NCAA/OSU Update. Almost laughable if it weren't so sad
So, as we all know, SI sent all kinds of reporters to Columbus, talked to tons of people, interviewed the on the record and some (Ellis) without revealing identities.
Well, the NCAA looked at all that and said... nah, we wont do that.
The NCAA never spoke with, and never ATTEMPTED TO SPEAK WITH:
The tattoo parlor owner
The car dealer guy, Kniffin
Talbott - golf course/memorabilia dealer
The article brings up parallels on how the NCAA never actually finds anything. for the Fab5 it was the FBI, SMU - a player, USC - the marketing guy who never go paid.
I was hopeful that OSU would get their due... now I just hope they get ANY punishment.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:54 PM ^
I'm pulling for the IRS. If these guys were getting paid, the Feds will want their cut.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:38 PM ^
That's small potatoes for them, it would cost much more than they'd ever recover.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:43 PM ^
Underestimate the power and authority of a government employee whose sole job is to "help you".
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:57 PM ^
You mean like teachers, police officers, firefighters, emergency crews, scientists and whatnot? Make sure to turn away assistance if you ever find yourself in an accident. Gotta stay consistent, right?
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:25 PM ^
are any of those "government employees"?
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:31 PM ^
You can't be serious.
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:18 PM ^
seems perilously close to violating Brian's fatwa against political or religious commentary on the site.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:57 PM ^
This could have gone much better, but there is still hope for some punishment.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:58 PM ^
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:40 PM ^
That is all.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:58 PM ^
If true, this is pathetic. USC should appeal the rest of their sanctions ASAP and not back down until they get an answer from the NCAA. I just don't see how they get buried and OSU skates other than an obvious East/West bias. Tressel-2 NCAA-0
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:10 PM ^
not sure how tressel is 2-0 against the ncaa when he lost his job...
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^
Well depending on what you believe he actually resigned and is still being paid. He now is free to pursue a job in the NCAA or NFL. I don't believe they will have the balls to black ball him.
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:58 PM ^
But in my mind I've already acceted that all they will get is the stain on their program from all the bad press and nothing more. The NCAA found a scapegoat for people to forget about OSU...Thanks for ruining our fun Miami...
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:58 PM ^
probably be the same thing with The U also, considering Shapiro did all the work for them anyway
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^
My actual last hope is that Pryor sang like a bird in order to be eligible for the NFL Supplemental Draft. He/his Lawyer claim that they told the NCAA about additional violations, taking $$ from Sarniak, which OSU denies.
Hopefully Pryor threw some dirt on OSU on his way out for his own benefit, that's all I've got
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^
Clarrett tried that. Nothing happened there either. Maybe Pryor is more believable because he has a lawyer and NFL agent on his side (and no gun charges, etc.)?
I highly doubt the NCAA does more than bat an eye here. Probation and promise to never do it again... until next time...
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:43 PM ^
if they get off easier than we did for stretching... i'm going to 100% support college programs leaving the NCAA.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:04 PM ^
OSU is lucky that they haven't had a Shapiro yet. They still might. Dennis Talbot, Ted Sarniak, and Eddie Rife sound like absolute scumbags.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^
unfortunately, their scumbags all see to be loyal to the program
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:44 PM ^
He didn't dump his mentor like Reggie Bush did. All the USC info came from the guy who built Reggie Bush into the NFL Asset that he is, then was dumped and someone else got the percentage.
Pryor has what he wants, there is no provable connection to OSU and Sarniak, and despite all the circumstancial evidence that 4th graders can interpret, OSU has punished themselves and competitive level has been restored. The NCAA is really only concerned with equal competition between schools. How schools conduct themselves in detail is up to them.
With Miami, if the NCAA can prove that players were given gifts for performance specific to football, rather than just, "hey I'm a nice guy who hands out cars", it's a little tougher for Miami to dismiss that lack of institutional control charge.
I am hoping that the power of the conferences is where things start getting controlled, and mostly with respect to the Bowl Games. Now that there are 4 distinct conference championships (does the Big East have one?) it is going to be interesting to watch where the TV money flows. Kind of hard to think those 4 Champions won't be playing each other in bowl games that make a profit for the schools. And if there is no profit for the schools, maybe it's time the schools refuse to go? Especially if that money loss is shared equally across the conference?
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:43 PM ^
No provable connection to OSU and Sarniak? What are you talking about? OSU told Sarniak he could not provide Pryor with any benefits before Pryor enrolled at OSU. Pryor then took thousands of dollars in benefits (car payments, cash, etc.) from Sarniak right under OSU's nose. In addition to taking money from a source OSU was supposed to be wary of, Pryor was ticketed while driving three cars not registered in his name, and OSU did nothing about it. That's LOIC.
And if the NCAA was only concerned with equal competition between schools, why'd they give the hammer to USC football and Michigan basketball?
