Tresselgate - The lying and cheating of Jim Tressel and The Ohio State University

[shamwowpearl]

Originally Posted by illinicb

Maybe you have a couple of hundred million to get a basketball arena renovation started

Not unless I hit the powerball :laugh: I know at UK they have hired a group to decide which is best in regards to Rupp Arena....renovate or replace. Have heard they may want a 30,000 seat facility with luxury boxes. I think when these places get that size, they lose a little something.

[Dan]

Ray Small tells all: Ex-Buckeye says he sold memorabilia, some players don't 'think about' rules

Small, who played receiver at OSU from 2006-2010, capitalized on the Buckeyes' success during his college career.

"We had four Big Ten rings," he said. "There was enough to go around."

Small said he sold the rings to cover typical costs of living.

"We have apartments, car notes," he said. "So you got things like that and you look around and you're like, ‘Well I got (four) of them, I can sell one or two and get some money to pay this rent."

thelantern.com

[ill07]

Originally Posted by Dan

"We have apartments, car notes,"

Um, yea. I had college and two jobs to juggle, and I got by just fine without a car. Don't try to have use believe that a (nice flashy) car is a necessity of life just because you play football.

[shamwowpearl]

Buckeyes are insane anyway, cheating is a way of life. Tressel should be fired or the 'AA should come down so hard to make it better for the university to fire him. I love the fact that tOSU is 1-10 vs SEC teams in bowl games, and the 1 win may be vacated. I live close to the border and was in a sports bar in Oh when Florida waxed them in the BCS Championship game. That was awesome, although I had to leave early......wanted to live and save my car

[NV Illini 74]

. . . and the beat goes on . . .

[james81]

This selling stuff is not a "felony" offense"--more of a misdemeanor, and not as bad as DWI. The problem, as with any offense, is a coverup or not reporting a violation. The school has been penalized. It's over. If it were Ball State, under the same circumstances, nobody would be writing about it. The media wants to keep it alive because Tressel and tOSU are juicy targets. As for fans, it says something about human nature wanting to see your adversaries suffer as much as possible. I don't have any love for Tressel, but he's a good coach, and money affects every team at some level. If we saw the whole picture, at every Division 1 school, I doubt if there would be many finger pointers. Perhaps Pascal had it right: There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

[ill07]

Originally Posted by james81

This selling stuff is not a "felony" offense"--more of a misdemeanor, and not as bad as DWI. The problem, as with any offense, is a coverup or not reporting a violation. The school has been penalized. It's over. If it were Ball State, under the same circumstances, nobody would be writing about it. The media wants to keep it alive because Tressel and tOSU are juicy targets. As for fans, it says something about human nature wanting to see your adversaries suffer as much as possible. I don't have any love for Tressel, but he's a good coach, and money affects every team at some level. If we saw the whole picture, at every Division 1 school, I doubt if there would be many finger pointers. Perhaps Pascal had it right: There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

No, if it had been Ball State under the same circumstances (including the lies and coverup), the penalty would have been twice as severe....

[Dan]

Ohio State needs to hit scandal head on

The real issue for a school isn't that a violation occurs. It's how it responds once it does. Throughout this case Ohio State has acted with bizarre defiance.

It has attempted to move on when there's no earthly way it could claim that it had a thorough grasp of what had occurred. As this case has morphed from individual players selling their own items, to a coach allowing it, to a case of how the institution conducts its business (which is what the NCAA most cares about), the Buckeyes' response becomes increasingly problematic.

It keeps acting like a little kid under the delusion that wishing things aren't so bad means they won't be.

Dan Wetzel

[pizzaman]

As a student I had a couple years when I sold nearly anything (clothes, records, used books) I had of value because I was broke by the end of the 2nd semester. I'm not surprised and unless he was altering his game for money it's a meaningless issue to me.

[illinicb]

Throughout his career at Ohio State, Tressel has been advertised as being not just a coach but a teacher. Both the Columbus Dispatch and ESPN have, in recent seasons, trumpeted him as the only coach in the country who teaches a class in addition to his coaching duties.

