Tress was a Bad Bad Boy

[SoulDawg74]

Oh and to answer SSS' question (fuck you JB)......

JT only recruited me before I committed, he was gone when I got there and I had very little interaction. That said there have always been rumors floating around Y-Town about the process being dirty. No clue what that means and I don't really give a fuck. I'd put my heart on the line to say that JT runs a program cleaner than most of college football. But lying on a compliance issue that is known is a whole new can of worms. Them big worms too.

SD:

Tress is from Youngstown and he wasn't runnin for pope

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Friggin technology...

Years ago, it woulda been an anonymous call on a rotary

Kids today, all they do is smoke meth and play Grand Theft Auto.

[fundamentals]

Dez Bryant lied about having lunch with Deion Sanders and had his season taken from him.
So, I don't think the NCAA is going to say that tOSU's suspension of theVest for 2 games is going to kind of, sort of, solve the matter. He's going down the road of Bruce Pearl on this one.

[bucknutz94]

I don't know if what JT did was enough to be fired. I do know that the penalty seems a bit light. Gee comments about Tressel firing him do not help the perception that tOSU's priorities are out of whack.

[pup]

Might get away with the I didn't say anything in April because of the ongoing investigation.

Not getting away with telling the 2A the first he heard of it was in December.

Fire his ass.

You can't lead if you are not accountable. Take the tattoo 5 with ya.

And he has a history of knowing and not telling from his Penguin days? Christ. 2A is going to hammer him/them.

Can him and give Urban a call.

[JCoz]

I thought Tressel started strong and got weaker as he went along....and then almost wilted entirely when asked directly why he didn't sit the players immediately.

Seems to me he could have just said he wasn't sure there was any criminality involved (which it turned out, there wasn't) and that he had no reason to believe the kids would necessarily have been ineligible at the time.

The tongue bath Gee gave Tressel at the end was just embarrassing. Both Smith and JT came off way better than that bozo.

Gonna go read the emails.

Edit: Having seen more info, it does seem clear Tressel was aware of the merchandise sales by players in April. No getting around that. The decision he made was at bottom, a self-serving one, even if players did benefit too.

Hope they don't vacate the season

Yah so.....Don't really know what to say. It was basically what I feared as soon as I read the Wetzel report.

He buried it.

The thing thats hard to understand most is...what did he THINK was going to happen? those emails are public domain. It was inevitable that this would come out of the police investigation.

What bothers me more than anything, because I can understand human nature and the pressure, and what it takes to put together a team that has a real shot at a NC....the thing that bothers me most is how stupid these decisions seem in retrospect.

I'm reading these emails and hearing Antoine Dodson in the background saying "You are so dumb, for real"

I'm behind coach, and you can't take away the things he's done on and off the field while he's been here.

But damn am I disappointed. EO is spot on in his post presser posts.

Fuck me.

They shouldn't let Gee comment on anything related to the football team, ever.

The NCAA isn't done, they will come with much more than what OSU put on the table.

Anyone know more on that tattoo shop? I thought I read that this has been a decade+ type of issue with that place for OSU?

[Govbarney]

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [soft voce] Oh, thank you very much.

This is major College football, the hypocracy of the NCAA, OSU, and Tressel is so thick you can spread it on your toast. Frankly I would be disappointed in Tress, if he didn’t try to protect his guys. He did what any Coach would do, solve the issue in-house so he can continue to do what he is paid to do, Win Football games.

Jim Tressels legacy will be tainted...!? Yea, just like John Wooden’s Legacy was tainted. Frankly goldfish have longer attention span then the average American Sports Fan.

[JCoz]

Might get away with the I didn't say anything in April because of the ongoing investigation.

Not getting away with telling the 2A the first he heard of it was in December.

Fire his ass.

You can't lead if you are not accountable. Take the tattoo 5 with ya.

And he has a history of knowing and not telling from his Penguin days? Christ. 2A is going to hammer him/them.

