Stoneburner and Mewhort have athletic scholarships removed.

Oh look, it's Urban Meyer trying to create the illusion that he's punishing kids.

As noted, very likely a combination of "good cop / bad cop" and an attempt to send a message ... within the team and outside the team.

What I wonder is whether Meyer views Stoneburner as a key part of his offense.  Taking "tough" action against a third-stringer is one thing; taking it against a key first-stringer is another. 

I've always liked Stoneburner -- first, I like his name; and second, I can't recall any trash-talking BS on his part ... he just seems to play the game and do it fairly well.  OSU or not, I admire that.

I'm skepitcal of Meyer's motivations here.  Saban cleared his roster with medical hardships, Meyer always seemed to trim it at Florida with "team rules violations".  

Consider this, one of Meyer's top DTs (Wilson) pulled an AK-47 out of his trunk and fired it.  He'd gotten into a fight at a club and fired it off to discourage the people following him from calling 911.  He was allowed back on the team.  Other guys were removed from the team over a little weed.  The guys removed of course were buried on the two deep.  

If Mewhort and Stoneburner are judged unneeded, I bet they don't make it back onto the team.  If they are needed, they'll play of course.  We'll see though.  It's also kind of a bad punishment removing them team workouts IMHO.  Suspend them for games, but keep them in the structured enviroment of the team.  

Had their athletic scholarships removed and have been immediately placed on a full academic scholarship instead. This frees up 2 scholarships for Meyer's incoming class and everyone at Ohio State wins.

This whole situation is ridiculous.  The kids did something that tons of normal, generally law-abiding college students do.  The punishment is likely a token one, but the need to even levy such a penalty seems to come from the over-attention to the tiniest misdeeds of college athletes.  They urinated and public and ran from the cops.  And?  Would anyone care if they weren't Buckeyes?  BWC tried to pull a Dukes of Hazard.  And?  Anyone else pays for the damage and it's a complete non-issue.

When dealing with "bad behavior" of students, the focus should be on pot-luck dorm attacks, violent assaults and the like.  Coach's bad behavior (like lying about an ongoing NCAA violation, paying recruits' runners, raping young children, etc.) should fill the spotlight.  Public urination?  I think the spotlight has gotten way too broad if this is an issue (so says Gary Moeller).

This isn't even a real punishment if they aren't taking summer classes. As we all have come to see, scholarships are one-year renewable. So, at this point, Meyer has said they won't get that scholarship back for the 2012-2013 school year. Does any one actually believe they won't get that scholarship reinstated the second they are due to be turned in?

This "punishment" looks great in the eyes of the public that has no idea how scholarships work. In reality, it's nothing more than words.

Urbie making it seem he is being hard.  They will be back come time to report for first practice. They can't be with the team basically and that's all.  If they are not taking any classes in summer, they're out no money.

Both are big time contributors to the team and both starters. I believe Meyer said Stoneburner has a chance to be All-American this year after he gets done with him.

The real punishment is exclusion from working with the team. Both are taking classes this summer that they'll now have to pay for, but both of their families seem to be able to handle it. Meyer has repeatedly mentioned these guys as two of our best offensive players. Has said that Mewhort is our best OL and that Stoneburner is one of the two best playmakers. This means they go the entire summer with no watching film with the rest of the offense, no running routes with Braxton at the WHAC, no working on plays with the rest of the 2 deep. Players at major programs can't be coached in the summer, but they re normally working with their position group every day. These guys can't now and that hurts us going forward. For peeing outside, it's not exactly a wink wink nudge punishment.

For not a real crime. This seems like an appropriate warning to give them.

Ticket sales would be tough.

Now if you changed it to "what if all of the fans that were stupid enough to get caught urinating in public were banned", you could still fill the stadiums.

As someone above guessed, maybe Stoneburner & Mewhort are known knuckleheads that Meyer worries about.  Perhaps this is his way to keep them ON the team.

whether or not they are going to be reinstated, this is more than i expected from meyer. he earned a notch of respect in my book. that puts him at notch one. i really just expected a slap on the wrist.