OSU Getting the Hammer

I have it from two sources

1) a lawyer working with the NCAA regulations committee/department (a family friend)

2) a parent of a current OSU player (parent is my dad's college buddy)

 

Take it for what you will..internet rumor mongering etc, but these are two legitimate first hand sources.  OSU is getting the hammer, worse than USC.  No death penalty, but they are screwed.  More info is coming out this week.  Pay for play, cash exchanges, etc.

For what its worth, Tressel was privy to all this info, and ignored or tried to distance himself from much of it, until the recent scandal (tat-gate, gold-pants auction, free car sweepstakes) sucked him in.  Parents of current players are for the most part resigned to the fact that JT is gone, but also big sanctions are around the corner.

The FBI and IRS is currently digging through a paper trail miles long implicating parties that include the OSU athletic department as a knowing participant in illegal activities....not just NCAA violations. 

According to the lawyer, this is bigger than JT, and while he is almost certainly going to be let go, it will not exonorate the university from wrongdoing or even get them a lesser penalty.  Implications extend to the basketball program as well.

OSU is absolutely screwed.  I would like to say this is great news, but I would rather have them be decent and beat them, than have them totally blown up.  Again, no death penalty, but all the negativity and sanctions around the program should do to their athletic programs, what the Fab 5 scandal did to our b-ball program.  I am guessing seven years to a decade before OSU can return to a dominant program.....Would be worse at a school not so obsessed with football, but I doubt Nebraska, Penn State, MSU, etc can capitalize on this for more than the period of the sanctions.

Anyways, you will hear a lot this week, but from what I am already getting, they are royally screwed.  Basically, the door has been opened to federal authorities to come in and dig around, which would be a bad thing for any collegiate program where shady stuff goes on a lot, but especially one as large as OSU.  Because of that, the NCAA won't be able to look the other way and simply place a slap on the wrist, as the violations are too aggregious and too public.

Sorry Buckeyes, from what I hear, you are toast...