"Gangsta's Paradise"

"Just picked up Casey now were on our way to Columbus!"

All summer long we've seen people running away from Columbus as if there was a pandemic at the Horse Shoe. Most, if not all, of their best recruits have all but told the Buckeyes that they'll be going somewhere else play. They've even lost a couple to the dreaded school to the north that plays around in a "Big House" with the funny looking helmets.

It's been a ruff eight months for the scarlet and grey ever since the whole tattoo scandal came to light. Jim Tressel was fired or should I say was politely asked to leave and Terrell Pryor essentially had the same conversation with the athletic department before he left town. Poor Ohio State, the ship is going down fast without a life boat or is it?

The Buckeyes must have hired the same defense team as Casey Anthony because NCAA investigators said they found no evidence that Ohio State failed to properly monitor its football program or any evidence of a lack of institutional control, according to a letter sent to the university and released Friday. What?

"Considering the institution's rules education and monitoring efforts, the enforcement staff did not believe a failure to monitor charge was appropriate in this case," the NCAA said in the letter sent Thursday.

Now don't get me wrong, I completely know how the game is played in the college football world. So I wasn't trippin' off of anything the Ohio State players were accused of. Nor did I have a problem with Jim Tressel trying to handle the tattoo situation internally. The smoke bomb just blew up in his face and it could've happened to any big time program in America.

However, once Pandora's box was opened the skeletons ran wild. I mean, you can't let them walk and hit LSU with a one year probation for the recruitment of a junior college player and completely blast USC as a result of the Reggie Bush debacle.

The NCAA accepted LSU's self-imposed reduction of two scholarships during the 2010-11 academic year, as well as a 10 percent reduction in official visits and reductions in recruiting calls. LSU already had begun reducing official visits during 2010-11, but the NCAA expanded the punishment to include 2011-12.

The Trojan's were hit with 10 scholarship reductions per year, bowl game and national title bans for three years when nobody admitted to anything. Pete Carroll just broke and went to the NFL once he smelled blood in the water. Tressel admitted that he knew about everything and it was obvious that no one else in the athletic department was blind so they had to see Pryor pushing whips(cars) all over the yard(campus).

The NCAA basically caught the Buckeyes driving the get away car wearing the victims watch, with the gun on the seat, the body in the back seat and simply pulled them over to check for expired tags and let them go. Are you kidding me? Man the folks at LSU and especially USC should be on fire this morning. All Ohio State will probably get is the self-imposed sanctions of having to forfeit the games from last year and the Sugar Bowl win over Arkansas. 

Man I just saw the white bronco flying down the street on two wheels with O.J., Casey and Berry the Buckeye smoking and drinking bumpin' DJ Khalid's "All I Do Is Win." If that's all they're going to get hit with then, guess what? Those recruits that jumped off of the ship last month and de-committed, are still in the water holding on to the life preserver just waiting to be picked up.

It's business as usual in Columbus and the children playing in the "Big House" up north just called 911 to report the abduction of kids that they thought were coming over to play!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Twitter: @jaygravesreport
Information from the Associated Press as used in this article.