Closure. We all crave it.

Luke Fickell said the other day it’s near essential no matter how many times you preach looking ahead and not looking back.

It’s supposed to provide a metaphorical eraser to wipe the slate clean and move on without any more immediate hindrances or baggage.

Ohio State was supposed to get it some time this fall. Instead, anticipation of an NCAA ruling and the announcement of sanctions dragged on – is there any other way this place operates? – and then the semi-hammer finally came down Tuesday on a staggered OSU football program.

The NCAA clunked Ohio State with a multitude of penalties, the most notable being a one-year postseason ban. It also issued a public reprimand and censure, put the football program on probation through Dec. 19, 2014, and reduced football scholarships from 85 to 82 through the 2014-15 academic year.

It was a harsher penalty than the administration expected and caused a collective shock and groan from OSU fans, especially since athletic director Gene Smith had all but promised the school would avoid a sentence harsh enough to include a bowl ban.

Smith and an army of university lawyers and high-priced public relations consultants thought they had this all mapped out. Ohio State responded to a lengthy NCAA probe and notice of allegations by offering a checklist of self-punishments including a two-year probation, vacating all 12 wins from the 2010 season, funneling the Big Ten share of postseason money ($338,000 and change) to charity and the loss of five scholarships over three years. That and the fact the school cooperated fully, honored suspensions of eight players and basically forced the resignation of head coach Jim Tressel on May 30 was supposed to be enough of a setback.

Only it wasn’t.

Ohio State, which has hired Urban Meyer with one of the gaudiest contracts in college football and practically handed him a blank check to compile a topnotch coaching staff, instead is going to have to dig a little deeper. Meyer now inherits the loss of nine scholarships, an extra year of probation and a one-year moratorium on postseason play, which means he can’t guide his Buckeyes to the Big Ten title game or a bowl at the end of his first season on the job.

After losing the services of Tressel, who had a sterling 10-year record of 106-22 at OSU, putting the 38-year-old Fickell at the helm of the program, and enduring an ugly 6-6 season thanks in large part to the exit of quarterback Terrelle Pryor and lengthy suspension of several key players, this saga was supposed to be nearly over by now.

After all, local business owner Edward Rife, who paid thousands of dollars and offered tattoos to players in exchange for memorabilia and team gear, had been sent off to prison for drug trafficking and money laundering charges. Also, players such as wide receiver DeVier Posey, tailback Boom Herron and left tackle Mike Adams, missed between five to 10 games of the season because of NCAA violations. The school promised to tighten up its compliance oversight and self-imposed penalties.

But when additional inquiries drudged up payments by northeast Ohio booster Bobby DiGeronimo to several players and found he had overpaid some for offseason odd jobs – Posey and Herron included – the NCAA brought out the dreaded “failure to monitor” tag last month.

Even after that latest black cloud, Smith said there was no precedent for a postseason ban in similar cases and said he looked forward to the final reaction from the NCAA.

On Tuesday, his corn flakes didn’t taste so good.

“We are surprised and disappointed with the NCAA’s decision,” Smith said in a statement. “However, we have decided not to appeal the decision because we need to move forward as an institution. We recognize that this is a challenging time in intercollegiate athletics. Institutions of higher education must move to higher ground, and Ohio State embraces its leadership responsibilities and affirms its long-standing commitment to excellence in education and integrity in all it does.”

It also was a tough-to-swallow day for Tressel, who was hit with a five-year “show-cause” order which all but prevents him from being a college coach during that time.

“Of great concern to the committee was the fact that the former head coach became aware of these violations and decided not to report the violations,” the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions wrote in its report.

Under a show-cause order, any school that hired Tressel would have to present its case for why it needed to employ him, and would risk severe penalties if he were to commit any further infractions after that. Tressel currently is a paid consultant with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

Seven Deadly Aspects

There’s almost too much here to stomach and too many facets to break down. But I’ve tried to simplify my reaction with basically seven different thoughts. They follow:

* This has to be the last card Smith plays as Ohio State’s AD.

