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Ohio State might score more points than Arkansas on Tuesday in the Sugar Bowl, but OSU can't win and neither can the Big Ten Conference.
After the events of the past 10 days in Columbus, the Buckeyes come out a loser in the eyes of the nation no matter what the scoreboard in the Superdome reads.
By using five players — including quarterback Terrelle Pryor and three other offensive starters — whose five-game suspensions for selling memorabilia and accepting discounts or free tattoos were delayed by the NCAA until next season, Ohio State taints any victory with an asterisk it will never erase.
Any doubt about that vanished Sunday when the Columbus Dispatch published more damaging details about Pryor’s privileged treatment that should interest the NCAA, but probably won’t given its preferential treatment of OSU’s football program.
The hometown newspaper found that Pryor has twice been ticketed for speeding while driving an SUV and sports car loaned to him by the same salesman.
Pryor told the Dispatch he gets to drive vehicles from that salesman only when his own car is in for repairs.
What are the odds that every time the kid drives a loaner, he gets ticketed?
Pryor admitted to the Dispatch that he drove the SUV to his home in Pennsylvania because he wanted to ask his mother if it would be wise to purchase it.
The dealership said such an extended test drive is standard procedure for every customer.
The Dispatch reported that among the two dozen Ohio State jerseys that hang in that dealership are ones signed by Pryor, Daniel Herron and DeVier Posey.
Pryor, Herron, Posey, Mike Adams and Solomon Thomas are the players who received the delayed five-game suspension from the NCAA for selling memorabilia and getting discount or free tattoos.
Ohio State officials told the newspaper it investigated Pryor’s vehicle habits and found no violations of NCAA rules.
As for the Big Ten, its epic New Year’s Day bowl pratfall assures the conference won’t finish above-.500 in the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons.
Big Ten teams didn’t just go winless in five games on Jan. 1, they were outscored 204-102 and only Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl held its opponent to less than 37 points.
Michigan’s 52-14 loss to Mississippi State will likely cost Rich Rodriguez his job when he meets with athletic director David Brandon later this week.
The best case RichRod can make for continued employment is that he came closer to winning his bowl game than rival Michigan State.
The Spartans, who bellyached about being left out of the BCS after tying Ohio State and Wisconsin for first place in the conference, made college football history Sparty-style in their 49-7 loss against Alabama.
Trailing by 14 points in the first quarter, MSU had first-and-goal at the Crimson Tide 8 and wound up punting at the end of that series.
Northwestern trailed by 22 points early in the second half against Texas Tech in the Ticket City Bowl before the Red Raiders lost interest and settled for a 45-38 win that inflicted Northwestern’s eighth straight postseason loss.
Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin threw five interceptions — one more than he did all season — in a 37-24 loss to Florida in the Outback Bowl.
And in the Big Ten’s signature postseason showcase, Wisconsin committed a season-high in penalties and showed no urgency at the end of either half to waste the last vestige of Big Ten respect in a 21-19 loss to TCU in the Rose Bowl.
The mighty Badgers missed a 39-yard field goal attempt in the second quarter, shrinking from the challenge of using its vaunted running game to convert on fourth-and-2.
Wisconsin also ended the half with all three timeouts after starting its final drive with 7:04 remaining, only to run the clock down and settle for a field goal on the final play from the TCU 21.
Then at the finish, trailing by eight points, the Badgers were down to one timeout because of two taken on offense earlier in the half. They put all their marbles into a drive that began with 7:32 left, never hurrying to preserve time should they score and not get the tying two-point conversion.
They didn’t, then couldn’t stop TCU on three running plays that provided the first down it needed to clinch the victory.
Afterward, Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema gave "all credit to TCU," but allowed that, “the truth will come out when (TCU) enters into a BCS conference and plays someone the caliber of those conferences week in and week out.”
Really?
Will BCS snobs ever admit that argument has already been won by the non-automatic qualifiers? After all, they’re 4-1 now against BCS conference opponents in BCS games.
Here’s betting TCU wouldn’t mind populating its schedule with the three Big Ten teams Bielema's Badgers put up 83, 48 and 70 points against in their last three games.
It’s saying something that after all those pies in the face, the grand embarrassment of New Year’s Day doesn’t come close to surpassing two other colossal hits to the Big Ten’s reputation in the past month.
First came the backlash from the ridiculous Legends and Leaders labels the league placed on its football divisions. That forced Commissioner Jim Delany to consider other names, with Slow and Slower, Pitiful and Putrid and Bad and Worse now on the table.
No sooner had the national outcry over that subsided when word came of Pryor and four Ohio State teammates selling items in violation of NCAA rules. Delany intervened and persuaded the NCAA to delay the punishment until next season, something that has never been done despite the bylaw which allowed it being on the books since 2004.
Delany, remember, is the guy who squawked about the NCAA missing "an opportunity to stand up" by not enforcing "consequences" on Auburn’s Cam Newton for his father’s play-for-pay scheme. "Who is closer to the player than the parent?" Delany said.
Answer?
The only one closer to the player than the parent is the player himself, but Delany fought for Ohio State's players getting delayed punishment so they could play in the Sugar Bowl.
Pot, meet kettle.
It was already going to ring hollow nationally if Pryor led the Buckeyes to victory in New Orleans. Now, it will look even more questionable after what the Columbus Dispatch published Sunday.
It is against the backdrop that the Buckeyes take the field in New Orleans, trying to salvage some respect for the Big Ten and for themselves after losing all nine previous bowl games against Southeastern Conference opponents.
Good luck with that.