According to the faculty code of conduct at Ohio State:

“We accept responsibility for our actions, we keep our word . . . our communication is direct and honest. We promote authenticity and transparency in our relationships and activities . . . in the administration and management of our enterprise, we are responsive, ethical and transparent . . . ”

By even the most liberal grading scale, Tressel violated that code on all three counts. Not only is he still employed, but just last week he gained another vote of confidence from Smith.

Given all that, it’s clear Ohio State is all-in with its coach. So the school’s fear of Sports Illustrated’s story is grounded more in how foolish Ohio State will look for continuing to support Tressel than any fear of being forced to fire him by some new revelation.

Bruce Hooley

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by james81

This selling stuff is not a "felony" offense"--more of a misdemeanor, and not as bad as DWI. The problem, as with any offense, is a coverup or not reporting a violation. The school has been penalized. It's over. If it were Ball State, under the same circumstances, nobody would be writing about it. The media wants to keep it alive because Tressel and tOSU are juicy targets. As for fans, it says something about human nature wanting to see your adversaries suffer as much as possible. I don't have any love for Tressel, but he's a good coach, and money affects every team at some level. If we saw the whole picture, at every Division 1 school, I doubt if there would be many finger pointers. Perhaps Pascal had it right: There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

James with some freakishly good posts tonight.

[Groundhogday]

Originally Posted by james81

This selling stuff is not a "felony" offense"--more of a misdemeanor, and not as bad as DWI. The problem, as with any offense, is a coverup or not reporting a violation. The school has been penalized. It's over. If it were Ball State, under the same circumstances, nobody would be writing about it. The media wants to keep it alive because Tressel and tOSU are juicy targets. As for fans, it says something about human nature wanting to see your adversaries suffer as much as possible. I don't have any love for Tressel, but he's a good coach, and money affects every team at some level. If we saw the whole picture, at every Division 1 school, I doubt if there would be many finger pointers. Perhaps Pascal had it right: There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

There has been evidence going back for a decade that things were not right in Columbus. Maurice Clarett. Dealer cars "test driven" across state lines for weeks. Wealthy "mentors" for high profile players.

Does this happen at most football-crazy schools (e.g. Alabama, Texas, USC, ...)? Quite likely. Boosters get out of hand and players soak it up. That doesn't make it okay. Not at OSU, not at USC, not at Auburn. When one of these schools gets exposed, they need to be penalized. And this is particularly true when the head coach has been caught red-handed looking the other way and lying about a known infraction.

And no, they have not yet been punished. The full punishment will come after the investigation has been completed.

[illinicb]

Originally Posted by james81

The media wants to keep it alive because Tressel and tOSU are juicy targets.

No doubt, but it is being fed by the suspicion that there must be more there and it will finally get revealed if someone looks into it. There may be nothing there, but given that OSU dodged real penalties after Clarett, some people want to see OSU hit with more than a slap on the wrist.

I personally don't like to see any conference school breaking rules and getting penalized because it reflects badly on all the conference schools. OTOH, I hate the sanctimonious attitudes of Tressel, Smith and Gee and other public figures that feel they are above reproach. That's just me.

[illiniparkie]

Tattoo parlor owner involved in Ohio State football case enters plea agreement

A Columbus tattoo parlor owner whose involvement with Ohio State University football players has landed the program in hot water has agreed to plead guilty to two charges in an agreement with the federal government.

Edward A. Rife, 31, was charged in federal court with one count of conspiracy to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and one count of money laundering involving the purchase of an Infiniti SUV. He also was ordered to forfeit $50,000 to the United States.

dispatch.com

[blmillini]

If you don't want to clean up the program, just arrest the people that were associated so all future contributors keep it quiet... nicely done Ohio. This just keeps getting better and better... like our politicians.

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by blmillini

If you don't want to clean up the program, just arrest the people that were associated so all future contributors keep it quiet... nicely done Ohio. This just keeps getting better and better... like our politicians.

