Are Pryor, etc. Suspensions Finalized?
At the risk of ridicule, are Pryor and the other suspended Buckeye's suspensions actually finalized? I know the NCAA denied the appeal of their suspensions, but I'm unclear whether or not the revelation about Tressel covering up the violations was taken into consideration. When the Committee meets to determine his fate, is Pryor's final year at stake as well?
It seems obvious that the players played an entire season while ineligible and with the NCAA's tendency to mete out eye for an eye type punishment, is their whole season in jeopardy?
It shouldn't be. I mean its not pryor's fault his coach lied about knowledge of the offense. 5 games is a good penalty for what those players. 5 games is way to light of a penalty for what Tressel did.
5 Games for Senator Tressel is a joke, especially since only one - MSU - is a B10 game. I really hope that the NCAA finally takes off its gloves and gives an appropriate punishment in the form of vacated wins and Tressel being shit-canned.
The NCAA can't suspend them for the bowl game and OSU sure as hell isn't when they are appealing the decision in the first place.
The NCAA sure as hell could of suspended those players from the bowl game. They didnt only because the Sugar Bowl feared their ratings would drop and begged the NCAA not too. The NCAA has the power to suspend any player from any game they want as long as they have cause.
I think the NCAA did not suspend the players to provide OSU the opportunity to appeal. Although they ended up only appealing the 5th suspended game, if there had been less proof, OSU potentially could have appealed the entire charge/punishment, which could have led to no suspensions if successful.
You could think of it similarly to being on bail until final sentencing.
March 23rd, 2011 at 12:04 PM ^
That was the punishment that they wanted. Suspend everybody, for the Sugar Bowl game. And yes, it is confirmed; the B1G offices, and the Sugar Bowl Committee all weighed in on the side of letting the Tat-5 play.
The final decision rested with the NCAA, and in the end they followed some well-established rules as to how players get suspended (they try to avoid sanctioning teams on the eve of championships, title games, etc.) and as to the length and nature of this punishment. (Four games + one additional.)
OSU didn't get any favors in this case. Nor did they get punished too harshly.
I'm pretty certain that the NCAA isn't done with OSU. There's little doubt that OSU will be put on probation (they didn't volunteer that yet), and they may (quite likely, in my view) find Tressel guilty of failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance, which means probation for 3-4 years, plus possibly more.
I think that the Tressel voluntary-5-game-suspension was not so much aimed at pre-empting the NCAA, but rather was a demonstration of good faith and good public relations with the OSU community.
I think that probably the worst thing for OSU is the possibility that the NCAA will now involve itself in tipping upside down the Buckeye football program (and the tattoed basketball program) the way that they did Michigan in response to Stretchgate. Which, perhaps more than anything, was an exhausting drain on resources, energy and attention. Distracting everyone from the task of winning football games and recruiting battles for many months.
Answering the original question, I do think that the 5-game suspensions for the Tat 5, now affirmed, is all that they will be punished. The program, however, is facing more.
I flew to Columbus from Chicago last Saturday on a delayed flight, and. I had a chance to talk with four people who were OSU alums. To a person, they were completely disgusted with Tressel, Smith and Gee. Theyl thought that Tressel should have been dismissed and that OSU was more than just a football program. Having spent a fair amount of time in the Columbus area lately, this is a very common theme among OSU alums. As far as Pryor is concerned, there is no love lost either.
There is a great deal of concern about OSU alums not providing financial support for their program, something that also happened with Clarett.
I concur. I live in Cleveland and the vast, vast majority of OSU supporters are not happy at all with the way this is being handled internally. They split about 50-50 on Tressel being dismissed with actual alumni seemingly more pro-termination than the Big Lot Buckeyes.
From reading comments on Tressel-related articles in the Columbus Dispatch, there are many who feel it is impossible that Tressel did not share the contents of the emails, or the emails themselves, with others and that another shoe may yet drop.
I also found the timing of the announcement that Tressel would be suspended for five games very strange - it coincided with the start of the NCAA tournament when most eyes were focused upon hoops.
No, it coincided with the same hour that the NCAA announced that the players' suspensions would be upheld.
March 22nd, 2011 at 10:30 PM ^
"They split about 50-50 on Tressel being dismissed "
That is quite an eye-opener, that they are THAT pissed at a guy who is 9-1 vs their biggest rival. Maybe there actually are some decent Ohio folk. Seriously, I'd have never believed that the OSU supporters in Cleveland would be 50/50 on wanting him fired.
