The NCAA Has to Send a Strong Message to Ohio State
Posted on June 2, 2011 by Jacob Bunn
Monday, the news broke that Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel had resigned. This action followed three months of intense scrutiny surrounding the Buckeye program.
On March 7, earlier this year, Yahoo Sports reported that Tressel had known of possible NCAA violations since April of 2010. This prompted Ohio State to hold a press conference the next day to announce that the school had suspended Tressel for two games. This exhibition also allowed Athletics Director Gene Smith and President E. Gordon Gee to articulate their confidence in Tressel going forward as the leader of the football program.
During the conference, Gee even said about the possibility of Tressel losing his position, “I’m just hopeful the coach doesn’t dismiss me.”
If that kind of a comment sets off alarm bells to me, what do you think the NCAA enforcement staff thinks of it?
Another thing Ohio State did at the press conference was promulgate that no further violations were imminent. Well, that simply was not true. There was plenty more negative news on the horizon for the Ohio State program, and I have a difficult time believing no one in the administration knew that.
Regardless, the seemingly inevitable has happened, and Jim Tressel has been removed from the Ohio State picture. The final straw for Tressel may have been Sports Illustrated apprising the Ohio State athletic department of an investigative report that exposed more indiscretions. Ironically, the report was published several hours after Tressel resigned. The article, comprised by Greg Dohrmann, revealed a pattern of rules violations that dates back to 2002.
Tressel should have been removed from the program prior to Memorial Day. I think the continued support for him for so long by the Ohio State administration will not be forgotten. How can leaders at a major university not be outraged to the point of significant action upon hearing the type of wrongdoing that was published in the initial article? Why do you think they turned a blind eye for so long? Could they have been in on it as well? The questions that will be asked of Smith and Gee in the coming days will be numerous.
It is a real shame for the fans and the players who have done nothing wrong when a program is penalized by the NCAA, but justice, nonetheless, must be served. However unfair it may be at times, the system of enforcement in college football is what it is.
The NCAA cannot ignore this case of seemingly blatant rules violations and an apathetic attitude by the Ohio State administration, and I don’t think it will. College football’s governing body has come across as docile in recent months, and this could prove to be an opportunity for severe discipline. Plus, the NCAA allowed the five suspended players to play in the Sugar Bowl, and then learned that Tressel had the information last April. I doubt that sits too well in Indianapolis. Let’s face it, if the Buckeye program does get ‘hammered,’ no one can say it was not deserved.
