Ohio State Championship Rings

[gear02]

I'm watching sportscenter and the college gameday's tour to OSU. I see a presentation of the championship rings to the seniors.

Who pays for those rings? If the school pays, doesn't that somehow violate some sort of NCAA rule?

[whitak24]

the school pays for the rings.

but NCAA rules allow schools to give benefits to students. they get tuition, food, rooms, medical treatment, clothes, shoes, etc, etc. however, these benefits are heavily regulated (for example, student athletes aren't supposed to get long distance paid for). i'm sure there is an allowance in the NCAA rules for championship rings.

what is really sad is that in many cases, administrators, coaches, and various major athletic department donors get huge rings with tons of gold and semi-precious and precious stones that are worth thousands of dollars. meanwhile, the atheletes (who actually "won" the title), get rings that look basically the same but have cheap components and are basically "knockoffs" of the rings that the admins get.

[gear02]

Yeah, from a quick glance it looked like they were ordinary class rights. I mean Jostens' were the ones providing the rings. They wouldn't most more than $300-400 a piece, and their actual worth wouldn't be more than $100.

I'm not sure what to think about the NCAA. On one hand, I feel like students are students and these guys should be treated as such. Academics first, athletics second. They're amateurs. Yet, the school uses them as professionals because college sports, well just Football and Basketball, is a huge business and the colleges make tons of money.

As much as I like College Football and March Madness, I want to see all this corruption (coaches with "lifetime" contracts jumping schools, kids who go to college as a minor league for basketball or football, boosters, etc.) be gone with. If that means that everything we have now is lost, then fine. The NCAA is more corrupt than the USOC.

Btw thanks for replying whitak...this thread fell a long way down.