That's good to hear because I live in the South, which is strangely infested with tOSU supporters. I have yet to meet a single one of them who think Tressel is in any way compromised by this developments. The difference could be the media coverage, which down here is basically zilch.
I didn't want to give this it's own post, but it's along the same lines. When is the NCAA supposed to finish reviewing the Cam Newton file to realize that just barring Cecil was BS? I hope I didn't completely miss the story, but I think I remember Summer time?
It knda, sorta IS Pryor's fault.
But what Pryor did only deserves a five game suspension.
He isn't the cheater here, and he only lied during an internal matter, not to the NCAA.
From what I have heard, I don't think that the Tressel allegations will impact the individual players. They didn't do anything wrong other than the violation for which they have already received a punishment. The "new" evidence of wrongdoing is by Tressel and, potentially, others within the AD's office.
This should not affect the players.
The rulings won't change because of the whole Tressel situation. The players have not done anything since their suspensions were finalized, and they were not responsible for reporting the violations (obviously).
They broke the rules, but Tressel failed to report it. That is his fault, not theirs.
The suspensions were upheld in a ruling made by the NCAA on March 17. This is also the day that Saint Tressel added 3 games to his suspension to match the penalty for his players. Out of solidarity. Or something like that. Local opinion is that the suspended players parents were pissed that their kids were punished more than the coach. So, to appease the families, and appease the fanbase, and to appease the NCAA (good luck), Tressel fell on his butter knife. A link, for your review:
To clarify for others, the NCAA ruled only on the players' suspension. Their March 17 ruling had nothing to do with Jim Tressel. So the NCAA confirmed and finalized the ruling that those players will, in fact, be suspended for the first 5 games of the season. I guess they saw it as about 25% worse than what AJ Green did (suspended 4 games).
Now, the Tressel matter is completely separate. As ColsBlue suggested, he fell on his sword, so to speak, and self-imposed a few extra games onto his suspension. The NCAA has not yet done its investigation and thus made no ruling. It's yet to be determined if they will add onto his suspension in any way.
I don't know all the relevant facts of the Green case, but I remember the NCAA saying 4 games for the tats for graphs and 1 more for not coming clean in a timely manner.
Is it just a coincidence that Tressel waited until after the school's appeal (on the players 5 game suspension which was denied) that he decided to add those 3 extra games for him to miss?
Whatever the case, it's still a joke that he would miss just 5 games. What Tressel did was much worse than what the players did.
the ncaa only dismissed an appeal for less. it can go higher.
I think you mean he fell on his spork
double post
A fitting epitaph for a skilled, crooked football coach.
Doubt the players will get anything more. Their punishment is in line with what happened to the Georgia reviever who sold his jersey (one extra game since it was more than just a single jersey).
Tressel's actions, as stated above, constitute a totally separate violation apart from the players themselves. That violation is what should end up getting him fired and force them to vacate a season or two. If the players were ineligible and nobody knew about it, they usually do not make you vacate anything. Even a shred of evidence that somebody knew or should have been capable of knowing, and that's where history gets rewritten.
Jim's done a great job getting that program ready, so I'm sure they'll be good and prepared come Big Ten season, no matter which 11 kids they line up with.
awesome first post.
If there's one thing MGoBlog likes, it's posts by self-referential authors.
Now we just need an "Ed Hightower" account that responds to every post about reffing in open threads for games.
"NO I FEEL PRETTY GOOD ABOUT THAT FOUL, IT'S DEFINITELY A FOUL. I WOULD HAVE CALLED IT, EMPHATICALLY"
all-caps takes away from the bursts of...uh...emphaticality that define Ed "Live EMPHATICALLY!" Hightower. It should be more like...
"NO I feel pretty GOOD about that FOUL! It's DEFINITELY a FOUL! I would have CALLED it, EMPHATICALLY."
i think the referee did a good job of putting himself in place to make THERIGHT CALL! THE RIGHTCALLONTHAT PLAAAAAAAY!
Here's to really hoping that Tressel gets hit with a show-cause penalty.
Jim's done a great job? What? OK Gee.
I am hoping while the NCAA is investigating Tressel they take an extra look at the car dealership benefits Pryor has been receiving. That would probably end his year. This assuming the investigation concludes before the 5 game suspensions are up.
If the investigation takes longer than the five games but finds any violations and the kids end up playing in game six then OSU would be in way worse trouble.
Random questions here. Some of this is from months ago, so correct me if I get the facts wrong.
We already know from the previous NCAA investigation that the players were given rules education by OSU on selling memorabilia AFTER they had sold stuff, that they were asked whether they committed violations, and they initially said "No."
