In the broadest outline, it’s all fairly simple: Ohio State football players broke NCAA rules by working no-show jobs and trading memorabilia for tattoos and money; Ohio State coach Jim Tressel further violated those rules by not saying what he knew about those violations; Ohio State suspended players and fired Tressel when the story came to light, and the NCAA issued its own report and disciplinary rulings on Tuesday. But while all of that is more or less the way things went down in Columbus, the Ohio State affairlet’s avoid any unnecessary appending of “-gate” to anything, shall we?has always been subject to the subjective-unto-arbitrary standards of NCAA discipline.  On their own, the punishments handed down by the NCAA on Tuesdaywhich amplified Ohio State’s self-punishment and included the loss of nine scholarships, a one-year bowl ban, and a five-year “show cause” ruling against Tressel that will almost certainly keep him ON? college sidelines for that periodare just another NCAA ruling. At CBS Sports, Dennis Dodd applauds the NCAA’s willingness to make itself clear in defense of the core principle of “institutional control.”  Others were notably less bullish. In context, and especially in comparison to the stiffer sanctions levied against USC after the Reggie Bush case, Ohio State’s punishments seem insufficient to some. “USC loyalists can feel Ohio State’s pain,” Bill Dwyre writes in the Los Angeles Times. “Except that most would testify that theirs has been worse. Most would also wonder aloud, again, why they took such a hard hit when other situations, certainly including Ohio State’s, seemed similarly egregious.” Of course, it wouldn’t be a NCAA ruling if someone/everyone didn’t disagree with it.  Bill Conlin started writing for the Philadelphia Daily News back in 1965, and became an institution at the paper during the ensuing decades. He was, in the finest Philadelphia tradition and even by the high standards for curmudgeonhood set by long-tenured sportswriters, about as crusty as crusty sportswriters come, and stayed that way well into his fourth decade with the paper. Despite (or because of) all that vinegar-y astringency, Conlin was also very good at his job; in 2011, Conlin won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, which is presented at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and is the most prestigious award a baseball writer can win.  All of which made it that much more surprising when, on Tuesday, Conlin abruptly retired from the Daily News. Later that day, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the sister publication of the Daily News (the two share the website Philly.com), published a long story that includes allegations that Conlin molested four children, including his niece Kelley Blanchet, in Gloucester County, NJ over 40 years ago.  “Blanchet, now a prosecutor in Atlantic City, and the others said they were speaking out now because the alleged sexual assaults and cover-up at Pennsylvania State University brought back painful memories and reminded them of the secrecy that shrouded their own assaults,” Nancy Phillips writes. “They also said they wanted to bring attention to the shortcomings of the statute of limitations on sex crimes, which bars prosecution in their cases because their parents did not call police when the abuse occurred years ago. In several cases, the parents corroborated the accounts.”  Because of that statute of limitations on sex crimesa policy that was reversed in New Jersey back in 1996, but which is not retroactive to include the crimes alleged in the Inquirer storyConlin cannot be prosecuted for his alleged crimes, Phillips reports. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Conlin’s attorney George Blochetto said, “Mr. Conlin is obviously floored by the allegations, which supposedly happened 40 years ago. He has resigned from the Daily News because these accusations have nothing to do with the Daily News and thats his beloved institution.” The Baseball Writers Association of America, for its part, announced that the status of Conlin’s Spink Award was not under review.  More information on this story will almost certainly come to light in the days to come, but for the time being the feeling that Daily News editor Larry Platt described in his paper’s newsroom”a sense of shock, a sense of outrage, a sense of sadness”pretty well describes the mood of anyone who had previously enjoyed Conlin’s reliably engaging writing.  Todd O’Brien has moved around quite a bit during a college basketball career that started at Bucknell, then moved to St. Joseph’s. The 7-footer earned his degree at St. Joe’s before finishing his athletic eligibility, then did what any economics major would do: looked for leverage. O’Brien, who had fallen out of the rotation at St. Joe’s, currently has a scholarship at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, where he is pursuing his Master’s degree. But he’s not playing, and not for any of the reasons you might expect.  “I practice with the team, work out with the team, and dress with the team,” O’Brien writes in Sports Illustrated. “But then the games start and I am pinned to the bench, ineligible to play. It’s not about grades or discipline or injury. It’s more simple  and more complicated  than that. My former school won’t sign a simple form releasing me.” O’Brien sought what’s called a “graduate student transfer exception release,” which would have allowed him to play at UAB. Because St. Joe’s has refused to sign it, O’Brien has been left in legal (and basketball) purgatory.  O’Brien took his case to the NCAA, which denied his appeal. And St. Joe’s, for its part, insists that it is indeed more complicated than that  “The University does not discuss matters relating to current or former student-athletes consistent with our policy and commitment to student privacy issues,” St. Joseph’s AD Don DiJulia wrote in a statement to Sports Illustrated. “It is our understanding that the NCAA has denied Mr. O’Brien’s appeal. Although the University was not a party to the NCAA appeal process and has not been informed of the reasons for the NCAA decision in this matter, the outcome of the appeal appears to have resolved all outstanding issues related to the appeal.”  Whatever the case, and whatever the outcome for O’Brien, it’s a reminder of just how complicated  and how opaque, and occasionally unfair  college athletics can be. “The transfer rules in college basketball are bad enough when coaches don’t abuse them,” ESPN’s Eamonn Brennan writes.  Like many Britons, Gerard Baker is pretty crazy about football. The surprising part is that Baker’s football jones is for the American variety. In the Journal, Baker explains how he came to find America’s slower and more violent version of football that much lovelier than the beautiful game.  “In its energy and complexity, football captures the spirit of America better than any other cultural creation on this continent, and I don’t mean because it features long breaks in which advertisers get to sell beer and treatments for erectile dysfunction,” Baker writes. “It sits at the intersection of pioneering aggression and impossibly complex strategic planning. It is a collision of Hobbes and Locke; violent, primal force tempered by the most complex set of rules, regulations, procedures and systems ever conceived in an athletic framework.”  Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.
NCAA's OSU ruling, Brits who love (American) football, and another set of sexual abuse allegations hit the sports world.