Bad Day For the Buckeyes

Any day you get a notice of allegations from the NCAA is not a good day.  Being Wolverine fans we know how it feels.  

On Friday, OSU got their letter and today it's becoming public.  The good news for Buckeye fans, the NCAA did not alleged  OSU for "failure to monitor" or "failure of institutional control" violations.  Which actually makes no sense.  Kids were doing the wrong things, the coach gets tipped off, he lies about it and hides it and then is caught red handed.   So I guess the NCAA is saying, OSU did monitor the situation they just hide it or didn't do anything about it.  

There is plenty of bad news in the allegations but maybe the most damning penalty is that OSU could be seen as a repeat offender for Troy Smith taking $500 from a booster and former basketball coach Jim O'Brien who gave a recruit $6000. 

The rest of the allegations  (from the Columbus Dispatch):

• Tressel was guilty of ethical misconduct when he knowingly provided false information to the NCAA in certifying that he knew of no potential violations by his players and failed to inform OSU officials.

• Ohio State fielded ineligible players last season when starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor and others competed despite Tressel's knowledge of their misconduct. NCAA bylaws call for immediate suspensions.

• The NCAA said that Pryor, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams, Solomon Thomas and Jordan Whiting will not face further punishment. They have been suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season.

• The NCAA letter details what those five current players and one former player did: Improperly sold Big Ten championship rings, "gold pants" charms from Michigan wins, game-worn equipment and other items to tattoo-parlor owner Ed Rife for $9,480.

• Players, whose names were redacted by Ohio State citing a federal privacy law, also received 13 free or discounted tattoos. In addition, one player received a $2,420 discount toward the purchase of a used vehicle from Rife, as well as an $800 loan for vehicle repairs, the NCAA reported.

• Tressel knew that at least two players were selling memorabilia or football awards to Rife. Those transactions made the players ineligible to compete under NCAA rules, the letter states.

The allegation that Tressel lied to the NCAA is significant. Since 2006, the NCAA has sanctioned 28 schools for violating the ethics bylaw that Tressel did. Of the 13 head coaches involved, only one kept her job. The others either resigned or were fired by their schools.  

OSU can kiss the 2010 regular season good bye, it sounds like they will be able to keep the Sugar Bowl win since the players were already under penalty. 

OSU clearly wants to keep Tressel as head coach but that's a mistake.  There should be nothing keeping this guy in his job.  The NCAA hates when people lie to them and Tressel did it twice.  IMO, if Tressel keeps his job the NCAA will come down hard on Ohio State and even harder if they are found to be a repeat offender.  A penalty could be a number of lost scholarships and being banned from the Big Ten Championship game and Bowl Games.

Don't forget Tressel could "personally" found to be a repeat offender as well for the situation at Youngstown State.   The NCAA lately has been trying to penalize coaches who skip to other jobs and leave the entire penalty with the University they just left.   Other examples of this are Kelvin Sampson when he left Oklahoma for Indiana.  There are other guys that have gotten away with it include: Lou Holtz, Pete Carroll, and John Calipari.

Ohio State is in a no win situation with Tressel at the moment.  They don't want to fire him but can't support him either.  He is and will be hung out in the wind.  He should resign since he could be fired with cause today anyway.

OSU will meet with the NCAA on August 12th.  The best they can hope for is that the NCAA accepts the current penalty they have given Tressel.   Don't count on it.