OSU Penalties Leaking: Bowl Ban, More Scholarships
The NCAA today stunned Ohio State University’s football program by banning it from postseason play after the 2012 season, multiple sources told The Dispatch.
The penalty means Ohio State automatically is out of the running for any bowl, or a Big Ten or national championship next year, just as newly appointed head coach Urban Meyer is wooing recruits to the Buckeyes.
Athletic Director Gene Smith said previously that while Ohio State has been declared a repeat violator that failed to properly monitor its football program, a bowl ban would be out of line with penalties handed to universities with similar violations.
In its ruling to be made public this afternoon, the NCAA Committee of Infractions will levy the bowl ban and two other penalties on top of the ones the university already imposed on itself, the sources said. The NCAA will:
* Strip four more football scholarships over the next three years on top of Ohio State’s prior forfeiture of five scholarships over that span.
* Add an additional year of probation to OSU’s self-imposed two-year probation for the football program, meaning any violations through the 2013 season could draw harsher-than-normal penalties.
I still think it's weak—what happened to the NCAA's two-eyes-for-an-eye policy?—but it's certainly something, something that OSU insiders have been confidently proclaiming would not happen because they were listening to OSU's idiot athletic director. Who is an idiot.
"Stunned." Yeah, I bet you're stunned. The Ohio State athletic department is also stunned that OSU boosters would want to give free things to football players. Other things that stun the OSU AD:
- The sun rising in the morning.
- Malcolm Gladwell drawing grand conclusions from tenuously connected, dubiously supported facts.
- Troy Woolfolk getting injured.
Ohio State won't win the Big Ten next year, either, Urban Meyer has just lied to a bunch of kids, and they will have a roster maximum of 82 for the next few years. I still think that roster maximum should be something like 79, but it could have gone worse.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:52 PM ^
I'm surprisingly unaffected. Thought they'd get less, think they should've gotten more. Meh.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:57 PM ^
But happy to see that the convict doesn't have total control over the sentence.
December 20th, 2011 at 7:20 PM ^
December 20th, 2011 at 2:52 PM ^
GO BLUE
December 21st, 2011 at 9:48 AM ^
I enjoyed their little poll titled, "Is the NCAA's Verdict Fair?"
"No, It's Too Harsh" is outpacing "Yes" by almost 2 to 1. "No, It's Not Harsh Enough" is a distant, distant third.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
Even more annoying now. Wisconsin has a free ride next year - OSU's ineligible, PSU's a mess, Indiana and Purdue have no talent. Seems like Illinois, since they'll have an actual coach to go with their talent, will be biggest challenge.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:59 PM ^
Wisky practically had a free ride this year and they almost choked it away.
December 20th, 2011 at 4:01 PM ^
Unless Crist goes to UW, we could be looking at a Pac-12 South type situation on that side. Ball's likely to go pro, they lose Toon, Wilson, and a couple linemen. Their QB situation is a total tire fire. It'll likely be UW's worst team since 2008. Next year might actually be a year that something crazy happens, like Purdue "winning" the division (with what will be a very good OSU team finishing 6-2/7-1 in conference).
December 20th, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
Why isn't their roster 76? 85 minus 9. Are they applied in a way that i don't understand?
December 20th, 2011 at 2:55 PM ^
So they could do 82, 82, 82 or 76, 85, 85, or....
December 20th, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^
ah, i thought it was nine total, each year for the next three years. 9 divided over three years is weak.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:16 PM ^
Actually since the committee added further scholly reductions they rule how they happen, so it's going to be 82, 82, 82
December 20th, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
Take THAT Malcolm Gladwell, you sniffling ass!
December 20th, 2011 at 3:06 PM ^
Right, like the OSU AD knows who Malcolm Gladwell is.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:28 PM ^
But "huh, wha...?"
December 20th, 2011 at 2:54 PM ^
I think that this is pretty weak. USC was punished more severely for far less rampant violations.
Whatever, beat OSU.
Also, what is the reaction of Dunn and company to having been lied to by their new coach?
December 20th, 2011 at 3:21 PM ^
Dunn's reaction was that he's now only 142% Buckeye, but loving the new tattoo anyway.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
How is what OSU did not as bad as USC? I didn't follow the SC violation that closely so someone can enlighten me, but how is Bush getting money way worse in the NCAA's eyes than multiple OSU kids getting money and the coach lying about it?
December 20th, 2011 at 4:00 PM ^
USC's AD was completely uncooperative with the NCAA's investigation. While Smith tried a minimize until forced to maximize, OSU did self report and assist with the investigation.
December 20th, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
self report or were they outed by the media and then confessed?
December 20th, 2011 at 5:48 PM ^
They reported the infractions before the NCAA issued a notice of infractions. I seem to recall them reporting on the eve of media reports, but it's more than, say, USC or South Carolina did. They also self-imposed sanctions (lame, pathetic sanctions, but sanctions nonetheless).
December 20th, 2011 at 5:57 PM ^
...their self-report was issued the day after Yahoo! ran the story.
What's more interesting is that they discovered the damning e-mails while they were working on a response to another FOIA request. I'd love to know who was FOIing Tressel's e-mail, and why.
December 20th, 2011 at 8:53 PM ^
informed the NCAA in January. They didn't file the final report until after the Yahoo story, but they'd made the initial notification months beforehand.
The emails were uncovered while preparing the appeal for the Tat-5, FWIW.
