Well, now we know how he paid for his tats.

Play Ohio State early next season, y’all.

… According to a release issued by the university, a total of six players will be suspended for a game or games at the beginning of 2011 for selling awards, gifts and university apparel and receiving improper benefits in 2009.  Included in that total is quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who figured to be in the thick of the Heisman race next year but now must decide whether it’s worth even coming back another year.

Pryor, the release states, must repay $2,500 for selling his 2008 Big Ten championship ring, a 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award and his 2008 Gold Pants, a gift from the university.  He will be suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season, or nearly half of his final year of collegiate eligibility.

Joining Pryor on the sidelines for the first five game of ’11 — or the NFL, whichever the case may be — are offensive lineman Mike Adams, running back Boom Herron, wide receiver DeVier Posey and defensive lineman Solomon Thomas.  Like Pryor, all four of those players are juniors and thus eligible for the April draft.

Dawg fans, perhaps you noticed that the suspension is for five games, one longer than A.J. served.  Here’s why:

“We were not as explicit with our student-athlete education as we should have been in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years regarding the sale of apparel, awards and gifts issued by the athletics department,” athletic director Gene Smith said in a statement. “We began to significantly improve our education in November of 2009 to address these issues. After going through this experience, we will further enhance our education for all our student-athletes as we move forward.”

“Once a student-athlete understands a violation has occurred, they must immediately come forward to report it,” he said. “That did not happen, so the additional one-game penalty was imposed.”

Have a nice day, Mr. Delany.

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Early Chick-fil-A College Kickoff thoughts

That was an impressive Boise State team I watched in the MAACO Bowl last night.  It did what good teams having an off night do – hang on in the face of early turnovers and then grind the other team down.  That should make for a lot of talk about where BSU’s season would have wound up if the Broncos hadn’t lost to Nevada.

And selfishly speaking, I’m glad that’s how it went down.  You can already hear the narrative over the summer as ESPN builds up the hype for Georgia’s opener next season (expect to become tired of hearing Kyle Brotzman’s name and “if only”, along with some chatter about revenge for 2005).  And that’s good.  The bigger and badder Boise gets portrayed, the better Georgia comes off looking.

One little catch:  it won’t be this year’s Boise State team we’ll be watching in Atlanta.  Kellen Moore will be there, but a lot of his teammates won’t.

… All things considered, it was probably a better team than the ’09 edition over the course of the entire season – except for the season-killing collapse in Reno, which slammed the window shut, possibly forever. This time, ten starters will be moving on in 2011, including Brotzman, prolific receivers Titus Young and Austin Pettis and All-WAC defenders Ryan Winterswyk, Winston Venable, Brandyn Thompson and Jeron Johnson.

I still expect the Broncos to come into that game as the higher ranked team.  They should be a good measuring stick for Georgia.  Not to mention that we’ll get to see Aaron Murray going head-to-head with a Heisman Trophy candidate in Moore.  A big game in that setting and he could start getting a lot of national hype himself.

Tattoo you.

On the one hand, it’s hard not to laugh at this:

http://twitter.com/TPeezy2/status/17780798866329600

On the other, any time you see the initials “IRS”, it’s not a joking matter.

… Wednesday night during the Boise State-Utah Las Vegas Bowl telecast on ESPN, Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit noted the Ohio State tattoo issue with Herbstreit reporting that an IRS raid on a Columbus tattoo parlor turned up autographed items from OSU players that may indicate a breach in compliance.

If I worked in NCAA compliance, I swear there would be days when I’d wake up and wonder what I’d gotten myself into.

Todd talk

If you’re interested, Todd Grantham was on 680 The Fan’s “Buck and Kincaid” a couple of days ago and shared some thoughts on his first season.  Here’s the link to the interview:

Grantham on “Buck and Kincaid”

He’s pretty excited about Ogletree and Jones.