After all, he’s out of twos and threes.

Looking back at missteps and curious statements by Smith since this all came to light a full year ago would be like watching a highlight reel of a rodeo clown.

Remember, Smith vowed at the outset that the program did not have a “systemic problem,” swore that Tressel would remain the head football coach, scoffed at media reports suggesting more trouble was on the way, said a two-game suspension of Tressel hit the “sweet spot,” announced the firing of Tressel on YouTube.com, held a press conference with only handpicked reporters after the university filed its response, only read a statement after school officials met with the Committee on Infractions, was publicly blasted by university president Gordon Gee after the NCAA responded with failure to monitor, and didn’t hold a press conference Tuesday when the final verdict came down.

He did, however, offer some reaction to reporters who tracked him down and admitted he and school officials miscalculated by not anticipating a bowl ban.

Gee said sitting down the current team – which is set to face 6-6 Florida in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 2 – from postseason play wouldn’t have insured the NCAA would have lifted the 2012 bowl ban, and it’s a valid point. But we will never know if that’s true. And now OSU fans have to be excited about two break-even teams facing each other at the end of this season and live with no postseason life for a 2012 team that projects to win 10 or more games.

In perhaps his most curious public comments to date, Smith tried to talk his way out of the bowl ban disaster by saying he’d still rather see the current team receive a reward.

“Had this team come to me and said we don’t want to play in a bowl at the end of the season, that would have factored in, but that’s not what we had here,” Smith told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “These young men fought through adversity. I know that Buckeye Nation is all about next year and looking forward to winning a national championship, and that is right.

“But when you think about (seniors) Michael Brewster and Andrew Sweat and those young people, you don’t want to deny them that opportunity. We have young people who have earned that right to play in a bowl. I know our fans want to see us in a BCS bowl and winning national championships, and they are a great support group, but at the end of the year these young men earned this right to play in a Jan. 2 game.”

Smith even admitted that self-imposing a bowl ban for 2011 never crossed his mind.

“I never thought about this year,” Smith said. “I was pretty confident, frankly, when you look at the way we looked at the facts and considered things. That’s why I’m so surprised and disappointed. But when you looked at it the way we did, we didn’t think it was possible.”

The NCAA foiled that thinking, though, by citing two cases from 2002 and 2003, factoring the school’s failure to monitor to charge in with its status as a repeat violator under NCAA rules, and the fact that suspended players were allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl last year while Tressel hid his knowledge of NCAA violations.

And that leads to another point. Smith basically fell in line with overtures from Sugar Bowl representatives and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to allow Pryor, Herron, Posey, Adams and defensive end Solomon Thomas play in the BCS bowl game. All five of them made major contributions in a tight win over Arkansas, a victory over an SEC team in a bowl game that now doesn’t count.

* There are many, many prongs to this sordid affair, but the castigation of Ohio State really comes down to the mishandling of two underhanded losers: Rife and DiGeronimo.

A convicted drug dealer/tattoo parlor owner and a rogue joke, jock-sniffing booster. One of the most powerful institutions in the free world had no idea how to slow down these clowns. It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.

Yes, the players made mistakes, but student-athletes do that all the time at schools all over the country. Tressel’s fear of dealing with a bad seed like Rife, especially while he was under federal investigation, apparently spooked him and caused him to keep quiet on what was occurring. Ironically, he tried to keep at arm’s length from DiGeronimo, but the boosters connections to the program already were still too strong. In fact, DiGeronimo said recently that he and former coach John Cooper remain the best of friends.

Rife, who allowed several players to congregate at his Fine Line Ink tattoo parlor and orchestrated several exchanges with them, is now behind bars. DiGeronimo is disassociated from the program, but only after he was allowed immeasurable access to players and the university’s compliance office approved of players reporting to him and to attend his fundraisers.