Can him and give Urban a call.

You are out of your mind.

Call Urban? Yeah, he gave up a top 5 job twice in 12 months, he looks pretty stable at the moment. ADD we know his kids never do anything stupid. we'll be set for the foreseeable future if we can swing that deal.

Fire Tress, hire Urban. Our problems are over dude.

You aren't a stupid guy pup, but that is one stupid frickin post.

[Larvell Blanks]

I forgot about this part of the presser until I read this posted on another board...

Tress said he didn't act on the emails because of confidentiality concerns, but answered a reporter that he forwarded the emails before Smith jumped in and broke up the questioning.

That doesn't look too good for tOSU

[pup]

I forgot about this part of the presser until I read this posted on another board...

Tress said he didn't act on the emails because of confidentiality concerns, but answered a reporter that he forwarded the emails before Smith jumped in and broke up the questioning.

That doesn't look too good for tOSU

One of the freakin e-mails is from Doug Archie. The Associate AD.

Has nothing to do with taking care of his players. Has everything to do with telling the NCAA April didn't happen.

JCoz - OK, so no Urban. Doesn't mean I don't fire Tressel. Now that this ball is rolling, it is going to get huge.

I wonder what "the thing" was that happened in November 2009 to cause them to re-write the class on compliance? Because it does not seem like it had anything to do with tattoos. So there is more. Now they are going to dig in to everything TP has been a part of, and Tress let go.

[pup]

I forgot about this part of the presser until I read this posted on another board...

Tress said he didn't act on the emails because of confidentiality concerns, but answered a reporter that he forwarded the emails before Smith jumped in and broke up the questioning.

That doesn't look too good for tOSU

Why is Doug Archie's name on all the e-mails?

Has nothing to do with taking care of his players. Has everything to do with telling the NCAA April didn't happen.

JCoz - OK, so no Urban. Doesn't mean I don't fire Tressel. Now that this ball is rolling, it is going to get huge.

I wonder what "the thing" was that happened in November 2009 to cause them to re-write the class on compliance? Because it does not seem like it had anything to do with tattoos. So there is more. Now they are going to dig in to everything TP has been a part of, and Tress let go.

[waborat]

Doesn't really bother me that he buried & cheated...

It's that we actually learned he's stupid

[jb]

Are you defined by the 99 times you did the stand up thing. The times you did the "right thing" when it was against the grain and did it for principle.

Should you be defined by the rule or the exception to the rule. It depends on the offense IMO. My opinion of JT is no different today then it was before. This an accept, take responsibility, and move on situation.

In general, I still have faith in his program from an integrity stand point. I hope the coming investigations prove me right.

You know for some the old expression of 1 "oh shit" will trump a thousand "at a boys" will fit for this situation. Not form me........YET!

I hope the whole thing isn't built on mirrors because the glass can kill on the way down.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115907/quotes

Mayor John Pappas: "Distance"! Distance is something you do to your enemies. It's a thing of the nineties, to make friends extinct. Distance... is the absence of menschkeit!
Kevin Calhoun: Translate that for me.
Mayor John Pappas: You don't know what menschkeit means?
Kevin Calhoun: No, I don't.
Mayor John Pappas: Menschkeit, you know... something between men... it's about honor, and character... untranslatable. That's why it's Yiddish.
Kevin Calhoun: I didn't know you'd taken up the language.
Mayor John Pappas: Abe laid it on me.

[jb]

Hope they don't vacate the season

I'm tellin' yah I go 180 on that boss.

Vacting 2010 , essentially forgettable because

1 ) Beating the SEC when you cheat is what I call "a level playing field". Who gives a shit? Other than that, it was a forgettable and rather disappointing season in whish they hammered the "little sisters of the poor', to coin a phrase, and came up like wussies in Madison on the night to man up.

2 ) This will take away all of TPeezy2's stats for 2010. Heh. Let's see him be a statistical icon in 6 games -- if he even plasy them at this point.

