A lot has been made recently about Ohio State and their problems pertaining to responsible oversight and compliance toward NCAA rules. Just last week Jim Tressel resigned, but the university still faces an NCAA hearing in August that will determine the sanctions they will face in the years to come. While people will debate the severity of crimes and the appropriate penalties that should follow, it’s interesting to think about how the true victims of all of these violations must feel. I’m talking about the other student athletes and coaches in the Big Ten who missed opportunities because Ohio State decided to ignore clear NCAA violations.
Last football season Michigan State ended up being the odd team out when the BCS games were decided (Ohio State and Wisconsin got the games, even though all three teams had identical records). When fans think about the crimes at Ohio State, they tend to not think about the others outside of OSU that were impacted by what happened – ala MSU.
This is actually quite normal, as we usually think far more about the perpetrator than we do the victim when it comes to sports cheating. Using another example, most sports fans don’t think too much about the baseball player who didn’t use steroids but came in second to the guy who did. Similar to the Ohio State situation, the focus tends to remain on what the “bad guy/team” did, as opposed to the individuals/teams that were clearly and directly negatively impacted by the wrongdoer.
In the case of Michigan State last year, had OSU not been able to use their star players, it’s quite likely Ohio State would have lost an additional game or two – providing MSU a much better chance at playing in a BCS game. This scenario becomes even more real when you think of the seniors at MSU who lost their last opportunities and will never have another chance for a BCS game all because of the lack of appropriate oversight by Ohio State.
Problems happen in sports all the time, and athletes will always push boundaries (and rules/laws). The problem, however, is when we completely ignore and dismiss that there are real people who feel the impact of rule-breakers — and that these incidents of cheating do not simply happen in a static condition.
In baseball, there are countless players who chose to not cheat and use steroids during the ‘90’s and ‘00’s, and as a result their statistical numbers pale in comparison to their cheating counterparts. Breaking this down further, those who chose to play fairly probably put up lesser statistics, resulting in shorter and less lucrative contracts (after all, players values are based on player comparisons), and they are probably far less likely to ever be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, either.
There are victims when it comes to cheating, whether its sports or any aspect of life. It is for this reason that we should think through all the ramifications before quickly dismissing an individual or institutions crimes or failures.
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