DiGeronimo was handing envelopes with $200 inside to players just for showing up at his charity event. He also paid them for signing time cards with bloated figures on them – or in the case of Posey for one pay period, made payment with zero hours recorded.

It was Rife who funneled five figures of cash and services to players so that he could brag about his association with Buckeyes and hang their signed jerseys in his establishment. And then there’s DiGeronimo, who was known for kissing up to coaches by sending them catered lunches in the hopes they would look away when he wanted to borrow a player or two.

The NCAA report which details him hanging out in the locker room and hiding in a stall so he could hear Tressel address the team before a game sounds like a ridiculous scene from an Oliver Stone movie.

* I hope Ohio State sold a lot of T-shirts and jerseys after the Sugar Bowl.

Otherwise, there’s no way anyone could look back on allowing the suspended players to participate and say it was a good decision.

The university was looking at NCAA sanctions as soon as the Rife-Tressel scandal came to light but could have been proactive by keeping Pryor and company at home. Sure, that would have led to instant demise in the Sugar Bowl and soured the attitude of Delany but Ohio State missed out on its chance to show it was a place of integrity and fairness even if the NCAA is not.

But it was more than a blown opportunity. It was a signal that OSU was more interested in raking in the almighty dollar and placating guys in dorky bowl jackets than getting a handle on the situation. Reprimanding Tressel right away may have also saved his job, too.

This is the same university that didn’t even wait for the NCAA process to take its course and terminated the contract of Jim O’Brien for cause even when his contract clearly stated in so many words that he had a right to a fair trial. The beloved football coach, though, got a reprieve, which brought us to the gulpy quote by Gee back in March, “I’m just hoping the coach doesn’t dismiss me.”

* Hubris, pure hubris.

Ohio State was too caught up in the now and too concerned with public opinion – and the lack of vision proved costly. So did the mentality that ultimately the school was untouchable.

In fact, it was business as usual when the school hooked Meyer, backing up a truck of money for him and giving him free reign to go get any help he needed.

Control the message, condemn the media, protect the program at all costs, congratulate the administration, bolster the compliance and win some big football games. That’ll shut ’em up.

That’s the problem. The mentality all along has been that on-field success would allow the university to overcome the off-the-field difficulty. What a flawed approach.

Smith’s overriding message when addressing all of the concerns with the case was, hey, we’ve got this one. Go on with your lives and keep gobbling up tickets and merchandise and everything will be just fine.

A member of the Committee on Infractions while he served as AD at Arizona State, Smith was supposed to be just the right person to steward OSU through these kinds of troubled waters. Gee was a high-powered president capable of deflecting criticism and restoring national respectability when needed. And Ohio State was armed with the best lawyers, PR hounds and other suits money could buy to keep the school in good graces.

Fail, fail, epic fail.

After the NCAA levied its punishment and basically tsk-tsked Ohio State throughout a 34-page report, I couldn’t help but think the arrogance hovering over my alma mater finally got the best of it.

In other words, it would be wise in the future not to tell the NCAA what to do or suggest you know what it is going to do.

* Once again with the NCAA, the innocent suffer the majority of the consequences.

Yes, Tressel’s college coaching career was severely hampered and the university was ordered to disassociate itself from Pryor over a similar five-year period, but those two are on NFL payrolls. Gee and Smith still make very cushy salaries, too. Compliance director Doug Archie still has his job and probably will receive a big, fat Christmas bonus.

Meanwhile, the current team, the majority of which presumably did nothing wrong, had to limp through the 2011 season without its best tailback, wideout and blocker for half the season. It was such a bizarre fall that Herron, who missed six games because of two separate suspensions, was just voted team MVP. Huh?

Actually, I like Herron and Posey personally and do agree that they are impressive workers who lead by example. Adams and Thomas also come off as astute kids. I found myself feeling sorry for them a bit during the season as I imagined how tough it must be for a 21-year-old to face such severe scrutiny and not even be allowed to stand on the sideline with your teammates for five or more games.

