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| Bowl ban? No biggie. |
The pre-Christmas announcement of Ohio State’s 2012 postseason ban came as a shock to Buckeye Nation, who mistakenly assumed that the self-applied punishment of scholarship restrictions would absolve the program of all sins.
The wave of Urban Meyer-induced euphoria that had enveloped Columbus over the last several weeks has subsided, and fans can finally look at the grim reality. A 6-6 season, with a loss in Michigan, is not a season worth remembering. A bowl ban for 2012 has hopes from Buckeye fans as gray as an Ohio November day.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Since the 1987 season that saw the “Death Penalty” destroy a corrupt Southern Methodist program, the NCAA has used a bowl ban 23 times against 16 programs. Some programs lost multiple seasons for one infraction, such as Auburn in 1993 and 1994, and Houston in 1989 and 1990. Some schools were repeat violators, like Ole Miss with bans in 1987, and again in 1995 and ’96.
School | Season | School | Season | |
Auburn | 1993 | Miss. State | 2004 | |
Auburn | 1994 | Ohio State | 2012 | |
California | 2002 | Oklahoma State | 1989 | |
Cincinnati | 1988 | Oklahoma State | 1990 | |
Houston | 1989 | Oklahoma State | 1991 | |
Houston | 1990 | SMU | 1987 | |
Kentucky | 2002 | SMU | 1988 | |
Memphis | 1989 | Texas A&M | 1988 | |
Miami (FL.) | 1995 | Texas A&M | 1994 | |
Minnesota | 1991 | Texas Tech | 1997 | |
Ole Miss | 1987 | USC | 2010 | |
Ole Miss | 1995 | USC | 2011 | |
Ole Miss | 1996 |
Buckeye fans can look at the top of the chart. Auburn received a two-year bowl ban in 1993 due to player Eric Ramsey’s allegations, backed up by secret recordings, of booster payments and racist treatment by coaches toward black players. Coach Pat Dye was fired, replaced by Terry Bowden. Bowden led the ’93 team to a perfect record, despite being banned from both postseason play AND television coverage. The AP voted the Tigers a national championship, since no other team went undefeated that year. With the talent that is returning from the 2011 team, and the stellar recruiting class that coach Meyer has secured, a similar “divided-belt” championship is certainly a possibility.
A bowl ban is not the worst thing that can destroy a program. The NCAA was relatively generous by only cutting 9 scholarships from the Buckeyes. Houston found out the hard way that the NCAA can be very punitive with scholarship allowances, when in addition to losing postseason play in both 1989 and 1990, the school was limited to only 15 scholarship players total for the 1989 season.
Such a harsh penalty limits the ability to recruit quality athletes, and can damage the program for a long time. After the bans were lifted against Houston, the school did not return to a bowl until 1996, and didn’t win a bowl game until 2008.
Ohio State is lucky. While Tatgate and Bobby D will no doubt haunt the Bucks for years, the program should see no lasting ill effect after next season. Assuming the administration can regain control, Buckeye Nation should have reason to be proud again quite soon.
