Well, it's clear that none of them will be hanging around for graduation day.  There's no economic value in an A&M diploma. 

The NCAA is an institution which is built on, and values, integrity more than anything else.

It is hurtful to read here the insinuations that money may influence the NCAA's decisions.  You can be sure that money is no factor at all when the NCAA decides.

Sincerely, The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, The Earth Is Flat, The Check is Good, The Insurance Company Is Changing The Policy For Your Benefit, Politicians Are Honest and No One In The NBA Ever Travels Or Palms It.

Pryor's a real gentleman and a scholar. 

Don't know the family but this is one time when mom would have been better off not saying anything.  After reading this article I'm not sure she's getting much sympathy.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/...

+1

I agree totally, most OSU fans are more pissed about the players and how the NCAA is letting them play in the bowls versus the actual punishment of sitting 5 games. Now if they win in the Sugar Bowl it will be tainted.

If it was soley up to Tressel all 6 of them aren't playing in the Sugar Bowl. BUT the NCAA wouldn't let them.

And yes, Tressel could sit them for the Bowl game, but then the NCAA will not consider it time served since they said they are eligible for the Bowl game. It's a double edged sword there, sit them for the Bowl game and still serve 5 games the next season?  What good comes of sitting them from the bowl game then?

But it has been settled, they are playing in the Bowl game. Tressel allowed the seniors on the team to vote whether they would play or not, and not surprisingly, the seniors voted to let them play.

Greg Doyle had an interesting article on CBSSports website. Really... why not let them play in a meaningless bowl game? It protects the people that paid for tickets and paid for the trip already. The BCS people are going to make money regardless if they played or not. But the people that are going to the game are the ones losing out on the deal.

I know Herron didn't need the money. Last year I was at a car dealership in Warren getting new tires and I saw Boom there buying a new Lincoln Navigator. He probably used all this cash as a down payment.

If Ohio State's president, AD or head coach had the ethical principles to do the right thing, they'd simply suspend the players from the bowl game and that would put an end to this embarrassing incident for those who live in the state of Ohio.

I loved your link. Those were powerful and personal thoughts by Kirk H.   Wow!  I don't like OSU but Tressell is a good person. However, may his team rot with corruption. 

Taken from ESPN.com:

Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan told The Columbus Dispatch that he encouraged Ohio State officials to push for the players to be allowed to play Jan. 4 against Arkansas in New Orleans.

"I made the point that anything that could be done to preserve the integrity of this year's game, we would greatly appreciate it," Hoolahan said in Wednesday's editions of the newspaper. "That appeal did not fall on deaf ears, and I'm extremely excited about it, that the Buckeyes are coming in at full strength and with no dilution."

Is this guy serious?  If I was Allstate today would be his last day as executive director of that bowl.  Integrity of the game - what an absolute joke.

Here's the full dispatch story:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/12/29/players-sorry-sugar-bowl-isnt.html?sid=101

I need a little help figuring something out here. In my years of following OSU, and the years of living in Columbus, I've never seen OSU fans/media act the way they are this year. What I mean by this is in years past, every indiscretion by an OSU athlete was rushed to be downplayed, ignored, disproved, or otherwise swept under the rug. However this year, it seems like all angles of OSU faithful think these players 'deserve everything they get', and even wonder why they're playing in the bowl game.

My question to those who have a guess is why OSU fans are up in arms this time around(and not usually)?

- Is it because the 'season is lost' as they're not in the title game?

- are these players (esp. Pryor) not 'loved' as prior OSU players have been?

- Something else?

It doesn't matter a whole lot to me, but seems that buckeye nation got a conscience all of a sudden.

My thoughts are that two factors are contributing to this reaction...

1.  Buckeye nation has tolerated Pryor's behavior to date because he's been propping the program up but he's tested even the most die hard lemming's resolve basically for the entire time he's been in uniform.  They already have a complex about National perception of their program though, and this black eye along with Herbstreit's public reaction gives them an excuse to jump on the bandwagon and make it known that they "won't tolerate this kind of thing".

2.  What was sold I believe also contributes to their rage.  A player selling things like the gold pants and championship rings basically reveals to the world that they could care less about the University, the tradition, etc.  This is especially embarrassing when one of the players in question is the face of the program and drastically so when it's the player they were about to push as a Heisman candidate (a complete joke in and of itself).

When you couple those underlying feelings with the fact that Braxton Miller is incoming, it enables the masses to take a rare ethical stance.

I don't know if anybody else heard this, but Chris Spielman was announcing one of the bowls yesterday, forget which one. Anyway, he said that he would not be surprised if the guilty players were suspended for the bowl game by Tressel. If not suspended than at least punished by not starting. He seemed pretty sure that Tressel would do it. I guess we'll see what happens.