Terrelle Pryor is long gone from the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, and it will be a long time before he goes back. On Tuesday, the NCAA hit Ohio State’s football program with a package of sanctions, one that includes a provision that the school disassociate itself from Pryor for five full years.
If Pryor ever gets a start at quarterback on “Monday Night Football,” hopefully he’ll introduce himself as a fine graduate of Jeanette High School.
Meanwhile, a couple thousand miles away in Phoenix, a Maricopa County, Arizona prosecutor announced that more than two dozen local politicians would not be prosecuted for violating a law that prohibits them from accepting game tickets and trips from the Fiesta Bowl Committee.
The following excerpt from the Associated Press coverage of the latter announcement is instructive:
[Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery] blamed inconsistent state laws, vague reporting requirements and a legal requirement that prosecutors prove a defendant “knowingly” violated the law as major factors in his decision.
“I understand the appearance of impropriety argument, and how it can be reported,” Montgomery said. “But there’s a difference … in what it looks like and what we can do as prosecutors.”
Federal authorities are separately investigating other aspects of the Fiesta Bowl scandal, including an alleged scheme to reimburse employees for political contributions. One former executive already has been charged in that case.
“They had to know at the time they filed it that it was incomplete or false,” he added.
Bullfeathers. In the immortal words of disgraced New York judge Sol Wachtler, a prosecutor can convince a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich” if he/she is so inclined. I’m guessing that it would simply be too inconvenient at this point for Mr. Montgomery to prosecute a bipartisan group of politicians. According to Montgomery, “There were some legislators who were angry that I was investigating them because they thought it was clear they had done nothing wrong.”
Oh, I bet they were upset. After all, why get into politics unless you get to thumb your nose at the law from time to time?
So what’s the lesson here? Put simply, when it comes to the incredible wealth generated by college football, everybody is allowed to feed at the trough. It doesn’t matter if you’re a head coach (Urban Meyer will earn a base salary of $4 million next year to coach a team that won’t be eligible for a bowl), a university president, a politician or a television network. At the end of the day, you will always get more than your fair share.
As for student athletes in football and basketball, the ones who actually generate these revenues, God forbid any of those kids do something to earn an honest buck from their talents, otherwise the NCAA — at times with the active cooperation of the National Football League — will do its level best to put them in the dock.
Eric McErlain blogs at Off Wing Opinion, a Forbes “Best of the Web” winner. In 2006 he wrote a “bloggers bill of rights” to help integrate bloggers into the Washington Capitals’ press box. Eric has also written for Deadspin, NBC Sports and the Sporting News, and covers sports television for The TV News. Follow Eric on Twitter.