M-Borg vs. THE Flavortown U Thread, Orig. by Buckeye Paul, absconded w/by talent.

[Jamie H]

Sorry, if Dez Bryant gets a year suspension for lying about doing NOTHING WRONG, Tressel should get way more than a year for this. WAY more. He essentially withheld information about ineligible players in order to play them for an entire season.

[Ghengis Jon]

Oh to be in Columbus, just in time for Spring Vacate-shun...

[lineygoblue]

It really boils down to a very basic thought: Lets remove the names, and just ask the questions:

What punishment should a school/coach receive, for knowingly using ineligible players? Or, what punishment should a school/coach receive for knowingly using players who committed acts against the rules, that could make them ineligible?

(Insert coach/school name here) lied and/or withheld information that may have caused a number of their players to become ineligible.

What should the NCAA do?

I wonder how our OhNo fans would feel if it were Rich Rodriguez/Michigan. On second thought, I already know.

[entropy]

[Tony G]

Tuesday, The Columbus Dispatch reported that after the NCAA upheld a five-game suspension for five key Buckeyes who swapped memorabilia for cash and tattoos, Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel asked the school to increase his own suspension to five games for hiding the entire affair from the NCAA.
After an abomination of a press conference last week that public relations professors will use for years as an example of how not to handle a crisis, Tressel and Ohio State made a brilliant PR move on two fronts Thursday. First, the increase in the suspension allows Tressel and the school to say to the NCAA that Tressel finally understands the gravity of hiding knowledge of the tattoo parlor transactions after being tipped off by an April 2010 e-mail from former Ohio State player Christopher Cicero as well as the severity of essentially lying to the NCAA twice -- once when he signed a disclosure form in September pledging that he had no knowledge of any potential violations and again when he said nothing of the e-mails when investigators looked into the case in December. Second, by leaking this news on the first day of serious NCAA tournament action, the Buckeyes knew coverage of the move and the necessary rehash of the slimy circumstances that preceded it would get buried beneath an avalanche of buzzer-beaters.
As PR goes, it was BCS-bowl worthy. But that's all the suspension increase was. PR, and nothing more.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1GyyAftOs

[Malto Marko]

Well, as a Michigan fan I am somewhat biased here but to learn that a coach knowingly and willingly with held information that he knew would disqualify some of his players then lie about it to the governing body, he should be banned from participation within that body for life.

That would send a message to any other coach. Receive a slap on the wrist, and it will encourage other coaches to do the same.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This kind of maneuvering on the part of osu and there smarmy legal staff just sickens me.

Comments by osu fans that tressel is really smart for doing this (ramping up his suspension to 5 games v. 2), reminds me of the inane idolatry that was accorded Al Capone by his fawning fans despite the fact he was a cold blooded killer and gang boss. If this weren't so undeniably abusive and dismissive of the NCAA and its rules it would be funny.

There are some that would argue that from the start the actions of Tat 5 weren't all that big a deal and to a certain extent I would agree with that. But at baseline the players broke an NCAA rule that is not inconsequential and one whose intent is certainly meaningful in the context of trying to regulate a college football player's conduct and keep assholes with money, like Riff, from influencing them.

I would be less critical of osu, jim tressel, smith and gee if after having found out about the circumstances of the Tat 5 that they had self reported it, imposed meaningful punishments and taken whatever additional medicine handed down by the NCAA. But they didn't and there is absolutely no excuse for that. Moreover, IMO, it reflects planning by jt (assuming he was the only one that knew in April 10 ... and I'm not sure that is a good assumption) to avoid punishment. That is wrong.

Someone is going to have to explain to me how it might be considered acceptable that tressel, knowing what he knew in April, 2010, joined osu officials in finagling the inexplicably lenient punishment for the Tat 5 that allowed them to play in the Sugar Bowl. Then, having done this without the least bit of remorse, tressel lied about his knowledge of the violations on two subsequent occasions to the NCAA. This, it seems to me, is prima facia evidence of a coach out of control without any concern for the rules and an institution that certainly did not have control of their football program.

