I'll Get Right On That. Happy Easter.
Via MVictors, the smoking gun:
Prepare for a vacation, Buckeyes. The NCAA has to come down harder on OSU than their limp response, doesn't it? They went through an entire season with four ineligible players, including their quarterback, and knew about it.
BONUS: A note for anyone compiling lists of funny business under Tressel: don't forget that when AJ Hawk's apartment was robbed he claimed three thousand dollars in cash was missing.
It's quite poetic that there's bullets in the smoking gun.
If the reporting is to believed, Tressel represented to NCAA investigators in December that he had no previous knowledge of the violations. What happened to the one guy in the Michigan investigation who lied to NCAA investigators? Hmmm...
He also signed an NCAA form three months after the emails stating that he had reported all knowledge of potential violations.
Oh wait, I am laughing at all of this.
It seems to be pretty damning if he signed a statment that stipulated he had reported everything and then didn't, I mean, wow.
What do you notice that's missing from those emails? Any request from the tipster that Tressel keep the information confidential. That request didn't come for another two weeks. Tressel's defense that he was trying to protect the integrity of the investigation is obviously bogus as shown in these emails. If he WAS told to keep it quiet somewhere else, then he should submit that evidence, too.
he could certainly have gone to his compliance officer and/or AD and said look, I got this email, it concerns such-and-such, what should we do?
One could be forgiven for assuming that instead, he thought "uh-oh, looks like trouble again, I guess I should 'forget' about this."
Funny how he conveniently failed to mention that the first email, shown above, had no confidentiality request.
The other item that was quickly quashed in the presser last night is whether he sent these emails to others. I'd bet he did.
This isn't going to end well.
O$U, since it's now been proven?
BOOM
Boom!
I'm pretty sure Dave Brandon is the anonymous source.
Speaking of Brandon, who is smoother at a presser, Brandon or Smith? Not even in the same league.
After the whole CC, DB's timetable, its Harbaugh, no its Miles, No its . . . Hoke, thing, DB took a big hit on this blog. Many, myself included, trashed the guy and really took issue with the whole pimp hand meme.
You raise a great point. Look at DB as compared to the OSU AD - night and day. DB may have a bit of arrogance, but he is way smoother, while at the same time being far more credible and believable. Maybe much of the pimp hand hype was deserved.
Also, I loved DB's recent quote that he would "never, ever, ever" be dragged across the country to appear before the NCAA and issue an apology on behalf of the University of Michigan again. He takes this stuff seriously, which is a great thing for our university going forward. Again, night and day difference between DB and the OSU guy.
priceless...
...those tats will never look the same
The biggest question at this point is as follows - What the hell is OSU thinking?
They knew about the emails and Tressel's failure to inform anyone about them, but they still trotted out an "ain't no thang" defense? They still let Tressel give a vetted statement about "I was worried for the safety of the players" (so much so that I didn't tell anyone who could ensure their safety) and "I wanted to protect an ongoing federal investigation and confidentiality"?
Ok, maybe if the emails didn't exist...then, maybe they could roll with that, but it doesn't take a team of Matlocks to shred those weak excuses. All they're going to do with this is infuriate the NCAA. The presser was OSU's chance to mitigate damages but they just made it a ton worse.
My guess is that was would have been a ~6 game suspension for the coach (with some fines) will now turn into forfeiture of a season, probation, possible one-year suspension of the coach, fines and maybe even a couple of scholarships.
but I don't think very likely. I could see Tressel missing as many games as his players have to miss, hopefully the fortiture of some wins, maybe the loss of a few schollies, but that's about it.
Seems the main point of comparison for punishment is Bruce Pearl who lied to the NCAA but his lie wasn't covering up for ineligible players. He also lived up to the lie. In this case, JT covered info in order to keep his players on the field, lied about info he had and then again lied in the presser yesterday. It's the continued lying that is going to bring the hammer.
I didn't even know that Michigan played "OHIO" in 2009.
Repost from another thread:
1. The spin was sickening. From the start, Tressel was talking about murdered players, criminal drug investigations, visits to hopsitals, rah rah rah, oh btw I failed to mention something to my bosses and the NCAA no big deal right? I'm sorry, even though I won't tell you what I did (I LIED) and what I am sorry for.
2. I did not see a single OSU logo in that room. Not on the podium, not on the walls. Anyone think that was a coincidence? As people replay this press conference over and over, OSU does not want anyone reminded that this was OSU. Smart PR, but more sickening spin.
3. I remember reading once that blinking your eyes is an indication of nervousness, and can be a sign of lying. Anyone else notice the blinkfest that went on when Tressel was asked when he figured out that this was wrong? He paused like 10 seconds, blinked up a shit storm, then gave a non-answer. From what I gather, this violation only came to light because someone in compliance discovered these emails, not because Tressel "realized" he was wrong and came forward. Curious though, that this came forward AFTER the bowl game, is it not?
4. President Gee is really something, isn't he? Talk about a president with no balls, this guy realizes who writes the checks at OSU, and it's the athletic department. "I hope the coach does not fire me?" I mean, seriously, WTF? One of your employees lied to you by omission or comission, and you're groveling to HIM?
5. Tressel's response as to why he could not have taken action preemptively against these players was priceless. He had strong reason to believe something very suspicious was going on, but he never pulled them in and asked them about it? Why, because it was "confidential"? These players were involved for god's sake. You're keeping this from them? Huh? Tressel's basic response was "well, I played them because I could". It was a terrible answer.
