On November 28, 2011, in Columbus, Ohio, Urban Meyer came for his first season as a head coach for Ohio State and started showing in no time why he won 2 national titles with Florida. The team went undefeated in Meyer’s first season in 2012, including a 26-21 win over Michigan, and one would have expected the next step was going to be the national championship game, right? Sadly, Meyer knew even before the season started that it was a lost cause, courtesy of Ohio State’s ‘Tattogate’ scandal. 15 years later, now that Michigan has been let off easy in the NCAA’s recent verdict, the CFB Hall of Famer isn’t holding back his raw emotions.

Ohio State players were alleged to have traded team memorabilia (rings, uniforms, etc) for cash and discounted tattoos at a Columbus tattoo parlor, prompting an NCAA investigation. The NCAA, in turn, found the program, including head coach Jim Tressel, guilty of the misconduct that led to the vacating of all wins from the 2010 season, restrictions on scholarships, a five-year show-cause notice to Jim Tressel for withholding information, and, most importantly, a postseason ban for OSU in 2012. The postseason ban in 2012 hindered Meyer’s first season, where he could have even won the national title, after going undefeated in the regular season.

But now,? After the NCAA’s Michigan decision, which hasn’t come out with a postseason ban or even vacation of wins from their 2023 season, due to the sign-stealing controversy, Urban Meyer has come out breathing fire on the NCAA. He called the “NCAA, as an enforcement arm, no longer exists,” and expanded further on why it is so.

Meyer, although he supported the NCAA’s reasoning on not punishing current players for infractions of the past staff members. He still wasn’t convinced of the NCAA’s overall decision. “In December of 2011, I had to stand in front of a group of seniors and tell them they were not allowed to play in a bowl or championship game in their final year of college football for something they had nothing to do with,” Meyer said. “It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. That same group went 12-0 and was unable to compete for the national championship,” concluded Meyer through his podcast show ‘The Triple Option.‘

The NCAA has handed Michigan a long list of punishments that includes financial penalties exceeding $30 million, a reduction of 10% scholarships for 2025-26, recruiting restrictions, and a three-game ban on Sherrone Moore. Still, for many, the NCAA has shown leniency to Michigan when compared to the NCAA’s other decisions like Ohio State’s ‘tattogate’ scandal or USC’s Reggie Bush controversy in 2010.

Urban Meyer’s harsh take on Michigan and the NCAA overall seems fair; however, it remains to be seen how his conversation with Dave Portnoy (One of Michigan’s prominent boosters and supporters) when both appear on Saturday on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff. And not just Urban Meyer, a former OSU QB under Urban Meyer also has a harsh take on the NCAA as he calls for sweeping changes.

Urban Meyer gets the backing of his old pupil from Ohio State’s 2014 natty run

Urban Meyer might not have had his dream national title win in the 2012 season due to the postseason ban, but he got it eventually. After finishing the 2014 season with 11 wins, defeating Michigan 42-28, Meyer went on to defeat Alabama in the semifinal and Oregon in the national title game with his QB, Cardale Jones, behind the center. And now, Jones is showing his loyalty to OSU as he supports Urban Meyer’s take on the NCAA.

Jones called out Michigan on their shady tactics to win the 2023 national title, but Jones’ major grievance was with the NCAA, and he called their actions a “challenge to the integrity of the game.” Jones further said, “This was a great opportunity to show you guys (NCAA) are still relevant and important and much needed and a part of college athletics. You guys have punished teams and organizations and universities a lot harder for doing things off the field that had nothing to do with the success on the field,” said Jones as he called out the double standards shown by the NCAA. The verdict?

Both Urban Meyer and Cardale Jones have valid points to question the recent decision taken by the NCAA. For one, there isn’t an established mechanism for redressal of cases, and there is no standard punishment procedure that can be applied on case case-by-case basis. That essentially makes decisions subjective and a subject of intense scrutiny. Translation? NCAA needs to act fast to bring some welcome changes, or else the conferences like the Big 10 or the SEC that wield the ‘real power’ won’t shy away from taking critical decisions.