The recently released Tressel emails suggest that Tressel confronted the players in early 2010 but did not alert the Athletic Department.
Which leads me to my first question: Was Tressel aware that the players lied to compliance staff when they were asked whether they complied with the rules? If so, did he do anything about it or let it ride?
It would be interesting to go back, review the relevant timelines, and figure out what the heck happened here.
And the second question: If we find out that the players sold memorabilia after being confronted by Tressel in early 2010, wouldn't that warrant additional sanctions?
I'll take a shot at answering. I think OSU is the only body who would have standing to do anything about Tressel lying to them, and we've seen where they stand on that issue.
March 22nd, 2011 at 11:21 PM ^
Here's a little more background. It appears the NCAA took into account that the players failed to disclose their violation to OSU:
"These are significant penalties based on findings and information provided by the university," Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs, said in a statement.
Lennon said a game was added to the usual four-game penalty because the players did not "immediately disclose the violations when presented with the appropriate rules education."
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5950873
(As an aside, when I read that passage months ago, I assumed the additional penalty was for failing to disclose the violation to OSU after rules education, but in light of your comments, which make sense, I take to mean failure to disclose to the NCAA. This matters not to my overall point though)
This could be hypertechnical, but here goes:
The NCAA appeared to be saying that, in addition to the original violation of selling memorabilia, the players' failure to disclose constituted an additional violation of NCAA rules.
SO, if Tressel knew that the players were failing to disclose violations (which constitutes a violation itself) and did not report THAT violation, then didn't he commit a "failure to disclose" violation himself?
Yes, I am talking about a failure to disclose a failure to disclose a violation as being a violation itself. It's convoluted.
Convoluted would describe that violation, yes. Thanks for taking the time to look that up. I had always heard that they got the extra game in exchange for playing in the Sugar Bowl, but I guess that was just rumor.
I hope the ncaa spreads cheeks and rams cock in ass on this one.
p.s. I've been watching way too much Spartacus.
"Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"
Sorry, I haven't seen that movie but I know there's something about a turkish prison.
On a side note, does this man remind you of Hoke?
Sorry if I'm repeating the already mentioned, but does anyone else think it's complete bullshit that Michigan State will get to be the only team that plays OSU with their suspended players?
If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. It has been that way for years for Ohio State and it always will be. It was like that at Youngstown State and it has gotten even bigger for Ohio State. I mean Ohio State is a Cash Cow and you think it will change. SMH#
These suspensions don't affect practice, meetings or anything but the games themselves. I have heard that Tressel can't be on the sidelines, but could still be in contact by phone. So would that still be a true suspension? If you really want to punish the coach, the players and the program, suspend them all from ALL football related activities for all practices up to and including the first five games, that includes Spring and fall practice for the players and the coach.
Make this mean something. Personally, I think since the players were ineligible all last season, they should vacate all games and give back the Sugar Bowl money and Tressel should not be allowed anywhere near campus for the entire season.
any chance we can get a regular update on "Tressel - Tats and More". I need to be able to re-load on a regular basis as I encounter any "bucknuts".
For example ... went to the range last Saturday to hit a few balls (c'mon spring) and ran into a huge bucknut, who is in complete and utter denial about anything to do with Tressel. I, and at least 2 others around me, were able to pelt him with with enough "facts" that he was actually unable to respond. He asked why I was so angry. I replied that I have never been happier. I am truly excited about the prospects of Michigan football and then flat out told him that his denial of any wrongdoing has absolute nothing to do with the fact that TSIO's entire football program is riddled with cancer.
Seriously they have a president that commented on Cam Newton (ironic eh), an AD that is so on the take he'd kill a family member to cover for JT and then Tressel himself that flat out lied to the NCAA and knowingly played ineligble players for an entire season. Now I see that a former YSU player said under oath that Tressel introduced him to a YSU booster that paid the kid $10K and gave him 2 - 3 cars while a player (JT musyt have a thing about cars).
It also seems that TSIO "thugs" are heavily working the media in C-bus. Herbie left town, Spielman has been pulled from a regular talk show and the most popular c-bus sports radio guy was just terminated ... all because they didn't tow the line.
We need to keep fanning the flames on this ....
Go Blue !
Haha, well I can at least comment on that Spielman fella. He's filming a show for a network which is why he took a leave of absense from his radio show.
Herbie's house had been on the market since 2008, and he'd been feuding with the government over taxes. I think that there's a bit more to the story than just "OH noes, mean Buckeye fans." Hell, most people I know agreed with him about Pryor last year, even before tatgate.