Pittman, Wells involved in possible NCAA infractions

I was planning on taking this space to write up an evaluation on the embarrassing performance that the Buckeye basketball team put up yesterday, but there is potentially much bigger news regarding the much bigger match-up with Florida.

Buckeye RBs Antonio Pittman and Chris Wells were instructed by Ohio State offensive coordinator Jim Bollman to leave a fundraiser that was for their families' benefit. Obviously, the message boards have been flying with rumors regarding the situation and, more importantly, a potential suspension for the National Championship. Obviously, the NCAA has not given any punishments as of yet, and most likely will not until the coming days. There are a few critical factors to consider before jumping to conclusions, however.

All of the following is purely analysis on the situation, and are not to be considered "rumors" by any stretch of the imagination.

The first thing to realize here is the timing of it all. The game is only two weeks away, which may seem like a long time, but you have to realize that the NCAA regularly takes quite some time to make a final decision on it all. As far as I know, the NCAA cannot suspend a player without completely investigating, and with the Holiday season on the horizon, that could take a long time. This bodes well for us, and if a decision is not made until after the championship, the worst-case scenario is a one game suspension for next season.

Also, another key thing to note here is that they did not accept any money for taking part in this fund raiser. If this is indeed the case, then there shouldn't be anything worse than a "slap on the wrist" sort of punishment from the NCAA. After all, we all know that the NCAA is run by money, and it is the only thing that they care about (see: BCS), so if no money illegally traded hands, then it shouldn't really be an issue.

Obviously, this issue is in the very early stages, and it is something that I will be looking at very closely over the coming days. If anyone here hears anything (rumors or not), feel free to post them in the comments section.