Personally I don't hate Tressel as a person, and generally didn't dislike him as a coach (hated him because he coached OSU, but respected the fact that he was good at his job and seemed on the up and up). But I've thought for a long time that OSU had a lot of smoke around it, and really only avoided getting hit for it because of Tressel's rep, which was kind of annoying.

But now Tressel's rep is completely blown up, in terms of his willingness to adhere to NCAA rules. On top of everything OSU has been busted for under Tressel (e.g., the workhorse of their NC campaign got money and fabricated grades, their Heisman winning QB took money, 5 of their current biggest names all busted), there's plenty of other questions that won't ever get answered; e.g., the break in at Hawk's apartment, Gamble's association with the booster who paid Smith, the Holmes allegations, etc. Basically, the list of big name players under Tressel with shady stuff surrounding them is pretty long, and the argument that it's all a series of unrelated isolated incidents (i.e., the "bad apple recruits" argument) looks more and more improbable.

I don't think Tressel actively facilitated any of this stuff. But it's seeming more and more likely that he at least kept himself willfully ignorant of it.

Here's the thing.  Tressel lying about this doesn't make him evil.  Even if he lied before.  No doubt he does good in the community, and when I say I "hate" him for being (seemingly) phony to me, hate obviously isn't the right word (easy to "hate" sports figures from afar - it's not realy hate).

But it's hard to find a coach that makes millions that doesn't raise money in the community and take part in local charitable ventures... that's not to take away from it.  It's a reason I've loved Carr for so long, his commitment to the local community.  It's just that you can blatantly violate a major NCAA rule and still do good.  But the latter doesn't justify the former.

There is no reason to confuse Tressel's good works in his personal life with ethics in his professional life.

Being a Christian, or giving to charity, or supporting the troops, or writing letters to children has absolutely nothing to do with whether not Tressel violated the NCAA's rules.

Tressel can be found guilty of major NCAA violations and still be a very good man.

"I always he thought he valued off-the-field over the on-the-field."

It's really hard to see how you could have drawn that conclusion.  Name one instance where he gave a starter punishment to the real detriment of the team.  I'm not saying he never did, but I sure can't think of an instance where he did.

His approach toward discipline has, from my perspective, always been comically Bowden-esque.

and there are several caring, giving priests who have molested children.

many of the highest moral people can turn out to be evil.

and no, i'm not comparing tressel's transgressions to this, just people having blinders on.