Uthoff vs. UW: Score one for the little 6-foot-8 guy

The University of Wisconsin got a near-unanimous rejection in the national court of public opinion, which is why Cedar Rapids Jefferson grad Jarrod Uthoff is getting what he sought.

Bo Ryan wasn't the first college coach to bar an athlete from transferring to specific schools beyond the conference in which his school is a member, but this took on legs as a compelling ational story.

The Ryan/Uthoff saga gave name-brand talking heads plenty of filler for a not-terribly-busy news week, and again illustrated the immense power the NCAA and its member institutions have over their athletes.

Though it seems questionable from a legal standpoint, not allowing transfers to accept athletic scholarships within your own conference is one of those accepted things in sports, like college coaches being able to break contracts if they get a job opportunity they like better.

But there are exceptions. West Virginia sued Rich Rodriguez for breach of contract after Rodriguez left to become Michigan's head football coach, and successfully. That did not become a template for other schools who have coaches that leave jobs in mid-contract, however.

When it became widely known Ryan was not only preventing Uthoff from going on scholarship at a Big Ten school, but also from Marquette and Iowa State, and the entire Atlantic Coast Conference, and Florida, it became easy pickings for the Tony Kornheisers and Colin Cowherds of the country.

Ryan looked more vindictive than protective, no matter his defense of his actions. He sounded like a cranky jilted boyfriend in an ESPN Radio interview Thursday morning.

It can be cruelly unfair at times, but perception is reality in most minds.

I think Ryan is a principled person who runs a good program. He's a straight-shooter and he believes what he believes, especially when it comes to transfers. That doesn't make him totally right, but it doesn't make him an ogre.

Flying in the face of the Wisconsin football program, Ryan has publicly voiced total displeasure with the NCAA rule allowing college graduates with athletic eligibility remaining to transfer to another school without having to red-shirt if they enter a graduate program. Bret Bielema lived large with North Carolina State transfer Russell Wilson as his quarterback last fall.

Ryan said his restrictions on Uthoff were commended by his coaching peers. “I am doing what every other coach in the country has done,” he said.

If so, that didn't make it right. So after Wisconsin got beat up in the media this week, UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez and one of his assistant ADs met with Uthoff. The two administrators then met with Ryan. Voila! Only the restrictions on fellow Big Ten schools will stand.

You want to be an Iowa State Cyclone, go be one. You want to be a Virginia Cavalier, enjoy the ACC.

Wisconsin couldn't win this fight. No matter how much Ryan may have wanted to stick to his guns, the powers that be at Wisconsin weren't deaf to the criticism rumbling across the nation, knowing it could change the way the school's athletics program is viewed outside America's Dairyland.

Today, the hot-button topic on national sports radio becomes something else. Although, the re-recruitment of Uthoff will be newsworthy around here and in some other markets. He gets to make his playing debut in a mere 19 months.

If Uthoff weren't a genuine prospect, Ryan wouldn't have signed him in the first place and schools like Florida and Virginia wouldn't have asked Wisconsin about his restrictions this week.

Uthoff seems like a decent fellow, too, someone fans will enjoy having on their team. I hope he plays where he wants and has the kind of career he desires. I just wonder what he thought he was getting at Wisconsin. Ryan is known as a no-nonsense coach, and he has run the same offense for 11 years at Wisconsin.

“I just think after being in the system and getting a true understanding of it, it would most benefit me to play someplace else,” Uthoff said last weekend. “It's a great campus, great coaching staff, great guys. But I need to go someplace where I feel like I fit in better as a player.”

The player surely wouldn't have pushed this with Wisconsin if he didn't plan on playing for another BCS conference program. So he gets wooed all over again, now with the knowledge of what college ball is really like.

And what it's like is this: Head coaches have significant power. But every now and then, they aren't all-powerful.

Now then, here are nine seconds of Uthoff going against Linn-Mar in February 2011. We were all so much younger then.