Is Terrelle Pryor’s 2008 Big Ten Championship Ring For Sale?
By Kyle Kensing
An ebay seller — finelineinkusa2010, based in Columbus — is selling a championship ring reportedly from former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor for a starting bid price of $1,000. (h/t @MockingTheDraft).
The 2008 Big Ten championship memento certainly looks like the real deal, featuring Pryor’s name and the final score of that season’s OSU-Michigan game.
The description reads as follows:
"2008 bigten championship ring this ring was the reason Terrelle Pryor was suspended and ended up leaving to go to the NFL . This ring was involved in the “tattoo gate” scandal that rocked buckeye nation . This is. One of a kind ring you could buy ring from other players but this was the quarterbcks ring and it was and always will be a part of Ohio states history. ….. I reserve the rite to end this auction at any time. Thanks and happy bidding"
finelineinkusa2010 is selling a trove of other Ohio State memorabilia, including another 2008 ring listed as belonging to former Buckeye Devier Posey.
Allegations of Pryor and other Buckeyes exchanging memorabilia for tattoos led to the resignation of Jim Tressel in 2011 and forced Pryor out of the college game. Ohio State served a one-year bowl ban this past season. The NCAA-imposed postseason ban likely kept the Buckeyes from playing in the BCS championship, as Ohio State ended the regular season one of just two teams with perfect records. National runner-up Notre Dame was the other.
This championship ring could serve as an expensive consolation prize for Buckeye fans potentially robbed of seeing an actual championship in the 2012 season.
Perhaps this ebay auction is the beginning of a trend involving NCAA football scandal merchandise: the San Diego-area home allegedly arranged for Reggie Bush’s family, resulting in the vacating of Bush’s 2005 Heisman Trophy; the bag that Danny Sheridan’s alleged bag man used; and from the mid-1980s SMU teams?