Hlas: Unwittingly, NCAA probably did Drew Ott a favor

IOWA CITY — You're better off this way, Drew Ott. Now you can get paid to give and receive the kind of physical punishment few of us ever experience.

However, the Iowa football program's public disappointment and private disgust toward the NCAA are fully understandable.

It had been roughly five months since Iowa defensive end Ott petitioned for another year of collegiate eligibility after playing an abbreviated 2015 season because of a torn ACL. The Big Ten granted the UI's request to forward the school's petition to the NCAA in late February.

The decision itself, that deemed playing in six of Iowa's 14 games was too much for Ott to be allowed to return for another season, wasn't a shock. Yes, Iowa had a sound argument. Ott played only about 200 snaps. That's just three games' worth for a starter.

The NCAA's rule is you can't have played in 30 percent of your team's games to qualify for a medical red-shirt, but leeway has occasionally been given depending on the situation. Naturally, Kirk Ferentz and his staff felt Ott deserved such leeway. Many outside Iowa's program agreed. But it didn't come.

The galling part, though, was the way this was handled. Ott was strung along for so long without knowing what his immediate future held. It gave him less of an opportunity to fully showcase himself for NFL people.

The cruel irony is Ott was selfless in playing so soon after he suffered a dislocated elbow in the first quarter of Iowa's second game last season, against Iowa State.

He returned to play in a limited role with a large brace around his left arm in Iowa's win over Pittsburgh. He started and played a little more in the next game against North Texas, and played most of the following game at Wisconsin.

Then came the Oct. 10 home game against Illinois where he suffered his season-ending knee injury in the third quarter.

It didn't add up to six full games of playing time. It wasn't close, really. But the NCAA said it was still too much. So be it. But why did it take so long for the organization to let the player know?

Like any bloated bureaucracy, you're much more likely to encounter inconsistencies rather than straight answers.

'I'm disappointed in the decision and disappointed with the process,' Ferentz said Wednesday.

'I was a little bit hopeful and mildly optimistic this ruling would go the other way. It didn't.'

Said Ott: 'I would have really enjoyed coming back for another year.' Opposing Big Ten offensive linemen wouldn't have shared his joy.

But at least Ott hasn't been cast to the scrap heap of college players who were physically used up to the point of having no value to the NFL. Ott will play pro football. Rehabbed knee or not, you would certainly think some teams will relish the chance to bring him aboard.

Besides being an offense-disruptor extraordinaire, he can play with pain. Which means a lot in the NFL where they say there's a difference between playing hurt and playing injured.

'I never thought about not playing,' Ott said. 'I mean, it was something I could work with. I had it dislocated before so I knew how to work my way around it. Wasn't too concerned about it.'

Had he not hurried back and ended up playing in just four games, Ott would be a fifth-year senior in 2016. But not returning to the field as soon as possible was never an option in his mind.

'Quite frankly,' Ferentz said, 'it might have been his undoing in the whole process.'

The brighter bulbs in the NFL will take that into account, and in a positive way.