Does the Ohio State Scandal Spell Doom for Tressel and the Buckeyes?
Posted on March 11, 2011 by Jacob Bunn
Monday evening, Dan Wetzel and Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports broke another bombshell college football story. The report stated that Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel had knowledge of the fact that his players were selling memorabilia well before the school said it was aware of the problem. Since this report, other media outlets have revealed the actual emails in which Tressel was made aware of the problems surrounding his players.
All of this comes on the heels of a highly controversial decision by the NCAA to allow the athletes to compete in the Sugar Bowl in January against Arkansas. In December, when Ohio State and the NCAA determined that illegal activity was taking place, the NCAA decided to suspend the five players for five games at the beginning of the 2011 season, but not the bowl game. This decision created quite a stir around the world of college football. Many thought it was preposterous that players would be suspended for five games the following season and not have to miss the upcoming bowl game. After the decision regarding Cam Newton, though, I doubt anyone was terribly astonished.
Ohio State decided to punish Tressel by suspending him for two games and fining him $250,000. The two games for which he is suspended are home contests against Akron and Toledo.
According to a report by Pete Thamel of the New York Times, the commissioner of the Big Ten, Jim Delany, has decided not to take punitive action until the NCAA rules on the matter. Delany is apparently not going to go by the immediate conference discipline precedent set by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. Slive suspended Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl for the first eight conference games of the current season because of transgressions similar to Tressel’s.
An argument can be made that Pearl should no longer be coaching basketball at Tennessee, but he is doing so nonetheless. Tressel is also still coaching at Ohio State, and there has been no move as of yet from the administration to terminate him.
Predictably, at the press conference set to address this matter, the President of Ohio State, E. Gordon Gee, and the Athletic Director, Gene Smith, spouted the usual company line rhetoric and told of their unquestioned support of coach Tressel. Least amusing was a comment (ironically intended to be humorous) made by President Gee in response to a question. When asked if he considered dismissing Tressel, Gee responded, “No. Are you kidding? Let me just be very clear, I’m just hopeful the coach doesn’t dismiss me.” Really Mr. Gee, is that the kind of esteem in which Tressel is held at your university?
Perhaps the biggest travesty of all was the production that Ohio State put on to announce that Terrelle Pryor and the other four members of the team who were involved with the aforementioned improprieties would be coming back to play in Columbus in 2011. As these players made their plans known at a press conference, Tressel stood by as if he were going to ensure that they would ‘do better next time.’ And the entire time, he knew what he had done and how wrong it was.
The fact remains that Tressel had knowledge of the rule-breaking activity in which his players were involved months before it was ever acknowledged publicly by the university. It can be implied that he blatantly falsified his position in the matter to the NCAA and mislead many in the Ohio State community. My question is how can he be the head coach next season following this scandal?
One of the criticisms of the latest decisions handed down by the NCAA is that they have seemingly let the big schools ‘get off easy.’ Irrefutably, the Mark Emmert administration has handled things differently than its predecessor. At some point, the NCAA will hand down the Ohio State verdict and sentencing. That is certainly a perfect opportunity to try and silence any critics who say that preferential treatment is being given.
Ohio State comes out of this looking terrible. One of the more laughable moments during the press conference on Monday came when Athletic Director Gene Smith tried to explain why they were holding the press conference at that time. In a great job of spinning, Smith, in a roundabout way, attempted to diffuse any idea that the Yahoo Sports report had anything to do with the timing of the conference.
Tressel’s stock has plummeted also. The man who used to be portrayed as one of the good and noble coaches in college football is now a national outcast. My question is how can he survive this and maintain his position? In addition to presumably misleading the NCAA, Tressel allowed the Ohio State fan base to believe that everything being done was above board, when nothing was further from the truth.
The NCAA will penalize Ohio State somehow. When and how they will do so, on the other hand, is another story. The real question, however, is should Jim Tressel take the field as the head coach of The Ohio State University next season? What do you think?
Contact Jacob Bunn via email at jacob@bunnsports.com
