The NCAA just entered Ohio State quarterback Terrell Pryor in the NFL Draft.

They suspended him five games next season for violating rules, but he gets to play in the Sugar Bowl, because he didn't know the rules.

Pryor sold a gift given to him by his school — his Big 10 Championship ring — which you aren't allowed to do, because college players aren't allowed to receive gifts.

Doesn't any of that makes sense? Of course not.

We like the NCAA. We want to defend them and what they stand for. But they really make it difficult sometimes.

We think amateurism in college sports is important and worth preserving. But time and time again the NCAA takes the side of the money makers over the kids it is supposed to be protecting.

Student-athletes get XBoxes from Bowl officials, but can't accept car rides from assistant coaches. They can get thousand dollar rings they will never wear from their schools, but they can't sell them to buy their mom a nice gift. They (rightfully) want to prevent players from being bought and sold, but then (confusingly) prevent players from selling things they've earned on their own.

Pryor and his teammates, like Cam Newton, were let off the hook because they claimed ignorance. The Buckeyes will play in the Sugar Bowl, because the NCAA says they didn't give players clear guidance on what they can and can't do when it comes to selling gifts. Then why punish them at all? Either they knew the rules and broke them or they didn't.

But the Sugar Bowl is more valuable right now than five games next season, especially because Pryor likely won't even be there to serve his punishment. If he's not in the NFL next fall, it will be a miracle.

It isn't the NCAA's regulations we have a problem with. It's the arbitrary enforcement that seems to put expediency, fame and money above logic and fairness. The rules are designed to treat every school and every player equal, but today's actions make it painfully clear that everyone is not equal.

Worst of all, this punishment put will all but ensure that a college student will leave school early, without a degree and pursue his dreams as a professional athlete. Is that what a group devoted to college athletics should be encouraging?

The NCAA needs reform. Not by turning student athletes into professionals, but by remembering the ideals of fairness it was built to protect — and then having the courage to defend them.