Ohio State Football: Did the Buckeyes make the right choice?

The Ohio State Board of Trustees has suspended Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer and AD Gene Smith three games without pay, was this the right decision?

For nearly 12 hours, members of the Ohio State Administration, Board of Trustees, and Athletic Department went back and forth discussing the future of head football coach Urban Meyer. This all stems from the controversy surrounding former assistant coach Zach Smith and his alleged serial domestic abuse of his ex-wife. Meyer had been on paid administrative leave for over two weeks while the University conducted the investigation.

With all sorts of speculation flying around social media, and even seven threads dedicated to the situation on the College Football subreddit, the decision was announced shortly after 9 p.m. EST. Urban Meyer and Gene Smith were suspended for the first three games without pay as the council found that while they did follow protocol, they did not do it to a great enough extent to handle the situation.

All of this now raises the question: Did Ohio State do the right thing? Mine, and many others answer is a resounding no. Not only did Urban Meyer not do a thorough enough job of reporting the matter, he kept Zach Smith on the staff for three years following the initial domestic abuse charges in 2015 with a mountain of evidence presented by Smith’s ex-wife, Courtney.

This also comes at a time where the Big Ten Conference is waging a war of morals against itself. Since 2011, the conference has endeared the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State, the sexual assault scandal at Michigan State and now the death of Jordan McNair at Maryland due to overworking from the strength and conditioning coaches. Ohio State could’ve used this as an example to the rest of the conference, but instead, they care more about wins and losses other than morality and what’s right.

This is much worse than what Jim Tressel was fired for back in 2011, yet it only results in a three-game suspension. The situation just leaves me with two questions: Why did morality leave college football and are we ever gonna get it back? Unfortunately, it will be a long time until the second question is answered.