Dear Diary: For the Good of the Nation

Article didn't really say anything new. :( 

Was hoping for a big bombshell. Oh well

Nice summary, Mis.  Liked your caveat in particular.  They cheated, but in the moral realm, there's a lot worse than paying kids you're making a lot o' dough off of.  It explains why they owned the B1G to at least some degree and that enough for me.  It was a lot tougher to live with before this all got wrapped up with a pretty bow.

They're the things we've all been saying for years, but I've always thought they were at least a little exaggerated. Now I know we haven't been giving Tressel and his thugs nearly enough credit. Coming from an investigative journalist if what he reports is untrue he's open to massive libel/slander lawsuits, but he doesn't hold back at all. I for one am really surprised to have not seen a single Spongebob Best Day Ever reference.

I disagee with ixcunicle- there's amplification of older claims wiith new details that OSU isn't going to be able to MoC with "he's a dirty guy" type claims. We now have multiple tatoo parlors, a source with photos of OSU players in the parlor who weren't listed in the OSU doc, Pryor giving a lot more than just a jersey and a sportsmanship award, a player giving bowl game tix to rife for a car (which the university now can't claim Rife isn't a booster per NCAA definitions), posible weed for tat's trades... pretty juicy stuff and through it all, the atmosphere of non-compliance and lack of institutional control is prevelent. Including an absolute prose pants-ing of Gene Smith's "isolated incident" claim. This is not good and now more reporters will be on the ground. But it's OK you know, b/c everybody gets tat's, kills people, steals stuff from universities, you know.

I think some of us are losing perspective on the ariticle that was published. For 49 other states and the NCAA this is a big bombshell. But for us this is just 'meh'. 

You also can't forget that this is far from over. We are three months into an investigation for everything. The NCAA is just now getting into the cars. USC's investigation took 5 years. So you have to figure this one will take 2-3.

On a positive note, our APR is kickin ass and taking names. 

(I should probably inform you that I am abysmally color blind and any line not bright yellow or blinking black all looks the same to me.  That line at the top of the chart looks blue to me and that's all I need).  Go Blue (or purple, or black, or brown, green.....wait.  no, not green.  To hell with green)!

So Tressel decides to fix a raffle for OSU summer campers, so that the kids who OSU wants to recruit win the raffle, the other kids, well, thanks for playin' chump, got your money, now go home.... and the article states that for many of these youngsters, that raffle money meant something.

20 some years later, Tressel bud, pay back.

Who cheats kids out of a raffle? At your own camp? WTF? Dirty, sick man. Cheater.

Re: the caveat.  I'm all for being charitable to our friends down South (not really), but it's not just about the OSU players selling things that are arguably theirs.  This is about Tressel lying, implausibly, and then lying again.  And again.  And the OSU administration backing him every step of the way until today.  It's not SMU dirty, but it's pretty dirty.  Like a chimney sweep.

This shizz is gonna blow up, and those stocking up on popcorn are doing the right thing.

this just keeps getting better and better.

I had an interview for a job in Ann Arbor four months ago with a guy who, though now a Michigan fan, played for Tressel at Youngstown State (we talked strictly football for the first five minutes of the interview for a non sports related job which was awesome) and had Tress in his home recruiting him.

If I had known of all this coming out at the time I would have taken the job just to ask him about all of this and if he knew of any players on his team getting improper benefits and such.

It really is amazing how long this stuff has been swept under the rug successfully. Tressel might be the greatest liar college football has ever seen.

I can't stop thinking about that "prayer request box" on Tressel's desk.

Or Dantonio's own Bible on his.

At some point people are going to wake up and stop being so damn credulous.

So this is how "prayers come true".  Like Mike Murdock, you "plant a seed". 

Say a prayer and ouila: find that elusive special job, a brand new set of wheels, uncover that little extra cash to pay the rent $800/mo rent (wtf!) and call momma long distance.  Now watch other blessings rain down on you. See those speeding tickets and court date "disappear".

From the perspective of 18-23 year old students and their parents, it's probably seemed like a nice notion, you know, to have a "man of God" on your side and looking after your sons.

"What does it matter?", they will say. 

"So what if God didn't answer our prayer.  The prayer was answered all the same.  How can that be a bad thing?"

It's kinda hard to believe that Tressel was the only OSU coach who knew of NCAA violations. I can think of a few other OSU coaches who probably also knew, should they be adequately interrogated..... like Luke Fickell and the rest of the staff. I think the sweater has just begun to unravel..... Let's just hope the NCAA puts up a REAL investigation.

