Bob Knight checks in

It's clear that some of you don't agree but this IS a stupid rule.

But (as many have failed to point out) just because it's a stupid rule doesn't mean the solution is to break it and hope you don't get caught.

Lobby the NCAA, the university presidents, and the fans get the players behind you do ESPN interviews show them statistics to try to get the rule changed while you continue to enforce it. That's how you get rules changed.

This is something the Jim Tressels, SEC schools, and Jason Whitlocks of the world don't understand. Just because a rule might suck doesn't mean you ignore it. You need to go through the proper channels to change the rules or quit being a part of the organization. No one ever forced Tressel to be a college football coach and if he didn't like the rules he shouldn't have been one.

Bobby needs to check in @!

Excuse me Nurse Betty.  Coach Knight is out of his "chair" again!

That's what I thought.

Coming from a guy who thinks it's appropriate to throw a chair across the court, I'll just keep on walking instead of listening.

I don't want to get into the whole Jerzy debate again, but the comments suggesting players should be allowed to take booster money brought up a serious question for me.

"Why watch college football?"

From a purely objective standpoint, the NFL is better football. The players are more talented. The game is faster. Routes are sharper. Passes are crisper. Hits are more violent.

What the NFL no longer offers are the traditions and the pure joy of the game. The marching bands, the student sections, the traditional sights and sounds of a fall Saturday. But maybe more importantly, it's the sense that we (or at least I) get that these young men play for the glory of the game and their universities.

Each time I see a Pro Combat uniform or hear the piped in sounds of Stadium Jamz 27, an aspect of what makes college football special dies just a little bit more. Every time I step into a corporate sponsored stadium to see every square inch of space covered with advertising that obscures championship banners and retired numbers, I feel like something's been stolen. Once we openly clear college players to take on the mercenary role and sell their skills to the highest bidder, the remainder of what makes college football my favorite sport will be gone.

I'll still watch, because, god knows I can't ever watch enough football, but I'll likely do so with the same enthusiasm most people put into AA Baseball. I just can't get that excited about my favorite NFL D-League team.

I read it, and I really don't know what the big deal is. He apparently believes that trading memorabilia for tats is not wrong, and that the rule that prohibits it is "idiotic." Well, that's his opinion, and I disagree. But many other columnists (even those who are not OSU slappys) have expressed similar views, so it's not like he's out in left field.

I also find it hard to disagree with this comment:

I think this NCAA that we're currently involved with is so far out of touch with the integrity of the sport that it's just amazing.

Many of us on this blog have written as much. So, it's hard to find fault with that, either.

He doesn't, apparently, say anything about what Tressel did. Considering that Knight, for all his faults, was never even remotely accused of cheating, I find the omission deliberate. I think his silence on that issue is deafening.

Ok Bob, if you say so

He's wrong on the issue of selling awards and equipment.

But he's no gung-ho Buckeye, even if he went there. His position is based on his beliefs, and isn't some pro-OSU slant.