The Other Shoe Prepares To Drop: "Major Investigation" into Terrelle Pryor Underway By NCAA

First, Jim Tressel resigns. Then we get word of the impending Sports Illustrated story to be released tomorrow tonight. Then we get this. According to the Columbus Dispatch:

The NCAA and the Ohio State University's compliance office are conducting an independent investigation of Terrelle Pryor amid allegations that the star quarterback may have received cars and other extra benefits, sources told The Dispatch today.

Feel free to file this under "duh", but according to our friends at Eleven Warriors it means that Terrelle Pryor's playing days at Ohio State are over and maybe worse.

[W]hile the latest Dispatch report was short on specifics, Brutus has been right about this every step of the way. Additionally, a second, well-placed source has confirmed the news of Pryor's playing days being over and said "there could be much more."

If there's any consolation in Columbus, it's that Pryor's idiocy (including being linked to a dozen different cars while at OSU) has cost him any hope of a true NFL payday. Pryor forewent the NFL draft this spring. Even though he wasn't projected particularly high in the draft, he certainly would've gotten a decent payday out of the normal draft. Now, there is more than enough evidence to indicate that Pryor's next stop is the supplemental NFL draft. And while his athleticism will make him a commodity worth chancing, his reputation and involvement in an ongoing federal criminal investigation will push his value into the toilet. For all his talent, Pryor's lack of a moral compass and/or brain will cost him millions upon millions of dollars.

The Dispatch's latest story also sheds some light on the coming Sports Illustrated piece that seems to have been the final nail in Tressel's coaching coffin. Look for a lot of fireworks in Columbus this evening. Just none of them in the sky.