OSU fan message board became filled with tales of signed stuff hanging on the walls of area restaurants, bars and car dealerships.