6. The penalites are a joke. I think all these years of believing something really rotten was going on at OSU and not being able to prove it are finally done. This mess followed Tressel from YSU to OSU. There was no rampant cheating going on under Cooper, but he could not beat Michigan, could he? And in the end, that's all that matters to many OSU fans. Not the HOW but the result.
American flag pin :)
How the bloody hell does Jim Tressel not just have the email address [email protected]? Why tressel.3? Who gets precedence over him for that email address?
I bet he chose it so it's not so obvious so he doesn't get as many emails from random fans. Yeah, his real address is on their website, but that requires some effort to find.
I'm guessing they did that to filter out all the people that don't need to have his e-mail and assume it's the same formula for all staff.
The first person with the last name Tressel is tressel.1, the second tressel.2, etc. It's stupid.
I don't understand why ESPN has not mentioned or shown these even though they spend 4-5 minutes every hour talking about Tressel...they are so much more meaningful than anything they have talked about
- All their wins from 2010
- Their earnings from the Sugar Bowl
- And a hefty suspension for the coach, like actually missing a conference game (?)
Besides the obvious knowledge that the coach has, this at least partially puts a time stamp on when the players were ineligible (ie. Before the 2010 season).
I love how Tressel claims that people would've asked questions if he would have suspended them with no reason. Whatever happened to the whole "Violation of Team Rules"? That works.
I thought the same thing. They use the "undisclosed violation of team rules" line all the time. He did not have to breach "confidentiality" to punish these players. I keep thinking that recruiting Pryor will end up being Tressel's end. The guy has done nothing but get into trouble, and to get him they had to sacrifice getting good QB's for 1-2 classes afterwards. They had no prooven backup and the thought of going into the season without Pryor had to scare the hell out of Tress. Thus the cover-up.
If Tressel reported these violations to the NCAA he wouldn't be able to hide his players' names and actions behind "undisclosed violation of team rules".
But I don't see why he would have had to report this to the NCAA to punish the players. "Team rules" violation. Suspend them.
somewhere between the Fab5, University of Miami and USC. USC did the same thing but it was a assit coach who coverd it up.
To let the reader know that it is really "jt" that is responding to him? If so, then Tressel has office help filtering his email and they didn't do anything either.
Bet "jt" gets some new "helpers" that answer to the AD soon.
least in the business world. People do that to not write out their whole name or just to have a cool signature thing.
sometimes my secretary responds to emails for me if they're administrative, etc. It's not to be dickish, but to clearly deleniate when I'm responding and when someone is responding on my behalf.
The hammer that si coming down will be so big. It will be glorious.
...AND THAT RIGHT SOON."
goes the dynamite.
a conspiracy theory, i know, but i wouldn't be surprised if tressel did tell the school, but they can't possible admit that otherwise they'll all be out of jobs. they are now trying to pretend like the punished the wrongdoers and solved the problem, even its likely insitutitional.
That had not occurred to us, Dude.
Seriously? Come on.
The goddamn plane has crashed into the mountain!
Tressel said "yes" when asked if he forwarded the emails to anyone else before the AD stepped in and stopped him from saying anything meaningful. So the idea that he kept this enitrely under wraps is at least partially untrue. Who knows where these emails went and what happened as a result. My best guess would be: 1) a university lawyer; 2) the AD. From there this was squashed. The only other explanation that does not implicate a big swath of athletics management is that he just sent it to a lawyer, who advised him he could use the confidentiality request as an excuse not to report this stuff.
I would think that is possible as Tressel said he would get on it "ASAP." This could mean that he really did let the AD know and therefore a cover-up being exposed right now or Tressel simply covered up the e-mails himself as to protect his record.
Either way the NCAA should come down pretty hard on OSU for this. I would think it would at least be the loss of scholarships and a longer ban for Tressel.
Does anyone find JT's response as humorous as I do? If I, as the head coach at a major tier 1 university, ever received that kind of email I'd be dialing the number to the AD/Compliance Officer before I even responded. Essentially writing "Thx bro, I'll get on it. Laterz." reflects just how serious JT took this if you ask me.
Edit: I realize that he could of, in fact, took the time to tell others as four hours passed in between his response. But this suggests that if he did take the time to inform others...they just kept their mouths shut as well. Wow....
If this is proven to be authentic he could easily end up resigning. He's set himself up to be humiliated.
disclosed by the University....
Jim Tressel has arguably the best job in college football right now. They can recruit with the top schools in the country, they compete for national championships almost every year, they've beaten the shit out of their rivals every year and he is going to get what amounts to a slap on the wrist for this.
No, it's not right that he can lie, and I hope they have to vacate wins for playing ineligible players, but does anyone think that the NCAA wants to make an example out of one of the largest revenue generating programs in the country? Even if they suspend him for the 5 games his players are suspended for, which to me seems reasonable, the only tough game in there that he's not around for is MSU.
Point blank, Tressel, though tarnished, will walk away from this largely unschathed other than the diminished perception of his "integrity."
I said this earlier, but Tressel writes e-mails like my Mom. You would hope that someone as prominent as him would have a slightly more formal style to his e-mails, especially ones that basically say half of your offense committed NCAA violations.
THE ONLY THINGS MISSING:
- ALL CAPS
- MORE EXCLAMATION POINTS
- "LOL" AND "ROFL".
"Go Bucks"? Not--at least--"the next sounds you hear emanating from the locker room will be me ringing these players necks"???
That team down south must be really competitive. They won't even let us have the most NCAA sanctions.
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