Ohio State saved its stars for one last Sugar Bowl payoff. They'd better make it count.

Unless something changes on a long shot appeal, Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor and four Buckeye teammates are going to suit up against Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 3. Then, per NCAA fiat, they're going to serve a five-game suspension over the first month of the 2011 season for allegedly selling used jerseys, championship rings and other tokens of their careers – unless, of course, they decide to declare for the NFL Draft first, in which case their punishment likely amounts to a slightly smaller signing bonus.

If you care about this at all, there's a 100 percent chance you're either a) angry, b) confused or c) both of the above. Join the club.

So far, the hostility is unanimous. Buckeye partisans would like to know why their star quarterback was told to eat bench while Cam Newton, connected to a more serious violation involving more money, is free and clear to win the Heisman Trophy and play in the SEC and BCS title games. Since the OSU infractions allegedly went down in 2009, USC, Florida State and Alabama fans are wondering when the Buckeyes are going to be forced to strike this season's wins from the books for playing ineligible players.

Georgia probably would have liked to have known in August, when star receiver A.J. Green was suspended four games for selling his own jersey, that it could choose which games he was forced to sit out. Free marketeers still can't believe the NCAA is allowed to bench players that schools openly exploit for millions for making a buck of their personal property in the first place, when the schools' own websites are hawking the exact same items for hundreds of dollars. Dez Bryant wants to know why he was forced to sit out an entire season when his only crime was lying about a meeting that wasn't even against the rules.

Big Ten co-champion Michigan State can't help but wonder, if the story had broken three weeks earlier – before the bowl match-ups were decided, and untold dollars were invested in a blockbuster Ohio State-Arkansas (not to mention Terrelle Pryor-Ryan Mallett) showdown in New Orleans – if it would be playing in its first BCS game instead of accepting a consolation bid to the Capital One Bowl. Even NCAA compliance types are wondering why their mighty overlord accepted Ohio State's plea to delay the punishment on the ludicrous grounds that the players "did not receive adequate rules education" before selling off their wares: Even if it was stooping to a naked attempt to protect financial interests in the Sugar Bowl, the NCAA's total take from the game is all of $12,000, not much more than the Buckeye offenders were collectively required to donate to charity in atonement for their sins.

A good compromise is supposed to leave everyone equally unhappy. But it seems clear enough that Ohio State, by throwing its own compliance department to the dogs as part of a plea agreement, did manage to protect what it valued most in the exchange: The ability to beat Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.

The school knows as well as everyone else that the prospect of spending a third of their senior season on ice all but guarantees that Pryor, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams – once the most hyped members of one of the nation's most hyped recruiting classes in 2008 – and Boom Herron will throw their hats into the draft in April, even if they'd planned to return for another year to improve their stock. With that reality, in all likelihood, the game went from a launching point for one final run at a national championship with a senior-laden lineup in 2011 to a final sendoff for a wildly successful group that nevertheless always seemed one rung away from meeting its potential.

Maybe a couple of them will surprise us, take their medicine, and come back for game six next year – a road trip to Nebraska, the Buckeyes' first clash with the Cornhuskers as Big Ten rivals – with a new fire and championship visions in their hearts. Back in reality, it seems ending their school's long-running postseason jinx against SEC teams to close a 12-1, co-Big Ten championship campaign is as close to greatness as this group can still aspire. The school salvaged that for them, at least, after they'd sold off vestiges of the rest, and might have sacrificed some of its chances for a Big Ten or national title run in 2011 – with or without its seniors stars – to do it.

Coupled with their inability to mount a championship run this year with all the veteran pieces in places on the heels of a strong, Rose Bowl-winning finish in 2009, the apparent indifference to to those honors will only add to Pryor and Co.'s reputation as entitled underachievers. For a team with 32 wins, three straight Big Ten titles and three straight BCS games in its belt, that's not really fair. Whatever they add to that legacy against Arkansas, though, there's too much invested in Jan. 4 for them to not make it count.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Melissa George Cameron Richardson Chandra West Kasey Chambers Megan Ewing