D*mn, ScarJo can even make eating popcorn look sexy!

Regarding the SI article, I was a little disappointed as I was (incorrectly) expecting some of the things that one poster (BILG?) was alluding to: pay-for-play, car deals, housing deals, etc. This was merely an extension of the "Toys for Tats" scandal, although it does provide a way for the NCAA to slam OSU for multiple years of infractions (bringing with it charges of failure to monitor and/or loss of institutional control) as it is the same violation occuring over an extended time period.

You could make Carrottop the OSU QB and he would sell a $1million worth of jerseys.  People are OSU and Michigan fans...they will buy anything Maize N Blue or Scarlett and Gray.  Chris Webber had the same argument.  At least according to Mitch Album.  "I don't get any of the #4 $75 priced Jersey."  No you don't Chris...neither does the plumber's apprentice, the candy striper nurse or any student intern.  What you get is a free education, a chance to grow, mature and put yourself in a position to make a ton of money and have a rewarding career.  Which you did...all you need now is patience and a respect for the rules.  Yes, it isn't murder...it is cheating and lets keep perspective.  They (Tressel, Tat 5 and the fab 5) are and forever will be cheaters.

Enough with the "these athletes need to be paid" BS.  Live in the free dorms, eat the free food if you can't pay the bills.  Also, I'm quite sure when they go out in Ann Arbor or Columbus they ain't exactly paying for their food (or cars or tats or whatever).  Play by the rules or get out.  Don't sign the letter if you are not going to live by it.  Jalen Rose is absolute disgrace to the M&B.  He discussed the Tat 5 (obviously sympathetic to them as a result of his own boorish behavior as a child star) and their need to "scrap up rent money" and seeing Tressel make millions frustrates the kids according to JR.  So on Mike and Mike yesterday Rose stated as much.  Robert Smith, of all people, had to admonish him that TATS aren't exactly RENT.  These players DO NOT NEED TO BE PAID.

I'm not saying I'm just saying.

Tell the Tat 5 their services are no longer required.  Give them the choice of getting their OSU degree or leaving immediately and waiving the one year requirement allowing them to play immediately (subject to their 5 game NCAA suspension).

They won't but that is what they should do...TODAY.

There's another former OSU assistant who might know something:

“He (Tressel) is very special to me and our children. He is special person in our life.  Going all the way back to when I was a grad assistant at Ohio State in 1983-84.  We also had the time we spent to together at Youngstown State and again at Ohio State. He is a difference maker.  He has been for his players and he continues to be that for the coaches who have coached for him."

"I am from the Jim Tressel school of thought. This position has to be about winning more than football games. I am not naive we will be judged by that, but we have to serve people and this state.  We have to try and make it better. Whether it is the youth camps before the spring games, summer camps, or whether (we’re) going and seeing coaches or visiting high schools to speak at a national honor society event. I am in this place and I need to do more with it than just win games. I have young men who will watch me as a role model. I need to lead them."

Who is this guy?

In 1986, he began a five-year stint on Jim Tressel’s staff at Youngstown State as a defensive secondary coach.

In 2001, reunited with his former Youngstown State boss and good friend Jim Tressel to serve as defensive coordinator at Ohio State University for three seasons.

Like his mentor Jim Tressel, this guy is a paragon of morals and ethics.

http://spartannation.com/?p=12699

I disagree with your caveat, what they did was against NCAA rules and who knows how this rampant cheating has helped recruiting for tOSU. 

Other than that I disagree with the ocmpensation student-athleates get.  Its not just tuition, there is free room and board (~5000 per year at UofM when I was a student if memory serves), there is also all the training they get in world class facilities along with trainers and coaches (I can not really put a price on this but I would ballpark it in the tens of thousands a year if not hundreds), they also get all sorts of memrobillia (jerseys, rings etc) for free which they can do whatever they want with it once they graduate.  For football the training is required if you want to make the NFL, how many freshman could make the NFL and be productive (my guess would be none).  

I would like to see the numbers on how much the University makes off of each jersey sale.  Its probably only a fraction of what they are selling in the store. 

The point being, I dont feel sorry for student-athletes.  Not only are they getting a great education they are also getting great training in there sport.

How do you make these lines a permanent part of every one of your posts?  This is what I would like at the bottom of every post I make (at least for a while):

Says the former colleague, who asked not to be identified because he still has ties to the Ohio State community, "In the morning he would read the Bible with another coach. Then, in the afternoon, he would go out and cheat kids who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to buy those raffle tickets. That's Jim Tressel." 

That, my friends, is the definition of hypocrite.