On the heels of Jim Tressel's resignation as the coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, there is no doubt that his departure was all his own fault.
He lied and covered up information, but is his crime that bad anywhere else but college sports?
The reason why he had to lie and the resulting punishments are only crimes in the eyes of the NCAA.
College sports are essentially an extended form of indentured servitude, as Wednesday's South Park episode demonstrated and made plain as day.
The reason why they can't let players make money makes sense, because if one person gets it, then everyone has to, especially due to Title IX.
But is it so wrong for players to have any money?
I've been a college student for the past four years, so I personally know how tight money is for students.
But if they're not allowed to sell their gear, then shouldn't the schools provide more resources to help student-athletes off the field?
These kids barely have enough money to get by, and some come from less fortunate families where the only way a kid will go to school is on a full-ride athletic scholarship.
But a "full" scholarship still does not cover all the expenses of a student-athlete.
The worst part is based on the rules that are in place, students have to just take what they're given and be happy with it.
The cost of living for a student is much higher than it has ever been, and the increasing gas and food prices do nothing to help matters.
At some point, the NCAA or the schools need to help the students out a little bit instead of taking their money away and expecting things to go as they should.
It's because of those rules that the whole tattoo situation happened, and the escalation and cover-up of such news cost Jim Tressel his job.
Is he guilty? Absolutely. But would he be guilty if he did the same thing in any other field besides college sports?
That said, under the context of the rules, he deserved the ending to the career he did for whatever reason he decided to do it, whether he felt he needed to bolster his legacy or if he was covering for his players.
But if you take away the events of the last several months, college football lost a true ambassador.
Jim Tressel will be missed by Buckeye fans and certainly can hold a candle to Woody Hayes as far as the most prestigious coaches at Ohio State.
But he had no choice but to resign, and again, that's a result of the broken system that college football has to subject itself to.
It's time for the NCAA to fix itself, because it's getting to the point where student-athletes are living essentially like slaves, and that's more immoral conduct than any situation done in the last 20 or so years, except for what happened at SMU.
It's not the 1990s anymore. Kids need some help.
And the NCAA's broken system made Tressel's crime akin to some of the most severe we can imagine.
Regardless, Tressel did pave the way for his own exit, and as of now we don't know if he just got off the ship before it sank.
But the NCAA is the real villain in all of this.
If the NCAA doesn't fix its problems, college football might exist as an entirely separate entity from the NCAA.
If the NCAA truly follows the money, it will recognize that football is the ultimate moneymaker and is the sport that holds all the cards.
For more college football news and updates, visit The BCS Blitz and follow me on Twitter @bielik_tim.
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