Suspending J.T. Barrett was the right move, taking his scholarship away wasn’t.

By Ian Murphy
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Ohio State’s punishment almost fits the crime in the case of sophomore quarterback J.T. Barrett.

Under no circumstances is drunk driving OK. Ever. That’s not even a discussion worth having.

So yes, suspending Barrett, who at 20 years old, is still under the legal drinking age, for a game is, at the very least, a necessary punishment.

It sends a message to the team that even the team captain at a football powerhouse such as Ohio State will be held accountable for his actions.

And Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, who had no obligation to suspend Barrett by school policy, acted in the right with the suspension.

Where Ohio State acted in the wrong, however, was revoking Barrett’s scholarship for a semester.

To ask a 20-year-old, who is staking his education on a scholarship, to come up with out-of state-tuition, is a herculean favor.

Sure, it’s only for the Ohio State summer term, when the cost of attendance is less, and Barrett is still on scholarship for this fall, next spring, and next fall, but if he decides not to pay his own way, he will have to sit out summer workouts.

And as Meyer neglected to publicly name a starter until the first series of the Buckeye season, claiming his quarterbacks were dead even, those workouts could be the difference between starting Barrett or starting Cardale Jones, Ohio State’s other Heisman-Trophy-caliber quarterback.

While Meyer said Barrett could earn the money back, that’s a vague statement and leaves much more determination of Barrett’s fate to the coaching staff than Barrett himself.

Meyer doled out similar punishment in 2012, when he suspended the scholarships of Jake Stoneburner and Jack Mewhort, a tight end and offensive linemen, respectively, for disorderly conduct.

But that was before the issue of paying athletes came to the forefront with the Northwestern and O’Bannon cases. Not only does the move negatively affect Barrett, it reflects poorly on Ohio State — a school that generates massive revenue from football.

In Ohio, a first offense penalty for Operating a Vehicle while Intoxicated, the formal charge against Barrett, ranges from $250 to $1,000 plus a driver’s-license suspension of six months to three years.

So in addition to what could be a $1,000 fine from the state of Ohio, Barrett is on the hook for the cost of credits ranging from $578 for 1 credit hour for an out-of-state student at Ohio State to $13,187 if he takes a full semester load of 12 credits.

In total, the cost to Barrett could be $14,187, barring other expenses.

While Barrett likely won’t take a full semester load of class, that’s not a small sum of money for an unpaid, amateur athlete to come up with.

So while Barrett’s suspension could, and frankly should, be longer, the cost of losing his scholarship for the summer is a far worse punishment and not the right move for Ohio State to make, given the attention to the amateurism issue over the last several months.

A normal college student with a part-time job couldn’t afford that expense, so to ask the unpaid face of your university to pay that amount of money might raise eyebrows.

Although it shouldn’t, because revoking Barrett’s scholarship shouldn’t be the punishment at all.