More OSU "news" soon?

Submitted by psychomatt on
I have a friend who is a ND alum and who lives in Columbus. He said there is some local chatter about something coming out about a housing scandal. He has no inside info, but it seemed to fit with Spielman's recent statement that more might be coming out. This is just a rumor at this point and may turn out to be nothing, but I thought I would share what I have heard.

superstringer

May 19th, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^

True, however, tSIO might have to wait past the football season before it can pull the trigger.  They have to wait for NCAA ruling (which I've seen predicted to be late October or later); then there is probably an appeal right.  So, waiting out the process to fire Tress with cause, they will have to have Tress coach thru the season AND probably up to or past the National Signing Day, at which time Brady and everyone else will be picking at the corpse.

No, tSIO wants to buy out the guy NOW, and get on with life.

clarkiefromcanada

May 19th, 2011 at 6:11 PM ^

On the one hand tUofOSU could wait and terminate Tressel for cause but were they to do so they also expose the school to interesting and unintended outcomes...for example:

Tressel appears on 60 minutes and details the goings on and corruption in the AD/President's office over the last decade.

Tressel takes an analyst job with ESPN and discusses, truthfully, the scope and volume of cheating regarding Maurice Clarett

Tressel takes his act on the road and does a feature with ESPN in  a 30x30 type documentary where he details the relationship between tUofOSU and Terrelle Pryor's "advisor"

and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki outcome...Tressel writes a red book entitled "O -H - Lie - O My Years at Ohio State and My Life in Columbus" that details all of the above in greater detail up to and including the actions of E. Gordon Gee, the Board etc.

Even those monkeys at tUofOSU are smart enough to negotiate an agreement with Tressel to head off into the sunset with 3 to 5 million reasons to stay quiet, out of the limelight, and (outside ot NCAA investigation) say nothing about tUofOSU.

CRex

May 19th, 2011 at 7:15 PM ^

If tOSU is smart they'll demand a nondisclosure agreement to go with that bribe.  tOSU isn't firing Tressel, they're buying his silence.  If they wanted they could fire him today for cause and if he lawyered up over it odds are they'd crush him court with those emails.  It's more of "Here's five million, never write a book about this and play dumb when the NCAA asks you questions."  

He might also be demanding things like promises from tOSU not to totally disavow him and let him keep some shreds of his legacy/record.  

Promote RichRod

May 19th, 2011 at 4:29 PM ^

individually negotiated.  Often in an executive severance situation the terms of the contract re: cause, severance payments etc just serve as a starting point for negotiations on a severance agreement.

They can still use the terms of the contract (and fire for cause, paying him nothing), but they may negotiate a settlement to get Jim to shut up and go away so they can hire a new coach, stop the bleeding, negative PR, etc.  And Jim (seeing that  the end is nigh) may prefer such an agreement because it will allow him to save face (the agreement would probably include reciprocal nondisparagement clauses, among other protections for both parties) and save costs.  In fact, this may be why he got his own lawyer--to negotiate with his release with OSU directly. 

Or, Jim may find it preferable to fight to the bitter end to "save his reputation" (if possible).  In this case OSU will probably fire him for cause at the end of the process (if found liable) and pay him nothing.  This is the scenario we want because it drags out the process forever and all parties will be free to trash each other in the press, etc.

James Burrill Angell

May 19th, 2011 at 5:27 PM ^

Without going into the specifics of a buyout, I'm more interested in the effects.

So if Tressel gets bought out this summer:

 a) Does that assistant coach who will be doing the sideline coaching for the five games Tressel has to sit become interim head coach?

b) I know the NCAA is only looking into the lying crap right now (no other allegations that are outstanding that the NCAA has mentioned). So does said new coach have Tressel stink on him (along with all other assistants) which pretty much guarantees they have to clean house in the coaching ranks at the end of the year anyway (which should obliterate their recruiting)

RadioSimon1983

May 19th, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^

http://www.5thquartersports.com/ncaa-football/ohio-st-violations/

"The new revelations will not just be about the cars or the cash, but vacations as well. Investigators are and will continue to find cash and prizes that could only be logically explained by several players winning the Price is Right Showcase Showdown over the past several years (that or some MAJOR NCAA violations have taken place)."

bing24

May 19th, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^

I fucking love this. My boring workdays consist of seeing our new daily recruit, listening to msu dipshit excuses & hearing just another nail in the osu coffin. This weather has been absolute shit, but things have been good!

Now to my point, a very good friend of mine has a prominent businessman for a father who happens to be located in downtown Columbus. Unique situation, this guy grew up in Ohio, entire family are osu slappies, went to college/grad school in MI, lived here and family lives here year round....Has season tix to UM & OSU, so very weird dynamic, but deep down is an Ohioan. This guy is good friend with Gordon Gee, lots of prominant osu boosters, has suite in Horseshoe where the governor sometimes sits for games (she was there for UM/osu #1 vs #2 game, I was in there hammered with bright yellow UM shirt talking junk to student section right below suite. My buddy kindly told me to cool it since the governor was sitting next to me..haha).........Anyhoo, I send my buddy the weekly osu scandal, he forwards to his Dad to taunt him. His Dad as recent as this week responded, "I'm glad the UM fans have something to cheer about, but nothing is going to happen when said and done."

