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.

pdgoblue25

May 19th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^

I'm dying to know if it's true.

I went over to RCMB to enjoy their crying for a few minutes, and there's a post titled "Ohio State" that's very cryptic about it.  The OP responded to a few comments, and one just said "wait 2 more days".

Logan

May 19th, 2011 at 5:34 PM ^

I saw the thread and still can't understand why any self-respecting Michigan fan would subject themselves to that kind of abuse just for the sake of trying to provide an opposing viewpoint to the RCMBers. There is no opposing viewpoint to the delusion and sheer stupidity you find on that message board by the majority of their posters (as opposed to say Bucknuts where most of the posters at least seem to be rational). I guess some are just a glutton for punishment but I'd just as well leave them alone and watch from the sidelines while they meltdown/threadlock. 

Logan

May 20th, 2011 at 12:02 AM ^

Yeah not sure what it is but even though there is of course a loud, unintelligent subsect of OSU fans who will blindly follow the Vest and his minions, I've seen at least a glimmer of rationality on Bucknuts. Sparty fans, at least on RCMB, are something else. The board itself is pretty juvenile, and that's saying something coming from me, but just the mention of UM in any context causes an utter meltdown with all defensive mechanisms kicking in. I'm sure it's just their inferiority complex but yeah, at least right now RCMB could be the absolute worst message board in the world, absolutely.

Hannibal.

May 19th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^

There have been a lot of suspicious indicators lately.  To me, the biggest one has been Herbstreit's behavior.  I think that he knows that some serious shit is going to see the light of day, and he's not going to be able to avoid saying some bad things about Tressel.  Selling his house and moving out of Columbus to avoid the ire of angry Buckeye fans suggests that he expects that news is going to be bad, and he's going to have to give his honest opinion of it.  To me, this is like the great big selloff that precedes the bad news for the stock market. 

cbuswolverine

May 19th, 2011 at 8:14 PM ^

Or we could, you know, take him at his word which makes 100x more sense.  "I'm moving because people around treat me like shit," vs. "I'm going to move because six months from now I might say some bad things about Tressel who everybody here will hate at that point, anyway."

hmmm...

Hannibal.

May 19th, 2011 at 8:21 PM ^

People have been treating him like shit for a long time, it will probably be less than six months, and Tressel will absolutely, positively never be hated in Columbus.  He could murder somebody and he'll always be a hero there too all but a minority of reasonable and well-informed fans who can accept the facts.

COB

May 20th, 2011 at 12:22 PM ^

I hate to go all Gary Barnett here but Herby was a bad to terrible player.  If that was the extent of his OSU legacy, people would bring him up in a pretty negative way.  Since his exposure in the ESPN world, it's more of a "yeah, he's a Buckeye" type of thing.  He also isn't exactly the model of reasonable behavior, e.g. his tweet war with Terrelle Pryor, which was pretty stupid all around.  His moving thing...well, I moved out of Cbus too...can't really fault the guy for that.  Though his reasoning of it being solely about the "10%" of fans is just a bit strange.  He lived in one of the bigger houses in Arlington, he custom built, about 3 miles from the stadium.  If he wanted to be lower key and less visible, he could have been.  Not to mention his house was for sale for 2+ years prior to it being sold so if that really was the case, he could have moved prior to it selling, he has the financial ability to do it.  I don't know, the whole thing is strange. 

SanFrancisco_W…

May 24th, 2011 at 12:04 PM ^

I think you over estimate the love for Tressel...I know a ton of people that have jumped off the vest bandwagon and are now praying he gets fired to save face.  The OSU program makes it appear as though everyone loves him, but in fact it's just Gordon Gee and Smith.  I think the overwhelming majority of OSU fans will be against Tressel as this continues to unfold.

CdubGoBlue

May 19th, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^

Heard yesterday in a radio interview on the local sports talk station in Nashville that SI may be breaking some "news" pertaining to tOSU.  Certainly brought a smile to my face.

Also learned that Tressel will be paying for his own attorney.

GoBlueInNYC

May 19th, 2011 at 4:09 PM ^

That's a good point. I just assumed it was a PR move by Tressel. After OSU made that statement about how much the investigation was costing the school (I believed it was described as a "nightmare"), it makes Tressel look slightly less slimy if he takes on some of the financial burden himself.

superstringer

May 19th, 2011 at 4:30 PM ^

Lawyer here.  This happens all the time, particularly in the context of corporations and its personnel.  The company pays the lawyer to represent the officer/executive/employee.  The lawyer has an ethical duty to represent the client (=officer/employee), even though the lawyer is being paid by the company.  Even if it goes south for the company and the client sells out the company.

Usually, in most executive contracts, the company pays the lawyer until the employee is convicted of a crime, at which point, the employee has to reimburse the company (which, as you can imagine, rarely happens).  But even if not in a contract, the company might offer it -- because lawyering up the employee usually inures to the benefit of the company too.

So it all depends on Tressel's contract.  He might not have a right to free legal fees paid by tSIO.  Sounds like he doesn't have that right, if he's paying his own way.  OR, tSIO was going to hire a cheaper lawyer, and Tressel said nah, I'll pay my own way and get the big boy.

Section 1

May 19th, 2011 at 5:53 PM ^

Happens all the time.  You even see this tension in lots of insurance coverage cases, where the party paying for defense costs and indemnification, up to limits, is not the party whose name is on the caption.  And there may be some over-limits or non-covered personal exposure.

Moreover, we don't know if Lightfoot might be paid, not by The Ohio State Universtiy, but rather by a "Tressel Non-Profit Corporation/Foundation," and coach is not exactly raiding his 401(k) account to write the check.

I was quite surprised that OSU didn't hire Lightfoot immediately.  I would not be surprised, if Tressel had called Rich Rodriguez, and asked Rich about his attorney (Scott Tompsett of Kansas City) and Michigan's attorneys (Gene Marsh and Bill King of Lightfoot).

Anyway, there is not one thing that is questionable, unethical, unsual or unexpected about Tressel hiring Gene Marsh.

JHey

May 19th, 2011 at 3:43 PM ^

All of this is just rumor that I've picked up off of other message boards:

A national media outlet (now said to be Sports Illustrated) is going to come out with a new story about NCAA Violations involving Tressel and Ohio State.

Claims are that there were paid vacations to players, recruits and their families, Illegal housing (as stated above) and cars to recruits, and other recruiting violations (I'm assuming that means $$$).

There was also Bernie Smilovitz on Channel 4 Detroit last night: Saying there were rumors in Columbus that Ohio State has been negotiating a buyout with Tressel.

Caution, these are all just rumors for now.