3 ) The damage will have been done if they punish it back. Pusnish it forward with schollie losses and TV loses and you COULD be looking at a shot of a legitimate program decline. Not saying tOSU will never be back, but it almost certainly suggests a downswing for a period of time. It possible even gives Hoke breating room to catch up some.

Right now, we are all still Sgt Schultz. The cards to this game have just been dealt. We're at step one.

Lot's of hate for tOSU out there. Don't underestimate how hard Overland Park will come down. But if they do, the VERY least harmful punitive action would be to make 2010 an ofer.

[jb]

I don't know if what JT did was enough to be fired.

It is clearly a fireable offense per his contract.

[jb]

I'd like to see these emails

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/documents ... ails-29547

2 of the 3 contain "What I tell you is confidential". Now how far that extends and what it really means..... I got not clue.

Wild ass speculation... And I mean wild ass.

Is it out of the possibility of reality that Body Artist Guy was also involved in bookmaking?

That would be the China Syndrome. And explain the Purdue game last year. Which clearly means, you guessed it, that TPeezy was really a double agent sent from JoPa to destroy tOSU FB program.

[e0y2e3]

I'm still laughing at dan and Tripods for pretending like Wetzel and his team (his team did the real work here) were going to publish that story without proof.

Amazing what people will convince themselves of.

[jb]

I'm still laughing at dan and Tripods for pretending like Wetzel and his team (his team did the real work here) were going to publish that story without proof.

Amazing what people will convince themselves of.

All that east coast Hopkins effite elitest snobbery only to end a sentance in a preposition.

[e0y2e3]

I work in numbers g.... :-)

[peeker643]

Agree with Fundamentals. This is a major issue and one that probably should cost Tressel what it cost Dez Bryant.

And JB is right in that there may be more. Could affect the entire athletic department and multiple programs of Gene Smith comes off as stupid as Tressel did yesterday.

That was brutal and his air of calm under fire was up in smoke by the end of the day.

I don't even know what to say other than it'll be awful difficult to look down at any SEC team or any other program with disdain and disgust ever again.

Buckeyes deserve everything they get at this point. If for no other reason than being and coming off as ignorant.

[mattvan1]

I don't know if what JT did was enough to be fired.

It is clearly a fireable offense per his contract.

1. he knows and doesn't say anything - really bad

2. he knows and doesn't say anything and then signs off on compliance for the 5 so they could play in 2010 - ethics violation, falsifying elegibility documents - armageddon

[peeker643]

In May of 2009, The Columbus Dispatch reported that since 2000, Ohio
State had reported to the NCAA more than 375 violations -- the most of
any of the 69 Football Bowl Subdivision schools that provided documents
to the newspaper through public-records requests. Most of the
infractions were minor and resulted in little or no punishment.

Can't tell (it's from ESPN) if those violations were all football or all violations from a BCS-school. Also, many were minor and never drew a penalty of any sort.

But.....

Is this TWoA all over again?

By that I mean were we willing to overlook all of this because of a national championship and a ridiculous run against Michigan? Did the winning blind us to what was/is going on?

Because it's starting to feel that way.

[e0y2e3]

To a small degree Peeks.

Thing is this is college athletics and that ain't a thing (that 375). Kids like Pryor are fucks.... etc.

Where we fucked up was rationalizing that conservative game day play and the consistent ass-raping on signing day the SEC gave us with "well, at least we have character!!"

We're just another rat in the race. Tress' legacy at this point has fallen down ten pegs, not one. Before being runner up had a built in excuse, now he's just another sell-out that failed to win the big cheese in multiple instances.

[Govbarney]

By that I mean were we willing to overlook all of this because of a national championship and a ridiculous run against Michigan? Did the winning blind us to what was/is going on?

Because it's starting to feel that way.

The Bigger question is, is it still possible to compete for a FBS National Championship without breaking the rules.

NCAA as an institution needs to take a hard look at itself in the Mirror.

