Sorry Alan

I did not miss your original point.

I have gone to parking services and called them many times. You advocate trying to change things. I have at many levels. It is beyond ridiculous how athletes are "targeted" by admission of one of our very own posters here and verified by the guy with the ticket book walking around the parking lot calling them "easy pickins" while ;laughingly answering my question. . The athletes of all sports have to have a way to get to and from practice safely and to keep them healthy. I have chatted with folks from other programs. Parking is not an issue with their off campus players. It is merely a logistical PIA at OHIO that continues to be a thorn. Throwing it in as some form of entitlement is insane and merely propogates a myth that OHIO athletes live a very plush life...

I am sensitive to the money issue. I realize you have some disdain for those who have a skill or a gift and provided the figures to support your assertion. When my son was lamenting his Cluster friends talking about ride sharing, apartment splitting and paying student loans while he is in Europe playing a game, driving a team car, eating 2 meals a day, living in an apartment and seeing the world while putting way thousands of dollars in salary.  I reminded him of the early morning shooting drills from grade school on, the constant injuries, the spring breaks he spent in the gym and at tourneys while they were laying on a beach. The holidays he missed and his mother lying in a bed dying while he was at Holy Cross and Temple playing games. I told him his sacrifice was well justified and that he had given 4 years in return for a clean financial sheet. I reminded him that it is *ALL* about perspective and how you see your situation vs the other guy. I appreciated his empathy but reminded him of what he hAd invested to gain that scholarship.

My voice, in this case, is to find a way to support our athletes and make it more attractive to those who are being recruited while making their choice. I suppose we can all take a page from Mr Vedder's teachings and see athletes and athletics as a drain on resources but ultimately this renaissance of OHIO athletics will go away because other places will appear more attractive. All this over a silly piece of paper for a lot that is adjacent to a place where they spend most of their time in preparation to represent and please everyone here. For the record. Tommy, Ivo, DJ, Reg, DMac, Sayles, Ric, Nick are the drivers over the last 6 years...the numbers of guys who do not have cars far supercedes the numbers of guys who end up giving rides to the entire rest of the team every practice, meeting, lift or film session.

So the question is ......do we go forward and look at this from how we compare to other schools that are recruiting the same athlete and continue to get better in the small things that make a difference ( and are quite small and cost effective to accomplish) or should we just say....athletes are getting a gift coming here and should have to endure hardships in order to be granted the privilege of putting on the uniform?

As you have observed I no longer have skin in the game. I am asking this because I am a fan and advocate of OHIO with one perspective and I want to see this program continue to compete and grow. The question is, from other perspectives what do we want as a fanbase?  I would like to step back from this conversation and let the masses step in and tell us what they expect. Guys like Love who have been an athlete in a different sport will have a perspective as will Giacomo back in his day. OTOH the fanbase showing up and those being OBC members will have theirs. Lets have at it and see what it important.

Fair enough Tom.  Let's take it over to the general discussion page and hopefully we can have a thorough and efficient Bobcat discussion on the topic.  The only ground rule that I would suggest - let's comment on the messages and not attack the messenger.  For the record, I'm a long time season ticket holder for football, basketball and volleyball and an OBC member.  We also spent a good deal of money so that our daughter could attend the school of her choice and play DIII volleyball.  I also coached high school volleyball for 9 years and club ball for 5.  I say that just to share the perspective that I'm coming from.  As for me, between 9th and 12th grade, I played soccer, football, basketball, track and tennis.

Alan, this is the context in which I received bornacat's posts on these issues. I didn't see it has a parent of a former player "helicoptering."

Again would be a violation of NCAA rules. Excellent idea, but one that is not allowable by big brother.

Not real sure you have correct info when it comes to rules. You may be right on the tix for athletic teams specifically, especially if we were recruiting any of those kids but. Your beloved Bucknuts get all that and more. I can go to many websites from Nebraska to Maine and find similar examples.


Both Purdue and OSU use the fund for parking passes. At OSU, student-athletes with the appropriate amount of credits can be reimbursed for a "C" pass for their parking needs. The cost of such a pass for Sept. 1, 2010, through Aug. 31, 2011, was $237.60.

www.coachad.com/pages/Breaking-News---Ohio-State-Athletic-Department-Giving-Student-Athletes-iPads.php

thelantern.com/2011/02/athletes-perks-continue-upon-return-to-osu/

admin2.collegepublisher.com/preview/mobile/2.1233/2.1234/1.2210603

I am  sure their compliance office has been more than diligent researching the possible violations at this point.

EDIT.....if one of the admins knows how to shrink the graphic I would appreciate the helpN

OSU got into trouble over this when they re-modeled the Woody Hayes facility and had to update and tweek their campus wide parking policies that effected that end of campus.

A group like that which is performing is allowable.