This is a guy who is a big deal, has lunch with President Obama, crap like that & a lawyer by trade (ended up being an executive). He is with so many other people in Ohio that nothing is going to happen. This partly scares me because the guy has connections I could only dream of & lives right in Columbus. But also makes me think people in Ohio are just blind to the fact osu has cheated to get where they're at.

psychomatt

May 19th, 2011 at 4:46 PM ^

My initial reaction is (1) this situation seems so fluid that I doubt anyone at OSU can say for certain yet whether JT will survive and (2) Gee is probably the last person in OSU's administration who has a clue as to what is actually going on.

dahblue

May 19th, 2011 at 4:08 PM ^

SMU got the death penalty because (IIRC) they continued to lie and pull the same shit after they got caught.  I don't want OSU to get the death.  Frankly, I want them to remain a strong program (that we beat every year), but this level of nonsense is going to sting when the hammer comes down.  Seems like every day we either get a new commitment or additional OSU violation news.  2011 is shaping up to be a very nice year.

BigBlue02

May 19th, 2011 at 9:37 PM ^

If everything they are saying is true, you can bet your ass I want them to get the death penalty. They have been cheating for around 10 years....10 fucking years! This undoubtedly being one of the biggest reasons for their ridiculous winning streak against us. Do you think for a second that they would have rattled off 9 wins in the past 10 games against us if they wouldn't have been paying players and using ineligible players (which, again, is exactly what has happened if the story is true).  If OSU wants to play dirty, when they get caught, they should absolutely pay the price. They obviously haven't cared about keeping this rivalry (or any football season for that matter) pure and legal so why should I care if they remain a strong program? In other words, they haven't respected college football for well over 10 years so I don't need to respect them as program.

michgoblue

May 19th, 2011 at 4:10 PM ^

I knew that Brady Hoke could recruit, and he did an awesome job assembling a staff, but now he is just showing off with the whole using his awesome karma to smite OSU.

F5

May 19th, 2011 at 4:17 PM ^

Hearing about all the happeings going on down in Columbus makes me happier than a pig in shit!

That said, it is still not good for us or the B10.. It will cause a dominoe effect of complete and utter destruction (which was 100% their fault anyway) and however many years they are down because of this will have the same if not a greater effect on the b10 as the last 3 years with us.

Kind of "duh" material, but what the hell.

jerseyblue

May 19th, 2011 at 4:45 PM ^

OSU's getting popped for everything, cash, ink, cars, cribs. There's really only 2 things left and it's just a matter of time. That's right...Boats 'n Hoes!!!

 

BlueDragon

May 21st, 2011 at 2:18 AM ^

There are boat docks in the Olentangy River behind the Drake Union (by the two apartment high-rises next to the stadium).  It would be easy to hide a "private boathouse" somewhere along the length of the river.  Still, there are a lot of step dams in the Olentangy, and boats can't cross those.

Rescue_Dawn

May 19th, 2011 at 4:46 PM ^

Know you know why tressel was so supportive of richrod when we were going through our investigation...he was probably thinking "shit....if they only knew"....well now they now. This shit is better then porn.

Caesar

May 19th, 2011 at 4:49 PM ^

I would exchange OSU, 'Bama, and USC-levels of dominance for a once every 10-15 years national championship (or very close) Michigan squad that's otherwise competitive outside of that national championship year. There will be complaints of hypocrisy given Michigan's 'major violations,' but that doesn't even begin to compare with the shadiness seen at other places.

The margins are too thin in college football for there to be year-in, year-out dominance. If you can win like that every year, it's probably because you're not doing it the right way.

mejunglechop

May 19th, 2011 at 4:57 PM ^

Not to be a buzzkill, but if OSU sensed something was about to happen why would Smith restate his support of Tressel yesterday?

superstringer

May 19th, 2011 at 5:01 PM ^

He has to support Tress up to the very last moment, because Tress's replacement will expect that out of his AD.

Any captain of a sinking corporate ship will do that -- talk the talk until the very last, stinking moment.  Everything's under control, have no fear, we're confident of the future, got our man, he's good to go, yada yada yada.  Then Tress is bought out.  Only then Smith can say, well we didn't want to do it but made sense for everyone to get this past them.

If he were to go, we don't like our current head coach, looks like he might be a sleezebag .... now, tell me who takes the job to replace Tress, with THAT kind ofa guy as your boss?

psychomatt

May 19th, 2011 at 5:16 PM ^

The way the fans are turning on Spielman, Smith fears getting fragged by his own troops. He is probably as frustrated as anyone, but he also does not want to be blamed for Tressel's departure if that is how this plays out.

BlueAggie

May 19th, 2011 at 5:08 PM ^

It is interesting that housing is being cited as a potential violation at Ohio State.  Last summer I read a post on another college's message board.  It's behind a paywall so I can't link to it.  The  school is not a rival of Ohio State and I have no reason to suspect that the author of post was being anything besides honest.  I did some light digging and was unable to confirm the identity of the player and then got busy with other stuff and forgot about it.

The accusation was that the coaches at Ohio State strongly suggested that an incoming player live in a certain apartment complex.  The player was shocked at how cheap the cost of living was in Ohio and only later found out the complex was owned by a former player and he was receiving a steep discount.

The player was said to be from the state of Texas, a transfer from another college and a defensive starter.  I couldn't find anyone recently who matched this description, but I really didn't go much beyond scanning rosters from the last few years.  

It will be interesting to see if something in the latest round of accusations matches this sort of scenario.

BlueAggie

May 19th, 2011 at 5:31 PM ^

Interesting.  Schlegel fits the description, including the parts I left out.  I think I missed him before because he was born in Iowa.

It's still a dead end though because I have no idea how one would go about finding out where he lived in college.

tUOS is OSU

May 19th, 2011 at 5:07 PM ^

I heard Tresselis going to resign and... Urban Meyer has been caught looking for houses in Columbus. Not joking, could be rumors though...