[peeker643]

The Dispatch provides some clarity on that 375.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content//l ... ml?sid=101

75% were football/basketball. Most so minor nothing came of them.

[peeker643]

That's a good point regarding the 10 pegs. I thought it was harsh initially but there's a lot of validity to it. Dude's 'Forgiveness Factor' has been used up to a large extent after this.

There will still be those who think Tressel walks on water and who won't acknowledge these transgressions or who will now rationalize them with an "everyone's doing it" PoV where one didn't exist before.

We're likey to get the "it was one mistake" response from some but if there's a history that's discovered then what. Tressel went from a revered, above the fray guy to just like anyone else in the matter of two days.

Disappointing. That's what it comes down to. Ain't no changing that fact.

Guy has a pattern of lying that flies in the face of the image we accepted as real.

To a small degree Peeks.

Thing is this is college athletics and that ain't a thing (that 375). Kids like Pryor are fucks.... etc.

Where we fucked up was rationalizing that conservative game day play and the consistent ass-raping on signing day the SEC gave us with "well, at least we have character!!"

We're just another rat in the race. Tress' legacy at this point has fallen down ten pegs, not one. Before being runner up had a built in excuse, now he's just another sell-out that failed to win the big cheese in multiple instances.

[jb]

I can't disagree with Eyeyoyoyo that conservative Ohio perception fed, and by what you see here still feeds, some halo effect.

OTOH, self-reporting violations is not in and itself "bad". It means you have an active and involved complience process and you come clean pretty quickly. The NCAA D 1 manual is carzy complicated. Think of the bible mixed with a collective bargaining contract the size of the Manhattan white pages, replete with old and new bylaws that can often seem to read in a contradictory manner. So much of what is to be done is byzantine unless you are only 1 of 4 people on campus who is deemed worthy enough to contact the NCAA compliance office in person, one of who is the POTU who never gets involved in this stuff. So it is very, very hard to establish a checks & balance situation outside of the athletic department, even though a Registrar or academic advising office could realy be effective in that role. In lieu of that, you have to rely on the conference staff to assist with (unofficial) interpritations, which are a mix of part case law precident and the College of Cardinals crafting theological cannon via discrediting ontological philosophy.

IOW, it is a bitch. So institutions unknowingly screw up all the livelong day becaue at most places complience is monitored by a $40K mid level administrator trying to cover all 14 sports and serve as unoffical academic advisor to a bunch of adolescents with arrested development who still have delusions of playing pro ball barely interested in academics that the football coaches and head AD's occasionlly listen to if he or she chooses the battles.

Only at a place as big and well-resources as tOSU do you have a professional complience staff with potentially enough clout (due to multimillion dollar risk management needs ) and expertise and staff to uncover the minor bullshit that inevitably happens. And then to stay clean you self-report including drafting protocol to prevent recurrence. A few weeks later you get a letter from Kansas that says "thank you for making confession, say 1 Hail mary, and go forth and sin no more". These are venial sins. Inevitable.

All that really matters in the end is receiving imporper benefit$ and lack of institutional control

It APPEARS the former is a foregone conclusion, which means the program will inevitably get dinged more than has been self-imposed.

The latter is now what really remains to be seen. And that's the biggie. The mortal sin.

[Fire Marshall Bill]

I don't even know what to say other than it'll be awful difficult to look down at any SEC team or any other program with disdain and disgust ever again

Shoulda changed it to "I'll never...." ...cuz its an awful long fall off the high horse OSU fan had ridden the past 10 yrs

...and don't forget to include all yinz's rantings and ravings on Pete Carroll and USC

Not only should USU vacate the 2010 season they absolutely should be giving back their Sugar Bowl money....maybe send it to UConn which lost 1.8 mil on their bowl game, eh?

[fundamentals]

The one thing that bothers me most about this is that Tressel has gone on record, many times, and talked about character, etc..... One of those instances of "do as I say and not as I do", in my opinion. Everyone makes mistakes and we all fall short of being perfect but for me, the guy exuded class and what was "right" about college athletics.