Was this a joke? Because in most states a hundred kilograms of weed is considered a bit more serious than selling some college memorabilia that is perfectly legal to sell. Just saying.

Besides that, they only found out about the violations during the course of this guys arrest. If you are alleging a conspiracy of silence and as part of that the arrest of this man, I would remind you to add some copper to your tin foil hat. The tin foil only stops the mind control probe. You need the copper so they cannot read your mind.

[illinidarrin]

Oh my!!!

[mmccallum]

Originally Posted by illinidarrin

Oh my!!!

This is the kind of opportunity IL FB needs to capitalize on. And, who is to say its limited to FB?
Sounds like extreme lack of institutional control to me.
OSU is likely looking at problems. The odds of them winning the division with all of this going on is really low. Further, its a great recruiting tool.

I can see the recuriters going into ohio territory and saying, "Look, its a good program and a good school. But, we will not be under sanctions for the next four years. Full rights to TV, Bowls, scholarships vs lots of drama."

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by illinidarrin

Oh my!!!

Strange article. The guy says he talked to the compliance officer for every deal and that all of them are clean. The compliance officer said that he talked to the guy only once according to a Columbus Dispatch article. Not sure that this gets us anywhere unless the compliance officer told the NCAA that he only talked to the guy once. Who cares what somebody tells a newspaper or how a newspaper spins a story? The odd thing is that I would think this article in some ways corroborates the image of a program trying to monitor things.

BTW, the comments are hilarious. It makes me truly worry for my children's education to read those. It reads as a veritable litany of spelling, grammar, and intellectual errors. I particularly like the guy who is telling everyone that content is all that matters. Can anyone take a poster seriously when 4 of his 10 words are misspelled or misused?

[mmccallum]

Have you ever seen enemy of the state staring Will Smith?

[Groundhogday]

Originally Posted by illinidarrin

Oh my!!!

Pryor had moving violations while driving dealer cars THREE times. A kid with no money, driving dealer cars on a regular basis. But NOOOOO evidence of anything inappropriate happening in Columbus.

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by Groundhogday

Pryor had moving violations while driving dealer cars THREE times. A kid with no money, driving dealer cars on a regular basis. But NOOOOO evidence of anything inappropriate happening in Columbus.

I agree that that requires explanation. OTOH it has been extensively reported already.

[illinidarrin]

Originally Posted by DaytonIllini

Strange article. The guy says he talked to the compliance officer for every deal and that all of them are clean. The compliance officer said that he talked to the guy only once according to a Columbus Dispatch article. Not sure that this gets us anywhere unless the compliance officer told the NCAA that he only talked to the guy once. Who cares what somebody tells a newspaper or how a newspaper spins a story? The odd thing is that I would think this article in some ways corroborates the image of a program trying to monitor things.

BTW, the comments are hilarious. It makes me truly worry for my children's education to read those. It reads as a veritable litany of spelling, grammar, and intellectual errors. I particularly like the guy who is telling everyone that content is all that matters. Can anyone take a poster seriously when 4 of his 10 words are misspelled or misused?

Are you an Illini fan or not? You seem to always find a way to defend OSU no matter what comes out.

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by mmccallum

Have you ever seen enemy of the state staring Will Smith?

The government's been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the forties. They've infected everything. They get into your bank statements, computer files, email, listen to your phone calls... Every wire, every airwave. The more technology used, the easier it is for them to keep tabs on you. It's a brave new world out there. At least it'd better be.

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by illinidarrin

Are you an Illini fan or not? You seem to always find a way to defend OSU no matter what comes out.

I am Darrin. I also am a fan of the Big 10. This scandal is bad for the Big 10 and very bad for Illinois. We have revenue sharing in the Big 10 and if half of this is true that means at least a $1M in lost bowl revenue for Illinois every year that OSU is sitting on the sidelines.

It also is going to make the Big 10 much weaker because without tOSU the Big 10 is the WAC when it comes to football most years.