December 20th, 2011 at 9:36 PM ^
According to Jim Delany the e-mails were discovered through an FOI open-record request. Was he lying? Was he misinformed? He made the same statement consistently on several occasions.
OSU merely said it was discovered "while working on an unrelated legal matter." They never said what that matter was, as far as I know. I'd be interested in your source for your claim that it was the Tat-5 appeal, which wouldn't seem to be unrelated at all.
These are the same guys that "inadvertently" omitted the e-mails to Sarniak in their self-report--e-mails that would have shredded the credibility of their attempted public defense of Tressel that he was forced into silence for fear of interfering with a federal investigation. I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.
December 20th, 2011 at 10:13 PM ^
doesn't sound self-reported.
December 21st, 2011 at 11:24 AM ^
I've read have said it was in preparation for the appeal.
December 27th, 2011 at 10:36 AM ^
...were all lying when they said it was an unrelated legal matter?
Smith and Gee I could believe; the attorneys I would think would be more careful. Since I haven't seen any media reports that confirm what you're saying and you didn't provide a link, I'm going to remain skeptical for now.
December 21st, 2011 at 8:19 AM ^
USC had boosters buying cars for players, and putting them in girlfriends names.
OSU made players drive "dealer loaners", which is how so many athletes got ticketed in cars still registered to dealerships
December 20th, 2011 at 4:02 PM ^
USC "knew or should have known" about agents having free access to players in the locker room. So not only did Reggie Bush get hundreds of thousands in illegal benefits, but USC looked the other way. On top of that, when they were investigated, USC tried to stonewall the NCAA at every turn. Their lack of cooperation certainly played a role in their punishment. If we take off our maize colored glasses, the magnitude of the payouts, and the responses of the universities, weren't really all that comparable. OSU's administration was arrogant in the process, but not outwardly uncooperative like at USC.
December 20th, 2011 at 4:39 PM ^
SC's AD making arrogant sounding statements at the time, but that's all I noted. I imagine then the disparate reactions of the two schools was the major reason the punishments seem so different.
December 20th, 2011 at 4:51 PM ^
That, plus USC hired Lane Kiffin, who was on Pete Carroll's staff throughout the entire period when the violations occurred. That probably indicated to the NCAA that USC really didn't take the matter seriously at all. They were punishing USC's indifference as much as the violations themselves.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:54 PM ^
The biggest hit OSU gets from this is the loss of credibility Urban Meyer now has with recruits. No kid with a brain will be anything less than skeptical of whatever he tells them now.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:03 PM ^
I dunno why this got knocked down to score 0, but I agree. The biggest hit is on the new coach, who is clearly happy to tell kids who are trying to make life-altering decisions whatever they want to hear and not the truth. Not shocking, but should be revealing to those who think Urban craps rainbows.
December 20th, 2011 at 4:55 PM ^
He has a karma value of 0. All of his posts start off hidden with a score of 0.
Now you know.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:16 PM ^
I kind of doubt they'll care. He'll say, "Well, I didn't know it would be this bad" and then sprinkle a few hundred dollar bills and everything will be hunky dory.
December 20th, 2011 at 10:16 PM ^
amazing what people will turn a blind eye to when truth gets in the way of what we think we want.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:17 PM ^
That would be great if "kid with a brain" and "osu football player (or student, fan, AD, etc)" weren't mutually exclusive terms
December 20th, 2011 at 3:23 PM ^
Meyer will spin this with the recruits so they are all filled with righteous ingination.......he will spin it so they think the world (NCAA) is against them. This actually helps Meyer because he can experiment more next year and not need to worry about getting to the Big Ten Championship or a BCS bowl. He'll have the team spitting nails going into 2013 - out to prove that they deserve respect. What they really deserve is harsher punishment.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^
Kids will believe anything when you tell them what they want to hear regardless of whether it's true or even believable.
December 20th, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^
Especially when 4 and 5 star recruits have the following mentality:
Well enough about me Coach Meyer, let's talk about you. What do you think about me?
December 20th, 2011 at 2:55 PM ^
I am probably mistaken but does USC have 1 more year of scholarship reductions? If so, I would appeal the last year and cite the lessened punishment for Buckeyes w/ greater infractions.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:07 PM ^
USC got 3 years at 10/year. I don't think they've even started yet, since they appealed.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:45 PM ^
I said that it was smart for them to appeal only that decision because it would stagger the scholarship deductions long enough for the bowl ban to lose effect. Basically, they could still look good during the bowl ban, and have top notch seniors to power through the scholarship deductions.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:55 PM ^
How does the scholarship penalty work?
Can OSU have 76 scholarship players next year and fulfill the penalty?
December 20th, 2011 at 6:35 PM ^
I believe if they wanted to they could
December 20th, 2011 at 2:55 PM ^
They should've given ohio at least 2 years bowl ban and 12 schollies penalty. USC should be livid. And all we did was over practice for 15 minutes.
Pryor driving around in all these expensive cars when his family lives in poverty, what a bunch of crap.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:58 PM ^
Yes, we stretched too long. And we didn't get any type of real probation at all (the only sanctions worth a damn are postseason ban, schollie reductions and show-causes). All we got was a headache.
December 20th, 2011 at 3:00 PM ^
the NCAA is a joke but at least they punished Ohio with something. It was more than many were expecting.
December 20th, 2011 at 2:56 PM ^
They deserve worse. But at least they got punished somewhat....if this is true.
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