A bunch of guys I know are saying well the SEC cheats, blah blah blah. Doesn't make it right. They got caught but only after the guy who is supposed to be a leader of men failed miserably to be truthful about knowing. If he is guilty of lying and covering it up; he should be fired, no matter what the record and no matter the accomplishments. Just my two cents.

[mattvan1]

Where we fucked up was rationalizing that conservative game day play and the consistent ass-raping on signing day the SEC gave us with "well, at least we have character!!"

We're just another rat in the race. Tress' legacy at this point has fallen down ten pegs, not one. Before being runner up had a built in excuse, now he's just another sell-out that failed to win the big cheese in multiple instances.

I'm still in denial so your post seems a bit harsh, but goddamn if somewhere in the far back of my mind I'm not thinking exactly the same way. I'm just stupid and naive, but to me, this is 1,000,000,000,000 times worse than TWoA going to Miami. That was a kick in the balls. This is soul crushing.

[peeker643]

It's a willful and wanton disregard for the process.

Willful and wanton gets you gone.

That's where this is ultmately headed and it will be quite possibly be the most surprising turn of events in my sports-watching lifetime.

Has tpeezy2 tweeted on the events yet? Wonder if he 'test-drove' the Benz over to Tressel's house to offer his support?

[e0y2e3]

Oh and Audey - UConn deserves to give me a blow job more than they deserve tOSU's Sugar Bowl money.

Grow up and become a big boy program that can draw TV Ratings and then you'll get the bigger bowl. Bama - Auburn - OSU - Oregon - all cheats.

As I said up thread, we're just like them now.

Fuck UConn and their shit ass joke of a program.

[jb]

It's a willful and wanton disregard for the process.

Willful and wanton gets you gone.

That's where this is ultmately headed and it will be quite possibly be the most surprising turn of events in my sports-watching lifetime.

I dunno Peeker. I have a hard time thinking it is so moral.

JFK once said, "an error doesn't have to be a mistake unless corrective action isn't taken." JT erred. Then he pannicked. Then he made a mistake.

In these sorts of situations, it is almost never the crime. It is the cover up. Why is it so hard to believe that tSV is all of these things? Why is it so hrd to believe that he's not so different than T Peezy to the extent that if you get put on a pdital enough time you bleiev the groun disn't hard and you can not fall?

Personally, I think he just got scared. End of explanation.

A very wise person once told me, Never forget that when it is all said and done, all of these coaches are just individuals who spend a lifetime on a job to teach kids how to throw and catch a ball or something like that."

That is pretty sobering becasue it is esentially spot on. So I never get all that shocked when I see anyone of these guys err.

[e0y2e3]

Here is the conundrum:

If Tress informed the U formally about the problems he isn't in breach of contract but the program is stairing at the NCAA's sword

If Tress didn't inform the U he is in breach of contract and technically should be fired.

Who falls on the sword?

[jb]

Here is the conundrum:

If Tress informed the U formally about the problems he isn't in breach of contract but the program is stairing at the NCAA's sword

If Tress didn't inform the U he is in breach of contract and technically should be fired.

Who falls on the sword?

JT.

Because while he should be fired, he won't be. And I imagine that this arrangement is about as spontaneous as Bron's decision in July.

[jb]

....maybe send it to UConn which lost 1.8 mil on their bowl game, eh?

Yeah, casue I hear their hoops program is a little short of making the players and recruits pay roll promised by calhoun.

[Triple-S]

Here is the conundrum:

If Tress informed the U formally about the problems he isn't in breach of contract but the program is stairing at the NCAA's sword

If Tress didn't inform the U he is in breach of contract and technically should be fired.

Who falls on the sword?

wasn't there rumblings that the vest was "retiring" a few months back? I believe the guys at WFNY were trying to break that as a story.

does the university fire him right now though? I mean it's pretty far into the off-season and would almost make it near impossible to have some form of continuation.

