avoiding a "death penalty"

On Wednesday, Ohio State suspended their head college football coach, Jim Tressel, for two games and fined him $250,000.  This comes on the heels of Ohio State suspending 5 football players for 5 games in the upcoming season, which starts this fall.  This situation came about when the 5 amateur football players sold memorabilia and accepted illegal gifts while under the watch of the head football coach.

Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel

So why would Ohio State inflict such harm on themselves?  It seems like this would be a huge detriment to their season.

The big reason Ohio State is in a hurry to suspend everyone is because they want to appear tough on their football team.  If they didn't do it, the ruling body, the NCAA, would be doling out the punishment.

The huge example of the NCAA coming down hard on a program happened to the Southern Methodist (SMU) football team in 1987 and 1988.  SMU routinely paid players and broke the rules.

The NCAA infractions committee cited the need to "eliminate a program that was built on a legacy of wrongdoing, deceit and rule violations."

SMU did not play any football games in 1987 or 1988.  It is with this rationale that Ohio State took the pre-emptive step in suspending their head coach for two games.  The two games Tressel will miss are against very weak teams, where it really won't matter who's the coach anyway.