The Rest of College Football

[Dr. Strangelove]

Tressel got fired and a 5-year show cause...not exactly getting away with no punishment.

This is like calling for criminal charges to be brought against baseball players who steal signs or a 10-year prison sentence for the Patriots video guy

[Jeff Buchanan]

...... give it up.

CHEATERS.

[iam416]

Apparently Buchanan feels that the NCAA should have the power to imprison. Interesting take.

Then again, like most M fans, he walls in total delusion when it comes to OSU and Tressel. No punishment. LMAO.

[lineygoblue]

tainted

[Hannibal]

Tressel's "punishment" was being forced to take a nice, massive severance package a few years before he was going to retire anyways. He hasn't been banned from the program ala Chris Webber from Michigan, and he is still worshipped in the state of Ohio. Damn. When I'm 60 years old, I'd love to get "punished" like that.

[iam416]

LOL. So bitter.

[lineygoblue]

Actually more jealous than anything.

I wish that I would have had a similar golden parachute when my job was taken away from me ...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Jeff and Hanni think guys who cheat at sports should serve prison sentences apparently, because being fired and effectively banned from the sport is "getting off easy".

And they say Buckeyes take football too seriously?

[Hannibal]

Tressel's "punishment" was being forced to take a nice, massive severance package a few years before he was going to retire anyways. He hasn't been banned from the program ala Chris Webber from Michigan, and he is still worshipped in the state of Ohio. Damn. When I'm 60 years old, I'd love to get "punished" like that.

[Dr. Strangelove]

So again, you believe that firing NCAA violators and banning them from the sport is not a serious punishment and society needs to get tougher.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So again, you believe that firing NCAA violators and banning them from the sport is not a serious punishment and society needs to get tougher.

No. Here's what I think:

Legitimate competitive sports demands that participants go into a match with no unfairly obtained advantage.

The playing field in CFB is not a level one. Competitive advantage is obtainable. The degree to which participants want to avail themselves of these advantages varies; so does the extent to which participants will go to gain an advantage.

The NCAA's role could be described as one that attempts to level the playing field in college athletics by establishing various rules in an attempt to do this. It's efforts in that regard are a joke for both legitimate and illegitimate reasons.

Therefore, the NCAA, failing to have a reasonable set of rules and any significant enforcement ability, individuals and institutions have to be counted on to create a culture of integrity on and around the playing field. In fact, the NCAA relies on that fundamental premise among itsmemeber institutions.

When so much money is involved in CFB, that is a very tall order indeed. I would expect failures. What I would not expect however is behavior of principals who are entrusted with creating and then cultivating a culture of honesty and integrity not to do so by blatantly lying and covering up to advance both their own interests and the interests of the institutions they represent.

This is exactly what jim tressel did. His behavior is a good example of those who talk the talk but fail to walk it. You all should be ashamed of him; instead you memorialize him and raise him on some kind of pedestal.

[hack]

They can't help themselves; they had all made Life Promises for Success.

[iam416]

I'm still not clear what the NCAA should have done further to Jim Tressel for failing to pass along information concerning players selling/trading their own stuff. He lost his job, and basically can't coach for 5 years.

Hanni's bitter golden parachute schtick still cracks me up. So ignorant. It's so funny because OSU tried to fire a coach who violated NCAA rules and landed OSU on probation, and ended up getting sued for wrongful termination and ended up paying him gads of money. The money OSU gave Tressel to walk into the night without suing was a fucking steal.

But, that's the delusional, bitter world of M fans. Assfucked for a decade. And counting!

[Jeff Buchanan]

No question ..... osu has dominated Michigan. It sucks.

Frankly, I can't honestly say the domination was and continues to be a result of any kind of massive cheating. Was there some? Yes, but it was pretty limited in its scope and of little consequence.

What was substantial and consequential, IMO, was jim tressel's lying. It was a terrible mistake he made by not telling the NCAA the truth when he was asked about events he had knowledge of. I think his boss, the President and the BoT knew what was going on and were a part of a cover-up, although I will be the first to admit, I'm speculating here. But, it makes sense. There was a lot at stake during the period that the lying took place.

Let's put this in the context of Lance Armstrong's recent mea culpa. Armstrong was a massive cheater. He just admitted he was before a national audience. I'm not suggesting tressel cheated on the scale of Armstrong but there are some insights here to the character of high profile people who cheat and/or lie.

Armstrong impresses me as a guy who thought he was bullet proof. He became so powerful and influential, so regal, so used to getting whatever he wanted, so used to having people around him bow and scrape, he lost sight of right and wrong. IMO, Armstrong may be confessing his wrong doing but he's not yet really changed and he may never change. Hopefully he will but its going to be a process. He's taken the first step and done so rather publicly.

I remember some public penitence and apologies offered up by various official faces of osu after the fact. Maybe I wasn't listening carefully but I don't remember tressel doing this nor do I remember anything osu did do to come clean. I believe one can make an argument that like Armstrong, osu and tressel felt like they were bullet proof and could get away with the caper they nearly got away with - as harmful and lacking in integrity that caper was.

So, in the same way that Armstrong is doing, tressel and osu are going through a process. osu and tressel should not be let off the hook any time soon. It is appropriate for the tressel era at osu to be looked upon as somewhat sordid. No, I don't think the NCAA should punish tressel or osu further. That's just not practical. But neither should osu and tressel, esp. tressel, be celebrated and praised in some way .... something that osu and the buckeye nation did. That pissed me off just like it would piss me off if Armstrong's supporters (and they are out there but fading fast as the extent of his cheating and bullying become known) let him off the hook for his misdeeds.

[iam416]

The notion of an institutional coverup is at odds with the undisputed fact that Ohio State turned Coach Tressel in to the NCAA. But for Ohio State's OWN self-reporting, none of this would have come out. If you can marry that with your institutional coverup theory, so be it.

As for Coach Tressel, eh, nevermind. That ground has been covered and recovered and recovered.