[e0y2e3]

WFNY needs to stop "breaking" stories. It ends up eerily similar to Tony and his Sizemore scoop ever time. Bloggers ain't breakers.

and JB... LOL with a stolen laptop on top.

[Triple-S]

WFNY needs to stop "breaking" stories. It ends up eerily similar to Tony and his Sizemore scoop ever time. Bloggers ain't breakers.

Very much so on this times a million.

[danwismar]

with regard to e0y2e3's post, I don't recall suggesting Wetzel and his boys were going to press on this without proof. I did say I have seen articles by him that were essentially fact-free in their accusations of wrongdoing by whomever, and I stand by that. Clearly that was not the case here.

I think every OSU fan's fond hope when the story was breaking was that it would be found that Tressel had some information, but not enough to be sure. So much for that.

I wanted to sleep on this before writing anything for the front page, and I'm going to keep my powder dry till then, but a couple things after 7 good hours of shuteye that I'm looking at a bit differently than I was last night.

Vacating the 2010 season is probably a good idea. It certainly would be what I would be calling for if I were one of JT's Big Ten lodge brothers. It's not like the players involved were the punt returner and a backup tackle.

Taking the position in the press conference that his actions were motivated by nothing more than concern for the well-being of the players, (while repeatedly reminding us that they visit sick kids in hospitals in their spare time) was over the top and deserves the same kind of scorn we reserve for politicians who constantly claim to be acting "for the children". Gee was especially grating in his transparent fellating of Tressel.

As far as this being a firing offense though...my reaction to that is the same as Gordon Gee's was last night when he was asked if they considered firing JT.... "No. Are you kidding?"

Taking this incident from what it was to a "lack of institutional control" is another bit of ridiculous hyperbole, IMO. Outside boosters making six-figure cash payments to recruits is "lack of institutional control".

And what JT did should be understood by all to be way more serious in terms of damage to the program than what the players did. Nothing that has happened in the last 2 days makes anything the OSU players did any more serious than it was....moving some jerseys and some jewelry for a few hundred bucks. Zero criminality. Sorry Pryor-haters...he doesn't drive a program issue Benz.

[pup]

Dan,

What if this was the second time Tress was caught "protecting" his players?

I buy he was protecting them from April - December.

I buy others in the program knew.

I buy he was covering his own ass since December.

I buy he did the exact same thing at YSU.

[skatingtripods]

I'm still laughing at dan and Tripods for pretending like Wetzel and his team (his team did the real work here) were going to publish that story without proof.

Amazing what people will convince themselves of.

"Sources" are thrown about in journalism all the time these days. It's all about the page hits in online journalism. As someone who majored in the business, I know the dishonesty of it. Wetzel and his team may be good at what they do and they turned out to be correct. It doesn't mean that every time from here on out that they have an "anonymous source", they're dead nuts on.

Amazing that people can't understand the concept of letting the facts play out prior to crucifying someone.


And it has nothing to do with my personal opinion of Tressel, either. I'm one of the few who doesn't fellate him at the drop of every hat. Love him as a recruiter, not a huge fan as a coach.

[paratiger]

This is very interesting there Dan. In Case you don't remember me, I'm the Auburn fan that exchanged emails with you for a couple of days concerning the Cam Newton article you posted complete with Tigerdroppings.com as your "source" of background information. Guess it DOES happen everywhere doesn't it.

It baffles me how so many of you can point fingers at Auburn, "but hey, it's not paying a guy to come to your college to play football and win you a National Championship.", "Shocking if OSU has to vacate their season before (if) Auburn does theirs.", "If we don't wanna call it "cheating" like we do when referring to SEC teams, let's call it "head turning.", Etc., etc....

