It’s the Hangover After the Fiesta

Ohio State’s first national championship off-season since 1969 has been thoroughly celebrated, picked over, reported on, dissected, up-rooted and investigated.

The price you pay?

“I don’t know if I’d call it a price,” Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel said this week. “It’s just reality ...”

Ohio State opens official defense of its national title Saturday against Washington in Columbus, although the Buckeyes have really been on the defensive for weeks.

Maurice Clarett, the team’s star tailback, has returned to practice but faces a multigame suspension for off-field missteps.

The administration is in lock-down mode, and no one is sure what comes next down at NCAA headquarters.

Isn’t this wonderful?

Well, in a weird sense, yes.

You think Ohio State would trade that Fiesta Bowl victory over Miami to rid itself of the fallout?

No way.

This certainly has been a no pony-ride off-season for the Columbus Kids, but plenty of national champions have gone this route -- it comes with the red-zone territory.

“There’s just more scrutiny, there is no doubt about it,” Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden said Wednesday when asked about the cost of winning. “You take here at Florida State. We’re the state capital. We have our state press here. So, they’re aware of everything, so nothing slips by. You know, 50 years ago you could slip it all by. You can’t slip nothing by anymore. I miss those old days.”

Michigan football was high-profile before it won the Associated Press national title in 1997, but then the stakes got higher.

“I think along with winning a national championship, there’s no question that it brings a lot more attention to your program, your players and coaches and everything you do,” Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr said.

Michigan’s title team came away relatively unscathed; others have been less fortunate.

Oklahoma won a national title in 1985 and ended up with a two-year bowl ban.

Miami won it all in 1989 and 1991 and then faced punitive NCAA probation.

Washington claimed a share of the crown in 1991 and was hit with a “lack of institutional control” penalty.

Alabama won the 1992 title and soon found itself before an NCAA tribunal.

Weeks after Bowden won his first national title in 1993 at Florida State, a Sports Illustrated writer plopped down in his office and wanted to know all about free shoes Bowden’s players received at Foot Locker.

Nebraska hoisted hardware in 1995 but had to answer for tailback Lawrence Phillips. The afterglow of Tennessee’s 1998 championship included the school trying to clear its name (it did) against charges of academic improprieties and the interesting case of money being funneled to quarterback Tee Martin via a sportswriter.

College football is unique in that it may be the only contact sport in which people keep hitting you months after the game is over.

We’re not saying the offending schools didn’t get what they deserved, even if the entire process is discretionary at best and, at worst, unseemly.

Everyone knows the NCAA doesn’t have the manpower to investigate wrongdoing at 117 major colleges. It relies on tips, self-reporting and even rivals turning on rivals to ferret out facts.

And that’s why sometimes, after a national title parade, a concerned teaching assistant wants his, or in the case of Ohio State, her story told to the New York Times.

Occasionally, an Auburn fan will float a tidbit on the Internet about a first-year Alabama coach being seen in a Pensacola, Fla., strip club, you know, just to see whether the news has any traction.

Mostly, the NCAA counts on newspapers to do its investigative dirty work. Heaven forbid your school falls within the circulation area of a bulldog reporter from your archrival’s journalism school, but those are the breaks.

Winning in college breeds success, but it also breeds envy, chat rooms, Web logs and revenge-seekers.

What would you give to know who turned that Rick Neuheisel gambling information in to NCAA headquarters?

One could argue a thorough search of any major college program would turn up some ticky-tack violations, yet what snitch or news organization has time to devote to losers?

In college, winning is often the trigger mechanism to investigation.

“Something that happens to a school that goes 0-11, it don’t make the sports page even,” Bowden said. “But the higher you go, then the more attention you’re going to get. It seems to follow success and you have to really guard against it. We’ve done good against it sometimes and sometimes we haven’t.”

So you wonder: Had the Fiesta Bowl not turned on an official’s controversial call, would the snoops have turned on Miami instead of the Buckeyes?

After all, what’s the thrill of nailing No. 2 to the wall?

Words of advice to Ohio State: Don’t sweat the small stuff, or even the big stuff.

In the cutthroat college world, the school fight song always starts, Oh praise thee alma mater, win first and deal with consequences later.

Few at Alabama care that the team’s 1992 title was tainted by probation.

No one at Miami says, “Well, we’ve won five national titles, but we don’t really count two because of that Pell Grant scandal.”

If Oregon State went on probation tomorrow for violations involving its stellar 2000 team, many would consider it a pittance to pay for the thrill of humiliating Notre Dame in a bowl championship series game.

Trust us, Ohio State, that national title you won is good as gold.

The good news is that, in 10 or 20 years, no one will care how you won it.

*

Memo to Clarett

Dear Maurice: Swallow your pride, take your reported six-game suspension and get back to the business of faking out linebackers.

It’s fourth and long and time to punt. As a true sophomore, you are not eligible for the NFL draft until after next season. You could fight the NFL’s eligibility rules and probably win, but the NFL is prepared to drag it out in court, meaning you would not benefit from any victory.

“We are prepared to defend our rule, which has been in place since 1990 and has not been challenged,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said this week. “So, it has stood the test of time in that sense.”

The NFL rule states a player is not eligible to be drafted until three years after his high school class graduates.

Although your buddy LeBron James jumped from high school to the pros and already has made millions, you must bide your time, Maurice.

The NFL does not want you yet.

“The nature of the sport, for one thing,” Aiello said. “It’s different than golf and tennis, just because of the physical, mental and emotional demands the sport requires. We don’t believe that a young man is prepared to deal with that until he’s been out of high school for at least three years.”

The Canadian League?

Yeah, nice knowing you, eh.

Your best option, Maurice, is returning to Ohio State and proving to the pros you’re not injury-prone. A great junior year capped by a Heisman Trophy will send your NFL stock soaring. Ask Carson Palmer about it.

Waiting is tough, we know, but in your case it’s worth it.

*

Hurry-Up Offense

* Our grudge match of the week: Buffalo at Rutgers. Last year, the Bulls scored their first win over a BCS school with a 34-11 victory over Rutgers. Both teams finished 1-11. Rutgers’ only win was against Army.

* Things we thought we’d never live to see: Oddsmaker Danny Sheridan lists Nebraska at 500-1 to win this year’s national title.

* When they’re not in hot water, these guys can really play: Clarett and Michigan defensive back Marlin Jackson, the Big Ten’s preseason offensive and defensive players of the year, begin the year on the bench because of suspensions.

* Remember when they played college football on Saturday? The Mid-American Conference has schools playing on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week.

* Why Ohio State can survive without Clarett: Although he gained 1,237 yards last year, he sat out three games and parts of two others because of injuries -- all Ohio State wins. Remember, in Ohio State’s Fiesta Bowl victory over Miami, Clarett was held to 47 yards in 23 carries, a 2.0 average. Quarterback Craig Krenzel was the Buckeyes’ star runner in that game, rushing for 81 yards in 19 tries.

And just think how prepared the Ohio State defense is going to be in the first six weeks. “Maurice is going to be playing tailback on our scout team,” Tressel said.

* Florida State, one of the most media-friendly schools in the nation during the Bowden era, has curtailed access after nine losses the last two years and a series of problems off the field.

“When you lose games, that’s when your problems jump out, and everybody sees them.” Bowden said. “I kind of take the approach and feel like we need to shut our mouth down here and try to reestablish something again and then we’ll open some doors.”