Topless team photographs have long been a tradition for men’s rugby teams, but the Ohio State women’s rugby team posing topless was a first. In front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Saturday, the team was photographed by a photographer from The Washington Post. Twelve of the 37 team members were topless. Suspended from practice and two games, the team is still under scrutiny from university officials. Since Monday, the administration has been considering possible repercussions, said David Williams II, vice president of student affairs.Rugby is a club sport at OSU, so the team falls under the jurisdiction of Student Affairs. Head coach Jon Moore said the team wants to present Williams with a plan where only the girls who participated in the photograph would be punished.”The students understand that they did something that caused great harm to the university, that’s definitely clear,” he said. “They are very willing to make up for that and make amends.”The photograph in question came about when the team stopped in front of the Lincoln Memorial to take a group photo. After the photograph was taken, a few players took another shot with their shirts off while covering themselves with their hands. The Post photographer shot them putting their shirts back on, Moore said. According to the Post story which ran in The Columbus Dispatch Monday, the team had plans to market the photograph on T-shirts that would be sold on campus. Moore said there was never any such plan.”Let me assure you there was at no time any organized intent or plan by the club to produce, market or distribute pictures, T-shirts, (or) calendars featuring unclothed OSU women’s rugby players,” Moore said. Undergraduate Student Government Senator Kevin Cope said people must keep in mind that laws in Washington, D.C., do not prohibit women from being topless in public.”I thought that their actions may have been offensive to some, but it’s important to remember that they did nothing illegal,” Cope said.Rob Coridan, a physics and computer science major, said the whole issue has been blown out of proportion.”I don’t think it was anything to get this upset about. They didn’t do anything illegal. It was their right. I mean if it was the men’s rugby team it wouldn’t be an issue at all,” Coridan said.Moore said that the picture was taken quickly and that he thought nothing of it at the time. “This is something that has been the tradition – a men’s rugby tradition for a long time – and I think that what the players were doing was basically what they heard about men’s teams doing for years past all over the place,” Moore said.Both Moore and the team remain apologetic to the university but Moore still questions people’s sensibilities.”Students at a university have the right to express themselves under the First Amendment,” he said. “And I find it troubling that a public university would not allow students their First Amendment rights, even in a situation that has caused the university harm.”