I suppose you don't care that the NCAA on 3 seperate occasions said that Auburn had nothing to do with the violations. Nor has there been any paper trail, a $200,000 paper trail at that, to link Auburn to "BUYING ANYONE". Oh but they've done it before therefore it must be true now. Apparently Tressel has sweep before at YTS. So lets use your logic Dan. What else do you think ole' Jimmy has sweep under the rug at THE Ohio St. in the name of WINNING? Given the circumstances why should anyone really believe that "a lawyer called me" statement? He sweep it and lied about the situation then so why is it that now he is all the sudden a credible person that deserves your allegence?


Trust me I'm not trying to put anything on you guys that you aren't already going through. I'm simply trying to make you understand that jumping to conclusions from an outside perspective can be pretty shortsighted. Good luck with all this because I for one enjoy beating a good The Ohio St. team rather than one coming off probation and sanctions.

[scott]

Taking the position in the press conference that his actions were motivated by nothing more than concern for the well-being of the players, (while repeatedly reminding us that they visit sick kids in hospitals in their spare time) was over the top and deserves the same kind of scorn we reserve for politicians who constantly claim to be acting "for the children". Gee was especially grating in his transparent fellating of Tressel.

People are going to come down harder on JT - the public and media at least - for the same reason Jay Mariotti caught hell. When you claim to be above the fray it is a harder fall. Gotta admit a little schadenfraude as one of the non-OSU fans on this board. I know that won't be popular.

[peeker643]

And what JT did should be understood by all to be way more serious in terms of damage to the program than what the players did. Nothing that has happened in the last 2 days makes anything the OSU players did any more serious than it was....moving some jerseys and some jewelry for a few hundred bucks. Zero criminality. Sorry Pryor-haters...he doesn't drive a program issue Benz.

I didn't say it was 'program' issue Benz Dan. And hey, I have no idea if whoever let Pryor test drive those cars for days allows any student to come in and do the same. Or maybe it's any student with a signed jersey on the wall of the dealership. Maybe it's included in tuition. I have no clue.

[fundamentals]

I can't see how Tressel coaches more than about four games next season, if at all, next season. Bruce Pearl, after figuring out he really screwed up and was going to get caught was given an eight-game suspension by the NCAA. Tressel didn't report the incident and admit mia culpa, dude still didn't apologize last night.

I find it comical that a guy would use the sick kid visits to the hospitals, etc..... maybe from someone else, but not Jim Tressel. Deer..................in................headlights. Maybe it is only game memorabilia but when you openly and admittedly (now) that you lied, you are in deeeeeeeeeep doo doo.

Peeker's comment about this being as big of a story during his lifetime is spot on. This is shocking, at least to me.

Let the Jimmy Swaggart, Rick Neuheisel, Lane Kiffin jokes begin.

[danwismar]

This is very interesting there Dan. In Case you don't remember me, I'm the Auburn fan that exchanged emails with you for a couple of days concerning the Cam Newton article you posted complete with Tigerdroppings.com as your "source" of background information. Guess it DOES happen everywhere doesn't it.

It baffles me how so many of you can point fingers at Auburn, "but hey, it's not paying a guy to come to your college to play football and win you a National Championship.", "Shocking if OSU has to vacate their season before (if) Auburn does theirs.", "If we don't wanna call it "cheating" like we do when referring to SEC teams, let's call it "head turning.", Etc., etc....

I suppose you don't care that the NCAA on 3 seperate occasions said that Auburn had nothing to do with the violations. Nor has there been any paper trail, a $200,000 paper trail at that, to link Auburn to "BUYING ANYONE". Oh but they've done it before therefore it must be true now. Apparently Tressel has sweep before at YTS. So lets use your logic Dan. What else do you think ole' Jimmy has sweep under the rug at THE Ohio St. in the name of WINNING? Given the circumstances why should anyone really believe that "a lawyer called me" statement? He sweep it and lied about the situation then so why is it that now he is all the sudden a credible person that deserves your allegence?


