Attorney summarizes the NCAA case vs. Tressel . . .
Interesting article on the Tressel situation. Lays it out. IMO, the best thing Tressel could do for OSU football is to resign right now.
He clearly isn't going to do that, and it is to our advantage that he doesn't.
http://www.foxsportsohio.com/03/30/11/Attorney-Could-get-much-worse-for…
March 31st, 2011 at 12:58 PM ^
The Visigoths have crested the seventh hill, and Columbus is about to be in a world of pain.
Wouldn't it be more like Roman troops in Greece were recalled to wipe out the Visigoths living in Rome?
I like my metaphor better
Your metaphor would be making the NCAA the Visigoths and OSU the Romans.
Also, WTF is up with these history references today? This is two threads where we've talked about battles from classical times.
Fine with me. I would like seeing barbarian NCAA tribes laying waste to the proud seat of OSU dominance. Wins vacated, scholarships reduced, TV privileges restricted, salary caps for coaches enacted, booster funds removed from recruiting. It will be glorious.
I'm not sure about the history refs either. I guess there was that thread yesterday where some guy's son was thinking about getting a History degree at all these high-powered schools and we were debating the relative merits of getting a degree at one place as opposed to another, taking cost into consideration.
"Fine with me. I would like seeing barbarian NCAA tribes laying waste to the proud seat of OSU dominance."
Okay you win this round. I'm just waiting for the comments in the Ohio newspapers when the banhammer falls on Tressel and the program is getting negged to Bolivian.
WOOOO WINNING!
I neg Ohio State whenever I see another piece of crap merchandise with the school's logo stamped on it. I've been spending a lot of MGoPoints on OSU negs lately.
Imagine how sweet it would be to banhammer someone. I can't wait until I can in...25 years or whatever. I'd imagine the COI is just salivating at the chance to permanently brand Tressel a liar unfit to coach in college athletics.
I agree the comments are hilarious. Some new logic that I have learned from OSU fans. Winning proves that you are a good person, Michigan is a dirty program just because they are without really any reason, and giving money to players is ok because they deserve. That made my morning better.
March 31st, 2011 at 10:03 AM ^
One of my favorites was the one complaining about how Michigan admitted their major violations and how that makes us dirtier that OSU. Lieing to the NCAA>>stretching.
While we can speculate about Tressel leaving for good it is certain that he will not be the acting HC for the first half of the 2011 season. Let's hope his replacement is as successful as Pete Gaudet was as Coach K's stand in at Duke in 1995. Guess where Gaudet coaches now?......wait for it.......OSU.
Holy crap, I never realized that this could be connected penalties-wise to the basketball situation they had. I'm starting to think this is setting up to be a very good decade for us, beginning with the (at least temporary) fall of Ohio State.
March 31st, 2011 at 10:16 AM ^
As much as I liked the article, it is hard to take a lawyer seriously when he works for a firm called "Ice Miller."
March 31st, 2011 at 10:23 AM ^
O'Brien brought a lawsuit against the Ohio State University in the Ohio Court of Claims and was awarded $2.4 million for Ohio State’s wrongful termination of his contract, because he was fired prior to any NCAA finding. Ohio State appealed the decision to the Ohio Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court and the decision was upheld.
Is it possible that tSIO is purposely softballing JT because of this? If he's going to be fired anyway they may want the NCAA to drop the banhammer on him so as to avoid this from happening again. And if he doesn't get fired they celebrate in the streets for getting away with it. Just a thought.
There are ethics clauses in major D1 coaching contracts these days. He could be fired for lying to superiors, but I think he had to have let someone else know about those emails. There's no way he could have believed it wouldn't come out eventually. Which makes me think there's a lot more going on behind the scene at OSU these days.
March 31st, 2011 at 10:25 AM ^
The comments in the article show at least one thing. If Tressel goes, he's going to be a martyr to a lot of fans, and for decades OSU fans will feel like they got screwed.
March 31st, 2011 at 10:37 AM ^
They're always thinking something like that, or at least a sizable portion of their fanbase is.
Probably at least since Hayes' shameful exit. Ohio hasn't produced any presidents in a long while and we need our FOOTBAW to feel warm and cuddly inside.
You guys should have campaigned for Kelly to stay at UC then.
Most Buckeyes were afraid of the in-state recruiting pressure Coach Kelly would bring to bear at Cincy. It didn't work out that way, but the Cincy fanbase took it pretty hard. There were radio and TV commercials made proclaiming Cincy "the REAL football program in Ohio", or words to that effect. Hopefully we can get some more beasts from Cincy like that lineman who just committed here.
Yea they had billboards up proclaiming UC to be "Ohio's BCS Team" and people were saying that they lived in the "bUCkeye state".
March 31st, 2011 at 10:47 AM ^
University president Gordon Gee made the comment in the first press conference that he "hopes Tressel doesn't fire him" when asked if JT should be fired...
Maybe someone should think about firing Gee, and the AD who both seem to be laughing this thing off. This is no longer about a major NCAA violation. This has gone into a dark area that any self respecting university or administration would see as a real threat to the future of the athletic program and reputation of the university.
As painful as the whole process was last year at Michigan, you can look at the coach and administration as clearly taking every second of it seriously, and proceeding with utmost professionalism and respect.
NCAA cannot ignore the facts of this case, nor will they ignore the attitude and manner in which this is being handled by the coach and university.
We don't want to see a BIG school get the death penalty, but this process should provide some much needed humility to the cockiest organization I have seen.
P.S. Living in Central Ohio for 20 years now, and having endured the past 8 years I must say this has been a fun story to watch unfold.
