By Evan Weiner |
Urban Meyer is back on the sidelines for Ohio State University after the football coach, one of Ohio’s highest paid public employees, spent three weeks suspended from work. Meyer’s crime? His reasoning in the firing assistant coach Zach Smith.
Meyer publicly ignored domestic abuse charges against Smith but Ohio State University is in the football business and Ohio State officials decided Meyer didn’t really do anything that rose to a level of a firing offense so he stayed. Meyer is one of the best coaches in the business. Meyer’s suspension was limited to game day activities. He could coach during practice but not on game days nor could he deal with his coaches for 24-hour period prior to a game.
Ohio State is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association which is the governing body of big time college sports. Yet the NCAA seems to not be involved in protecting and safeguarding athletes and non-athletes.
Earlier this year, The NCAA said nothing to see at Michigan State University and told Michigan State to go on its merry way and good luck in football and basketball. Michigan State had on its staff Dr. Larry Nassar who was a university’s sports team doctor. The very same Dr. Nassar who is doing prison time because he was found guilty of sexually assaulting children while being employed by USA Gymnastics. Dr. Nassar’s crimes were not an NCAA problem. The NCAA did not impose any penalties on the Michigan State sports program. The NCAA just didn’t find any evidence that Michigan State violated any NCAA rules.
The same held true at Baylor University although the NCAA did sanction Penn State after Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of being a pedophile. As long as the money flow is not interrupted, all is well in the NCAA’s world.
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.