Opinion: OSU players should have been suspended from bowl game

@@facebook=

@@

Knucklehead of the Week

Kansas State basketball coach Frank Martin has those crazy eyes, the ones that say, “If you touch my sugar cookie I will bludgeon you with a candy cane.” Martin used those eyes on overmatched media types last week when they dared to ask soft questions about two suspended K-State stars, including All-American Jacob Pullen, who were suspended for accepting free clothes.

One of the kids got an Ohio State sweatshirt from Santa. It looked fine, but on closer inspection I found some scribbling on it: “Dog, great work on my tats. I don’t need to eat because your ink energizes me. Go Bucks! Oh, if you want some of those lame, old-guy gold pants that Tress gets all misty-eyed over, call me!” Terrelle Pryor

Morality play: Let me get this straight. Several football players from THE OSU sold some stuff that they owned, and the NCAA suspended them for five games. But not for the Sugar Bowl, which is a game. The hypocrisy just oozes from events of the past week in Columbus.

If Jim Tressel and Gene Smith really cared about sending a message, they’d suspend the players for the bowl game. Isn’t the most important thing the Big Ten? Well, the fifth game in 2011 is against Michigan State.

But, hey, OSU wouldn’t want to upset the power-brokers who could invite them to future BCS games, would they?

And do these young Buckeyes — who will leave college free of debt, unlike most students — really think we’ll buy the excuse that they sold their trinkets to help their families? C’mon. They wanted some walking-around money, which I can understand, and got caught breaking rules.

It’ll be interesting to see if they play again at OSU. If they do, that means they’ll have repaid more than $7,000 of their ill-gotten gains. How do they get that money? Oh, yeah, agents.

Check out WSU: The perception is that nobody goes to Wright State games. But the thing is, if the Raiders were in the Atlantic 10, they would’ve finished sixth out of 14 teams last season in average attendance.

WSU averaged 5,277 fans per home basketball game. That’s not bad, but the cavernous Nutter Center makes five grand look like a family picnic.

Flying fun: Good luck to all of you boarding airplanes this week. I’m staying grounded where I won’t throw any punches.

My boss recently took a trip and saw baseball great Andre Dawson at the security gate. The Hawk was not impressed with his special pat-down treatment. Just goes to show you that airport goons don’t play favorites ... unless you’re in Congress.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2163 or bkollars@DaytonDailyNews.com.