August 24th, 2011 at 8:06 AM ^
I don't think we can rely on conferences to police themselves. Didn't Newton violate a bunch of SEC regulations last year? When the NCAA cleared Auburn the SEC didn't try follow up with any additional sanctions. I don't think conferences will want to hurt their brand any more than the NCAA does.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:02 PM ^
now I just hope they get ANY punishment.You mean like being forced to fire a coach who went 9-1 against our Wolverines? It would be entertaining to see the NCAA drop the hammer, but I'm not going to lose any sleep if they don't. There is more satisfaction to be had by Michigan beating OSU on a level field and not because of NCAA imposed sanctions.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:04 PM ^
At best he went 8-1, and really he went *-1. We haven't been playing on a level field for years. I agree that beating them on a level field would be best, but the field's been quite tilted at least since Clarett went there
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:07 PM ^
This is Cooper-era thinking. I want to beat them, period, and right now, the playing field isn't level. It hasn't been for ten years.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:08 PM ^
Come on man that's a little overboard. We had plenty of teams that had enough talent to beat OSU.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:50 PM ^
9 wins and 1 loss, unless you are counting the self imposed forfeit.
Losing Tressle was a significant punishment. Coaching had more to do with OSU's dominance over Michigan this past decade than did players having the ability to trade memorablia for tattoos.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:09 PM ^
You know of Pryor. About that. Was Pryor the reason OSU beat Michigan any of the last three years?
Michigan had just as much talent as OSU in 2001 through 2007. There was not a sizeable tilt in OSU's favor, no matter what you think you knew.
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:40 PM ^
Lots of teams that lost to our Fab Five era basketball teams and the Reggie Bush era USC teams probably had the talent to win the games that they lost. If you cheat, you shouldn't be afforded the benefit of going back and picking out which games were decided by the players that you cheated to get or retain. Although just for fun, I would say that 2002 at least for OSU falls into that category. I think that there's a much better than 50% chance that the games that Troy Smith won for OSU also fit. Thaddeus Gibson and Terrelle Pryor have both been named as having received improper benefits, and they both had an impact in the 2009 game.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:05 PM ^
Using this logic, why didn't OSU keep their victories over Marshall, EMU, Indiana, and Purdue last year? I mean, they would have won without all the paid players, right?
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:28 PM ^
It wasn't a level playing field. Tressel was a better coach than LC & RR.
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<br>Also, Ohio produces better football players than Michigan and most of these kids want to play for the big time school in their state.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^
But Ohio State couldn't find its asshole with a GPS, so at least that is reassuring.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:06 PM ^
But Ohio State couldn't find its asshole with a GPS, so at least that is reassuring.Their problem is that there are so many of them running around it's hard to say which one they're looking for. They certainly found one when they needed a new AD.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^
Glad to see your new job has the same demands as your last job.....
Don
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:17 PM ^
Sounds about right. NCAA = WWE.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:22 PM ^
The NCAA isn't even close to done with OSU. The NCAA has numerous investigations going on right now. The Miami mega-case. Oregon and LSU with Willy Lyles. North Carolina. Auburn. Tennessee. Possibly FSU.
It makes sense that, once Tressel and Pryor were gone from OSU and since OSU wanted to move forward with the August 12 hearing on the matters raised by the first NOA, the NCAA turned its primary attention to those programs with players that have eligibility questions for the 2011 season (e.g., Miami is two weeks away from their first game and does not know which players it can put on the field). The NCAA has moved the most recent allegations against OSU to the back of the line, but it has not dismissed them. The NCAA will not conclude its investigations into OSU without at least attempting to contact and interview the key players. Just be patient.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^
I hadn't heard anything about them...
Wouldn't be surprising, though. For anyone who saw the OTL show on gambling / paying players in the South Florida Youth Football Leagues (e.g., players as young as 6 were getting $100 for a touchdown in some instances), it's hard to believe that kids that grow up in that culture would suddenly change and stop taking money in high school and college.
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=6584770
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:04 PM ^
It does not matter if the NCAA is still "investigating" they have never found anything at other schools and won't find anything at Ohio. Unless someone gets pissed and tells everything that happened or the media discovers something with solid evidence Ohio will get off with no major punishment.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^
They've moved on to bigger and better things, like bagel spreads.
August 23rd, 2011 at 9:41 PM ^
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:22 PM ^
Does not surprise me...such a valid point about the NCAA never finding anything unless someone does the dirty work for them, even then they just say ehh vacate your wins.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^
he will make sure that nothing truly severe happens to his good buddy Gordon Gee. The big boys always take care of their own.
August 23rd, 2011 at 7:26 PM ^
As long as Emmert is NCAA president he will make sure that nothing truly severe happens to his good buddy $. The big boys always take care of their $.
August 23rd, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^
when the NCAA figured out tosu had sat on the Tressel information until the day after national signing day, they should have released each and every recruit from his LOI if he wanted to opt out.
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
That's all that needs to be said.
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
That's all that needs to be said.
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
Will they at least send Smith and Gee to bed without supper? Yikes...
August 23rd, 2011 at 5:07 PM ^
depressing.