Pittman Wells Spaghetti dinner

Whew, we made it out of that one in one piece. Pittman, Wells and two other Ohio State players have been cleared by the NCAA for their gratutious spaghetti eating.

For those of you who haven’t been following the drama this past week, Antionio Pittman and Chris Wells got a good NCAA violations scare last Saturday when a hometown friend of the family thought they raise a little money to help their parents get to the BCS game.

If you hanven’t noticed, BCS games can get a little expensive. I mean the tickets cost around $300 if you can get them at cost. The ticket brokers are asking at least a grand. Then you have the airfare and good luck getting a hotel. But hey, this is big business right? The NCAA makes $300,000 on just television rights alone not to mention all the liscensing rights and corporate naming rights. And hey, the colleges that play in the big games get their cut.

And don’t forget, we have to pay Notre Dame for just being Notre Dame.

Wow, it must be nice to be a college football player. Just think of all the fame and fourtune that they must get from a multimillion dollar BCS game. Oops, that’s right…well at least they get the fame.

So when a community dogooder tries raises around $800 bucks, everyone goes into a panic because there could have been a NCAA rules violation. Luckily, Tressel and his staff have trained their boys well. About halfway into that first steaming bowl of pasta, Pittman realized that the $8 per plate meal could cause a potential problem. He called coach Bollman who told Pittman and Wells to get out and get out fast. They left without even trying the homemade meatballs and all $800 was donated to the local Pee Wee football league. Apparently, it was about enough to cover the cost of the dinner.

While the incident may seem minor, I find it increadibly disturbing. The thing I like most about college football is that it is not professional football. Unless it is a Florida school, you don’t see the egos and showboating. There is no T.O. working out his next end zone performance (between dropped passes). As Bo Schemblecher once said for college football players, it’s about, “The team, the team, the team.”

The problem becomes, for everybody but the players, the BCS Series is about “The money, the money, the money.” Heck, even coach Tressel will pull down an extra $200,000 just for getting to the big game. Everybody connected with the bowl games is getting rich yet many of the players families will not be able to see their son play in what may be the biggest game of their career because it is just too expensive to go.

And at the same time, I hate to see our best Ohio State players go pro early but how can anybody justify telling a 20 year-old-kid who is staring down a multi-million dollar contract that no, he shouldn’t go pro early. Stick around for another year and get that college degree…even though you could always finish you’re degree in the off season.

I love college football and I am as guilty as the next guy. I buy the college gear, I live the college football hype. I want our players out there playing for the thrill of winning and not the thrill of the big paycheck. If I want to see overpaid players who’s personalities I can’t stand, I’ll go back to rooting for the Browns.

At the same time, something is wrong when an $8/plate community dinner can put the fear of the NCAA in the eyes of Ohio State players and fans everywhere.