Just a few things to compare and contrast:
These numbers don’t add up
In college sports, selling your property is a bigger crime than mishandling domestic violence allegations.
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- Suspended five games for selling their stuff: Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor, RB Daniel Herron, WR DeVier Posey, OT Mike Adams, and DE Solomon Thomas.
- Suspended four games for selling their shoes: UNC QB Chazz Surratt, WR Beau Corrales, OL Brian Anderson, OL Quiron Johnson, OL Jordan Tucker, DE Malik Carney, DE Tomon Fox, DE Tyrone Hopper, and LB Malik Robinson.
- Suspended four games for selling his jersey: Georgia WR A.J. Green.
- Suspended four games for selling his signature: Georgia RB Todd Gurley.
- Suspended seven games for getting to use some loaner cars and stuff: Ole Miss LT Laremy Tunsil.
- Suspended from bowl games because their coaches broke rules: hundreds of players at USC, Miami, Ole Miss, and on and on.
- Suspended six games for marijuana: UCF WR Tristan Payton and CB Nevelle Clark, Montana DB JR Nelson, and so on.
- Suspended two years after admitting to cheating a drug test he later passed: LSU DB Kristian Fulton.
- Essentially suspended three years because of a substance injected into his shoulder post-surgery: Georgia OL Kolton Houston.
- Suspended six games for receiving $1,333 in benefits: UNC DB Kendric Burney.
- Suspended nine games for hanging out with Deion Sanders, pretty much: Oklahoma State WR Dez Bryant.
- Suspended forever because his YouTube channel has ads: UCF K Donald De La Haye.
- Suspended three Saturdays, but only one full game week (against Oregon State), for mishandling domestic abuse allegations: Ohio State HC Urban Meyer.
There have certainly been players who’ve gotten off light for actual offenses, and there have been coaches who’ve paid heavy prices for mistakes. Yep, Jim Tressel was outed for the first incident on this list — outed for lying about it to the NCAA, that is.
But compare these harsh punishments for largely victimless transgressions with the one Meyer received for — at absolute minimum — doing very little to discipline a person making constant reckless choices. It’s clear, again and as always, that our sport’s system is far too lopsided in favor of successful coaches and far too concerned with things that don’t really matter, often at the expense of things that do.
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