SI: The Downfall of Jim Tressel
It's because the majority of the article was based on past information, which was already well known to college football fans and the NCAA or could really just be attributed to "dumb kids".
There wasn't really anything particularly indictive about Tressel or the university, at least in the eyes of a fan. Perhaps in the eyes of the NCAA, which is all well and good, but not for me. I don't find myself feeling too pleased if I have to use the NCAA as the standard of right and wrong and what's legal and what's not legal.
But really, the biggest disappoinment is that there was nothing to trump "Tressel lied". I wanted something like Ted Ginn Sr. funneling players into Ohio State to show that the program and the coach were corrupt and that they had gained some real advantage on the field. That didn't appear, other than possibly Maurice Clarett, which we already knew about and which the NCAA reacted to by doing nothing to OSU.
Also, just the fact that the guy acted as if he was dropping some bombshell, when in reality 90% of the information was just rehashed and the stuff that was new didn't prove that Tressel or OSU knew about it. The dealings with the tattoo parlor, Baker and Gamble, the tickets for the Tahoe, etc....What are you going to do? Watch the kids all the time, 24/7? If they are told they can get free stuff for trading their personal possessions that they earned, even if that is amazingly against the rules, they are still going to do it if they think they aren't going to get caught. That is college kids everywhere, not just OSU football players.
It was a really nice summary, but it wasn't the groundbreaking journalism that this guy was hinting at when he said Tressel's resignation would make sense.
Hopefully something better comes out in the next few weeks.
... there is a lot more to come -- it just hasn't been investigated yet. SI just made complete fools out of OSU Compliance. In just two weeks the reporter found 22 more memorabilia for tats and weed guys and came across one improper vehicle -- after a "thorough" OSU investigation on both. I think with the NCAA now questionning Pryor's use of automobiles, the media will decend on Columbus like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Remember, we now know a lot about the tats problems. Next, we will learn about the automobiles. Thereafter???
This article made it clear Tressel AND OSU Compliance were looking the other way or just playing ignorant hoping it would all stay "in the family." I think we all know it is downright impossible to keep everything in the family. Eventually, someone will talk.
This could be the article that starts even more investigating byu showing that:
1) The corruption started well before the tatgate revelations back to when he started at OSU, and even earlier to his says at Youngstown State.
2) That even after coming clean on the coverup that there were many more than just the 6 players that were cited whose names were given to OSU by the Justice Department in their investigated of Fine Line Ink.
3) That there is much more in players receiving cars.
I'm sure the media sharks will start circling by knowing there is more to uncover.
This isn't the end of it and I expect more pieces to come out as more evidence is uncovered and as more people start talking now that Tressel is gone.