BREAKING: Buckeyes get bowl ban

December 20, 2011

COLUMBUS (AP) — The NCAA has hit Ohio State with a one-year bowl ban and other penalties for a scandal that involved players taking cash and tattoos in exchange for jerseys, rings and other Buckeyes memorabilia.

The university had previously offered to vacate the 2010 season, return bowl money, go on two years of NCAA probation and use five fewer football scholarships over the next three years.

But the NCAA on Tuesday banned the Buckeyes from playing in a bowl in Urban Meyer's first year as head coach in 2012, further reduced the number of scholarships and tacked on a year of probation.

Jim Tressel, forced out in the wake of the scandal, was hit with a five-year "show-cause" order which all but prevents him from being a college coach during that time.