That is why tressel should be required to show cause for his continuation as a college football coach at osu or any where else and osu should be required to prove to the NCAA they have not lost institutional control .... that is I what I am expecting the NCAA to do. Anything less than that is unacceptable and, to me, proves, as many suspect, that the NCAA is a laughable entity without the ability to keep college athletics clean.

[entropy]

The NCAA has one problem in all cases: Proof. If nobody sings or they don't have proof, then they can only suspect, but not do anything about it. They can't get warrants like the FBI can.

So, in my opinion, when somebody is caught, they need to have tougher punishments to scare people into not cheating.

[Rob F]

Sports radio was reporting this morning that more memorabilia belonging to osu players (not the original 5) was found for sale by some folks who enjoy doing such digging/searching. Items included game worn helmets and pants along with other trinkets.

Of course, according to Gee and Smith, what happened with the Tat 5 was "an isolated incident" and "there are no other violations to report". Whoops. The hole is getting deeper...we'll see who actually falls in it and gets buried.

Sean---did you get any more info on this story?

My guess is that, if it's confirmed, it won't be any more serious than the Tat 5 gang's activities, unless it's found that Tressel had knowledge of such activity and also failed to report it.

Still, it does point to a program being out -of-control...

[JRB]

I seem to recall something like that blowing up temporarily on MGoBlog, until someone looked a little closer and realized that the items in question were being sold by Ohio State for charity, which of course is perfectly permissible. Sometimes, people let their prosecutorial zeal get ahead of their judgment in situations like this.

I had a feeling Ohio State might try the "same punishment as the players got" gambit before the NCAA had a chance to impose punishment. I think this self-imposed discipline has a much better chance to pass muster with the COI than Ohio State's first effort had. Of course, I thought their first effort had virtually no chance of being accepted, so a much better chance might still be pretty slim.

[SeanB]

Sean---did you get any more info on this story?

Rob, I didn't. Perhaps it's like Jason was saying, more zeal than honest fact reporting. The WTKA guys, especially Ira Weintraub (sp?) tend to jump on stories like that with fervor until proven wrong, and then they don't really care if they were wrong in the first place! Go old fashioned homers, those guys are. But I still listen every day on my morning drive!

[Jeff Buchanan]

The NCAA has one problem in all cases: Proof. If nobody sings or they don't have proof, then they can only suspect, but not do anything about it. They can't get warrants like the FBI can.

So, in my opinion, when somebody is caught, they need to have tougher punishments to scare people into not cheating.

I certainly home you are not implying that there is no proof in the Tat 5 case the tressel knew in April, 10 that 5 players had received inappropriate benefits and that he lied about about it to the NCAA twice.

I may not be the best observer in this case because I clearly have a motivational bias against tressel (and smith and gee, i.e., the osu program) to get at a minimum USC like penalties for this and at the very least tressel to have to show cause.

There is no dancing around this. tressel lied and if smith and gee knew about it when tressel knew about it, which I suspect they did, the NCAA has no reasonable option other than the hammer. Does anyone who has an opposing view of this wish to advance it?

[SeanB]

Does anyone who has an opposing view of this wish to advance it?

Yes, but we haven't seen the troll around here since we moved!

[Jeff Buchanan]

I suspect, being the loyal osu fan that he is, that he is absolutely disgusted and embarrassed by the recent revelations.

I can't think of a more appropriate penance for died in the wool fans of osu ... in the Woody Hayes era when that school actually had some integrity.

M had its Rodriguez but tressel, if the soap opera plays out like it should, pales in comparison to that twit.

[SeanB]

I wonder if he is. I imagine you're probably right, but he is a lawyer after all. He'll find some wiggle room that we haven't thought about.

Rodriguez was an embarrassment in the W/L column, but his so called infractions are nothing compared to the false persona that Tressel has advanced over the years. As much smoke as there is, though, I am still having a hard time believing that osu will get what it actually deserves.

We can always hope.