Trust me I'm not trying to put anything on you guys that you aren't already going through. I'm simply trying to make you understand that jumping to conclusions from an outside perspective can be pretty shortsighted. Good luck with all this because I for one enjoy beating a good The Ohio St. team rather than one coming off probation and sanctions.

Hey paratiger...thanks for registering and posting. Welcome.

I'm wondering if you even read my post above though. Doesn't seem like it. I didn't excuse anything Tressel did. I didn't suggest he shouldn't be punished or that the program shouldn't be sanctioned. I even agreed (after some reflection) that the season should probably be vacated. I criticized him for masking his self-serving purposes with a transparent "for the children" veneer (when he wasn't excusing himself with a "preserving confidentiality" veneer)

And you're not the first of my Alabama-area correspondents that I've heard from in the last 24 hours....and I don't suppose you'll be the last. One thing that is constantly amusing to me though is the seeming confusion on the part of certain SEC football fans....that is, they can't decide whether they want to argue that a)you can't prove we did it...(yet) or b) everybody does it...(so why pick on us, just because we wrote the manual)

Seems to me you want to have it both ways.

My other point is this....what Tressel did was serious and worthy of sanction. What the OSU players did was trivial...relative to what goes on commonly among college football players...(even though it constituted an NCAA violation). The behaviors that got Cam Newton kicked out of Florida come to mind, along with a thousand other examples of criminality by college football players.

"why should anyone really believe that "a lawyer called me" statement?"

The emails he got are now in the public record...not that this excuses anything.

Thanks again for taking the time to register and post. Come on back.

[SoulDawg74]

And what JT did should be understood by all to be way more serious in terms of damage to the program than what the players did. Nothing that has happened in the last 2 days makes anything the OSU players did any more serious than it was....moving some jerseys and some jewelry for a few hundred bucks. Zero criminality. Sorry Pryor-haters...he doesn't drive a program issue Benz.

I didn't say it was 'program' issue Benz Dan. And hey, I have no idea if whoever let Pryor test drive those cars for days allows any student to come in and do the same. Or maybe it's any student with a signed jersey on the wall of the dealership. Maybe it's included in tuition. I have no clue.

SD:

All I know that anybody who is shocked at the revelations and are calling for The vests head , didn't know 1/10 of how that program was run under Woody Hayes , or the wild wild west of Okie Bama and others.

Fuck we got mothers cooking their babies in Micro waves , yet I'm supposed to be outraged over some players selling their own property for extra College cash and a Coach covering it up because section 4,917.45 section A paragrapgh 21 B says thats naughty .

PUhleeeese.


SoulDawg

[danwismar]

I can't see how Tressel coaches more than about four games next season, if at all, next season. Bruce Pearl, after figuring out he really screwed up and was going to get caught was given an eight-game suspension by the NCAA. Tressel didn't report the incident and admit mia culpa, dude still didn't apologize last night.

You may be right, but knowing what I do about Gene Smith's strong track record for maneuvering in the halls of the NCAA (one of the reasons he was attractive to OSU in the first place) I believe, like JB suggested above, that this thing was well-scripted from the start.

There have been several things I was wrong about just since this thread started (believing the best about JT's motives among them) but one thing I was right about was that there was nothing disclosed by the YahooSports article, or anything else about this case, that the NCAA wasn't already fully aware of before this story broke this week. They had their investigators in Columbus interviewing Tressel a month ago. I'm sure every word of that press conference was vetted by the boys from the NCAA, and the school's self-inflicted sanctions and penalties discussed with them in advance. (Gene Smith thanking them at least three times in the first three minutes of his remarks was my first clue)

They may vacate the 12 victories, but I think Tressel's suspension will stand where it is...because I think it was agreed upon in advance.

[waborat]

Peeker's comment about this being as big of a story during his lifetime is spot on. This is shocking, at least to me.

"Shocking" because it's now, but it'll be a blip in 2-3 years...

16 years later and I'm still freakin shocked OJ went all Freddie Krueger on a couple of lovers