March 31st, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^
I'm not close to OSU, I have no idea what good things Gee has done, but I can tell you that, at least in the general public, he's an embarrassment to them.
He speaks about things he has no idea about, and is proven wrong ("little sisters of the poor") and makes jokes when probably the most serious NCAA football violations in the last decade or so happen under his watch.
Ultimately, he's the one responsible for Tressel's actions. Tough shit if Tressel hid it from him; a) he shouldn't employ someone with the lack of ethics to do that and b) he didn't rectify the situation when he had the chance.
If Tressel goes down big time and takes their program with them, I would want to see the regents do something about Gee if I was an OSU fan. Since I'm not, keep him (he's fun to laugh at), with the caveat that he shouldn't embarrass the Big Ten on national television again.
He was OSU president before Karen Holbrook took over in the '90s. Holbrook is one of the most hated presidents in OSU history for the way she tried to curb the drinking culture on campus while OSU was still in its couch-burning phase. Holbrook was canned around the same time Tressel was hired, and Gee was recalled from Vandy to hold down the fort while Les Wexner donated millions to the University in the 1990s and 2000s.
Throw in an extremely enthusiastic athletic booster network only too eager to chip in big bucks to give the comforts of home to prized athletic recruits, and the descent of OSU into corruption and shame becomes all too predictable.
This girl I knew at OSU had a picture of her and him as her profile pic for the longest time. I'm assuming he sticks around for things like that.
I have friends from high school who have pictures of themselves with Gordon Gee in random places around campus. He must stroll across campus and introduce himself to people he meets. I think it's required by his contract.
Anything to keep him out of the athletic complex.
March 31st, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
If they don't lay down the lay I will have lost all faith in teh NCAA (though it wasn't high to begin with).
March 31st, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
and not quite being able to look away. I hope the momentum just keeps derailing cars all the way to November 26th.
Also, that OSU-Nebraska game on October 1 in Lincoln is going to be real interesting.I doubt OSU will be unbeaten going in. Nebraska probably will be because I think they'll beat Wisconsin in Madison the week before.
They will have blowout wins over Akron, Toledo and Colorado. I could still see them winning at Miami. The Canes have been pretty crappy the last 5 years.
Sparty is a toss up. They could pull a Sparty and STILL lose to OSU, or they could pull out a close win over an OSU team without their starters/coach and then start pounding their chests. Neither case would surprise me.
March 31st, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^
I remember all of my friends (okay, so about 4 people) that went to Ohio State absolutely shitting on me for Michigan's extra-stretching penalties and probation.
Schadenfreude!!
March 31st, 2011 at 12:27 PM ^
He clearly isn't going to do that [resign], and it is to our advantage that he doesn't.
Actually, if we are selfish about it, I think Michigan would be better off if Tressel resigned. For one thing, as much as we hate to admit it, he’s a damned good coach. Odds are, the next guy won’t be as good. And of course, if he resigned today, their options for replacing him would be limited: this isn’t the time of year when a team wants to be searching for a new coach.
Losing Tressel would also hurt the Buckeyes on the recruiting trail. Right now, I’m sure they’re telling high-school kids that this case is just a speedbump, with no long-term adverse effect on the program. Many recruits, undoubtedly, will buy that story. USC, where the violations were much more severe, was still raking in great classes, despite the fact that very serious sanctions were clearly on the way. OSU would have much more trouble making that case if the coach were gone.
As to what Smith and Gee are thinking, I am sure they realize there is the potential for this case to turn out much worse than just a five-game suspension and a $250,000 fine. They read newspapers, just as we do, and it’s hard to find a press outlet, even in Ohio, that thinks Tressel will get off that easy. Their joke of a press conference was the equivalent of a defendant pleading not guilty at the initial appearance before a magistrate. It merely buys time while they assess just how bad things really are.
There could be some denial there: remember, after the NCAA report against USC was handed down, former athletic director Mike Garrett attributed it to jealousy. Now, there’s denial for you. He was promptly replaced by Pat Haden. I don’t think they’re quite that stupid, but I suppose it’s possible.
March 31st, 2011 at 12:37 PM ^
I agree with the stuff about Tressel stepping down at a bad time, but this is much, much worse than USC. At least at USC they could deny knowledge, Tressel lied and the whole world knew.
Bush got more money than Pryor, but Carrol either didn't know, or covered it up a lot better than Tressel did. Either way he didn't get caught lying.
We still have not seen any reaction by OSU now that Tressel has made them look really really bad by covering up the email to old mentor dude.
How can Gene Smith and Gee save face now that the world knows Tressel lied to them and everyone else... Oh, and if they knew, this problem just gets bigger for tOSU.
March 31st, 2011 at 12:30 PM ^
To OSU it's more than just wins and losses. If they can escape this while still raking in MILLIONS OF DOLLARS they are fine. Now if the NCAA forces them to pay back money made in the BCS bowl game... "Sorry coach, your'e costing us millions, we have to let you go."
is VERY different from the NCAA taking millions from the university...
From OSU's standpoint, as of now they are SAVING his salary for 5 games, AND getting $250K from Tressel... they net positive. Luke Fickel can win 4 or 5 games at that point in the schedule...
NCAA will want to see at least some sort of penalty to the program I have to believe...
March 31st, 2011 at 12:52 PM ^
OSU football program
If there is any truth in the article, the core point to take away is:
"the NCAA is now on campus investigating."
If this is true, nothing will happen until the NCAA reports it's findings. Once the investigators have shown up, all you can do is wait. There's no reason to make any moves.