The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 9, 2011

It's easy for us on the outside to wonder why a college athlete would sell something of his to bring in a little spending money, like the five Ohio State football players who got in trouble for selling memorabilia.

One reason the NCAA doesn't allow this is it could be a roundabout way of accepting money from boosters - "Hey, sonny, I'll give you $50,000 for that Rose Bowl ring."

The players were suspended by the NCAA for the Buckeyes' first five games next season, but were allowed to play in Ohio State's victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl last Tuesday.

So over the holidays, I asked our two local players, Lake City High graduates Carson York and Brandon Hanna, who will play for Oregon in Monday's BCS title game vs. Auburn, if they would ever consider selling their Ducks memorabilia.

"There's no way I would sell any of my bowl rings or jerseys or anything; that's what you worked for," said Hanna, a redshirt junior and a backup at defensive end and outside linebacker.

York, a redshirt sophomore who starts on the offensive line at left guard, said he thought it was funny the Ohio State players didn't know what they did was OK by the NCAA.

"In the world we function in, you know what's right and wrong," York said, "and I think we can all learn to survive four years under the heavy hand of the NCAA."

The age-old argument then becomes: isn't the cost of a scholarship payment enough?

"We probably live a lot nicer than most college students," York said. "I think we try to take it for granted until we talk to friends who are paying loans, or people who are out of college with all this debt. They're going to spend the next 10 years trying to get rid of it, and when we get out we should be able to just go to work. I think it's easy to take that for granted when you've never had to pay for it."

York and Hanna admit they come from strong family backgrounds, have all the basics they need to get by in college, and if they get in a bind, have family that can help them.

And they understand many others come from less fortunate surroundings, such as single-parent homes and living in poverty.

“We have teammates who come from places with no money, and there are some people sending money home to their parents to help them out,” York said. “I’m sure when they see everybody around them (coaches, schools) making so much money, I’m sure there are people that are really struggling, but for us, we’re fine.”

York is on track to graduate this spring, then begin work on his master’s with two more years of college football eligibility. Hanna is majoring in business administration.

They know where their futures lie.

“What you put into it is what you get out of it,” Hanna said. “I think a lot of those guys, they don’t see college football as an education, they see it as a stepping stone to the NFL. So they don’t see it (as) their education being payment that way.”

Added York: “I think we’re lucky enough to come from a place where we have role models and people that have shown us the way, that the path to being successful is through education and hard work. I think there’s a lot of people that don’t have those role models in their life, and so we’re lucky enough to have teachers or coaches or parents or uncles or moms or aunts that have been successful, and the way they’ve been successful is through hard work. Those are values that we’ve been instilled with. It’s unfair to blame certain individuals when they’re coming from places where that’s not the example that’s been set before them; they see success is through football and that’s the way out of their situation.”

Said Hanna: “They should know the difference between right and wrong, but I can see how they’d be tempted to do that.”

YORK AGREED that being awarded a ring and not being able to sell it to help out your family is some sort of contradiction, but said Oregon does a good job informing its athletes what is right and wrong.

Hanna and York said during fall camp, every night they would have one hour of what they called “character education.” Speakers from different walks of life — former coaches Jon Gruden and Tony Dungy, and agent Howard Slusher were a few they mentioned — “people who have been at a certain place in life and are somewhere else now,” York said. “I think there’s a definite effort at the University of Oregon to develop us as young men.”

“That’s what was so hard about last year,” Hanna said. “A couple guys made mistakes and ruined it for everyone else.”

“I think we were more disciplined at that point than at any time since I’ve been here,” York said. “There was more discipline within the team ever than there had been since I’ve been there, so it was kind of ironic that that was the time when all this stuff was (happening).”

York said Oregon coach Chip Kelly has said he wants to win, but wants to win with good guys.

“I think they’ve done a good job of instilling in us that we represent the university and the state,” York said, “and we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than the average citizen.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.