But I can’t get past this fact: They all got to play in the Sugar Bowl last year and all of them will be available for the Gator Bowl.

What would be most fair is difficult to say. But this certainly isn’t it. Not when kids who did nothing wrong won’t be able to have the same experience next year. Not when guys like John Simon and Jake Stoneburner could leave early for the NFL but likely will stay with no bowl game dangling for them at the end of their careers. Not when recruits who are coming in next year were led to believe that the penalties going forward shouldn’t affect them.

* Urban Meyer has got to be honked off.

He had a golden opportunity to seize his dream job and he took it, but he professed faith and trust in Gee and Smith, who told him the NCAA situation was past the point of surprise.

Oops.

Of course, Meyer knew there was still some inherent risk, and losing three scholarships for the next three years isn’t entirely crippling. But Tuesday’s result is still troubling and creates even more toil for a coach who already is working tirelessly to overcome past transgressions of the program and maintain Ohio State as an ultimate destination for top-line recruits and coaches.

Several recent additions to the 2012 class such as Noah Spence of Harrisburg, Pa., and Adolphus Washington of Cincinnati are claiming they remain committed to Ohio State. Still, Meyer and his hired help are going to have to be even more diligent in their communication knowing the swirl of negativity out there. They also now have one more hurdle to overcome in terms of selling the state of the program on uncommitted prospects and even players in the program who may be on the fence about leaving.

I’ve heard some fans contend that the bowl ban will allow Meyer more time to establish his program and remove some of the immediate pressure on him. I’m not sure I buy that. He’s being compensated too well and the expectations are too high to think followers of the program will shrug and say “Oh, well” if the Buckeyes struggle next season since they can’t play for any titles.

Plus, Meyer himself admitted upon his hire that the days of a three- or four-year free pass for new coaches are over.

Meyer is not coaching the team in the bowl game against Florida, his former employer. Fickell is handling that task. Still, he’s anxious to take over the coaching reins and basically has autonomy of the program already. Tuesday’s ruling, though, left him in an awkward position and compelled him to put out the following generic statement:

“I agreed to become the head football coach at the Ohio State University because Shelley and I are Ohio natives. I am a graduate of this wonderful institution and served in this program under a great coach. I understand the academic and athletic traditions here and will give great effort to continue those traditions.

“It is still my goal to hire excellent coaches, recruit great student-athletes who want to be a part of this program and to win on and off the field. The NCAA penalties will serve as a reminder that the college experience does not include the behavior that led to these penalties. I expect all of us to work hard to teach and develop young student-athletes to grow responsibly and to become productive citizens in their communities upon graduation.”

* There’s no way around it now: 2012 will be lame-duck season for the Buckeyes.

Meyer can grit his teeth and talk about winning championships all he wants but he’s not going to have the opportunity to do it in his first year at Ohio State.

Players, fans and even reporters such as myself who follow the progress of the team and try to put perspective on its results will spend the entire year of 2012 stuck in the context of the bowl ban.

It’s there and it won’t go away. Kind of like the previous 12 months of NCAA involvement. And scandal. And subsequent turmoil.

Next season, followers of the Buckeyes will have no real reason to get caught up in the polls, or break down the conference outlook, or argue over BCS rankings – all part of the fun of the college football soap opera.

Meyer will use words like “pride” and “passion” all season, but it likely will grow tiresome for OSU fans and players. After all, there is no prize to claim.

Still, the spin doctors came out to play again Tuesday.

“I feel closure,” Gee told the Plain Dealer. “I am disappointed on one end but on the other end I am very relieved because I feel closure. I think we can now move forward.”

Gee may feel that way but I’m guessing he is outnumbered.

Names like Rife, DiGeronimo and Pryor will live in infamy. Mistakes will haunt. “Tattoos” will remain a dirty word in Columbus.

Some day, The Ohio State University and its loyal fans will get over all of this. But that day hasn’t arrived yet.