NCAA Eye-Black Ban No Big Deal

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I don't mind the NCAA's new ban on eye black.

In most cases, I'll agree with those who criticize America's most uptight organization, but while I won't call this a slam dunk, I'm comfortable enough with the ruling.

Fifteen years ago our talkative culture began using the expression, "In the grand scheme of things" in order to prepare our listeners that the moral of the story was coming. We'd found some perspective by realizing something "really wasn't that big of a deal."

But the NCAA isn't worried about the grand scheme of things. It's concerned only about its own scheme of things, and in order to prevent any gray area with the messages they'll no longer allow on players' faces, the association just made a preventive ruling in order to keep things simple. Is it really that significant of a loss that a 19-year-old can no longer write HEBREWS or MOM on his eye black?

Had Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor not given a nod to Michael Vick last year, perhaps we wouldn't be talking about eye black seven months later.

Sure this leaves a corporate taste in our mouths, but in my grand scheme of things, I just want to watch the football. I don't need the circus.

Comments

[Brian]

If Terrelle had spelled it correctly we would not be in this mess.