Numbing pedantry

There are some things I don't understand in this world, and many of them involve the NCAA. They are the grand masters of nitpickery, King Pedant I in a land where inconsequence is consequential. What matters to them is an endless source of puzzlement to everyone else.

And so we come this morning to a young man named Chase Young, and another round of puzzlement.

For the uninitiated, Young is a defensive end for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and he might just be the best college football player in America. The kid is a one-man wrecking crew, a stick of dynamite flung into the middle of opponents' best-laid plans. Remember when Mike Tyson said "Everyone's got a plan until they get hit."? That was Chase Young he was talking about.

Which is why Maryland is no doubt thanking the stars that Chase Young will not be playing football today.

When the Buckeyes take the field against the Terrapins, Young will not be among them, and not because he's hurt. He's being held out because of a potential NCAA violation that, like a lot of NCAA violations, gets sillier the more you contemplate it. But King Pedant I will not be swayed by mere common sense. Silliness is his royal prerogative.

Here's the deal: Last summer a "family friend' floated Young a loan. He says he paid it back. But the "family friend" is someone Young, a junior, admits he's only known since before his freshman year at OSU. So it can reasonably be assumed that the "friend" is an OSU booster of some type or description.

Now, you might be asking yourself here why this is a big deal, if Young indeed paid back the loan. It's an excellent question. Another excellent question is why the NCAA might consider this an "impermissible benefit," which by its criteria is any benefit not available to students who aren't  providing cheap labor for the university's athletic department.

After all, again, Young paid back the loan (assuming he's telling the truth, and why would he tell such an easily exposed lie?). He was also already at Ohio State, so it's not like the loan was some sort of recruiting inducement. And if the NCAA regards this as an "impermissible benefit," it must be prepared to state with absolute certainty that no regular OSU student since the beginning of time has ever been floated a loan by a family friend or benefactor.

This is, of course, absurd. Regular students get loans all the time from friends or family or benefactors. I did. You did. Pretty much everyone you know did.

So where is the violation here? And why is Chase Young being punished for doing something college students do all the time?

This doesn't sound to me like he's getting special treatment because he's a student-athlete. Or maybe he is.

After all, he's the only one being told he can't play today.