Ohio State has taken another step toward rectifying the on-going NCAA investigation by vacating all 2010 season victories. In doing so, the university has admitted that Coach Tressel violated NCAA rules when he failed to report that the tattoo five had sold memorabilia to tattoo shop owner Edward Rife. According to the Columbus Dispatch, in a report sent to the NCAA today, Ohio State has conceded major rules violations but also points out that only Coach Tressel was aware of the violations.
In a separate Dispatch article, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith made it clear that he feels the self imposed penalty should be enough to cover the violations. Smith added that if the NCAA goes so far as to imposed scholarship losses and other more severe penalties, he is going to “battle hard.”
Smith told the Dispatch that if no new information came to light and the NCAA imposed harsher penalties,
“”I’ll be shocked and disappointed and on the offensive,” Smith said. “Unless something new arises from where we are today, it’ll be behavior (from me) you haven’t witnessed.”
According to the Dispatch, Smith said that in researching this case, they could not find one case in which the coach acted alone. According to Smith, there is usually a lack of institutional control or failure to monitor and this is not the case with Ohio State.
It is good to see Smith come out ready to fight. At this point, Ohio State has taken more than their fair share of punishment. As I’ve said before, this was not a pay to play situation. A handful of kids sold memorabilia to an individual with absolutely no affiliation with the university. That’s it. Coach Tressel was contacted by a lawyer involved in a federal investigation (possible homicide) and was asked for confidentiality. Yes, he should have passed it along to his superiors. He didn’t and it cost him his job.
Who knows what the NCAA will do at this point. They have suspended their own players, asked for the resignation (retirement) of one of the top coaches in the game and now forfeited an entire season. My concern is that the self-imposed penalties have taken the wind out of the NCAA sails and in a desire to demonstrate their power, the NCAA will feel inclined to impose still more penalties. I guess we have to wait until August 12 for that.
And so Michigan finally beat Ohio State. At least when we violated the rules, it had no impact on player performance. Unfortunately, Michigan can’t say the same and they still lost to the Buckeyes.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Forget the offensive, Smith should be on the departure.
Yes, and he’s awefully defensive this soon not to be guilty of something. As I’ve said all along, there were more people involved here than just Jim Tressell.
Also, this is the same guy who proclaimed just a few short months ago “we stand behind Jim Tressell 100%”. Remember? What changed?
I agree. Smith should have punched his own ticket instead of inflicting the entire tOSU community, both players and fans, with this stinker. The goal should be to selectively punish the perps, not bomb the entire program. Totally unnecessary amounts of collateral damage!
I actually disagree with your headline. Even by vacating the win over Michigan, the game still counts as a loss for the Wolverines.
As Jay Bilas once pointed out in regards to Kentucky celebrating John Calipari’s 500th victory – all they really have to do is celebrate Calipari handing out 500 losses, then the celebration is still valid by NCAA rules.
Is there anywhere with what you said is detailed? I was wondering if losses were held against opposing schools or not.
You know, that’s actually surprisingly difficult to prove! This article, if you read it carefully, indicates that while victories are vacated, the losses are not. (the important sentence is a couple paragraphs from the end) http://www.ncaa.org/blog/2011/06/the-theory-and-practice-of-vacating-games/
We *know* for a fact that USC vacated their National Championship win against Oklahoma. However, a look at their record book on their website indicates that they have yet to remove that win from their website! http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/m-footbl/archive/usc-m-footbl-sched-2004.html
A quick look at the Oklahoma website unsurprisingly indicates also that the game still stands. http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-footbl/archive/seasons2000s.html
I can say this for a fact – vacating a win is *not* the same as forfeiting a win. You’ll appreciate this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Michigan_basketball_scandal
The appropriate statement: “There is a difference between forfeiting a game and vacating a game; a vacated game does not result in the other school being credited with a win.”
Sorry for the long reply, but the question got my curiosity going! I would be interested in someone finding a case of vacated games, perhaps one from the mid 90′s, and looking at the official record books to demonstrate that winner had the game vacated while the loser still has to record the loss.
The losses of opposing schools still stand. Only wins of the school in violation are vacated.
I love it. I just threw the headline up there as yet another cheap shot. Great to see that the record still stands.
The administration is behind JT, remember that what they said on national tv . He’s our man he will be the football coach at Ohio State we will stand behind him (liars). I knew that the only way JT would leave is if he was asked to go and he was paid. It’s not a school problem or the administrations problem, it’s a JT problem. I hope he got paid well for carrying all the burdens of the entire university. The wins are wins and the losses are losses you can’t change that. Lets get this whole F—king mess over and lets get on with playing the game of football.
I would be throwing stones right now ….. but I live in the glass house.
Gonzo …. fair warning: All programs probably operate in the “gray” area. The NCAA is not always black and white and rules are sometimes left up to the “spirit of the law”. Oregon would not be under investigation right now if they were 5-5 last season. I am hopeful that we will just get a slap on the wrist and walk away with a lesson learned. Chip Kelly and our AD only have two years of experience under their belts and I can chalk some of this stuff up to ignorance. I would hate to see Chip Kelly have to step down like JT….. as long as he hasn’t lied to the NCAA I think he will be OK. Gonzo, don’t think that your program doesn’t play in the gray area as well.
Tony, I understand what you’re saying about being 5-5 and not being investigated, but teams that cheat in the name of star players don’t usually have bad teams. That’s why they cheat with impact players, so they can be good.
If a team cheats to gain better players, they’re going to be better than the other teams. It almost always works that way.
I’d hate to think major programs who bend the rules to gain a competitive advantage over their competition would have to go 5-5 after going through all that trouble.
With all that said, Oregon looks to be in more hot water than I first imagined. There’s a direct connection between Mr. Lyles, his personel involvement with several top recruits and Chip Kelly’s coaching staff.
Maybe it won’t turn out as bad as it seems right now, but it’s not looking good for the Ducks.
And yes, you’re right. I figure at least all the major programs work around the gray areas pretty closely. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be a major program.
It’s the programs who actually step across that fine line consistantly enough that eventually get caught.
I pray that Arkansas never becomes one of those programs. That would suck.
Oregon isn’t doing anything different than all of the other schools in their recruiting. We paid Lyles because he is a “scout” and has connections to some of the guys that we were interested in recruiting. Although Lyles didn’t steer or influence any player to go to Oregon …. he made sure that any academic (or such) issues were taken care of. My question would be ….. did he do this for Oregon or did he do this for the kids. Personally I think that he did this for the kids.
GonzoHog …. Arkansas was one of those programs.
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/NCAANewsArchive/2003/Division+I/infractions+case_+university+of+arkansas,+fayetteville+-+4-28-03.html
Thats old news, Tony. Although true, this was in regard exclusively to our ex-athletic director, Frank Broyles and his connection to a Dallas trucking co. owner.
The owner (can’t remember his name right off) was paying a handfull of Razorback football players for doing very little on the job site.
Somewhere in the range of $250 to $275 a week for working only 2 or 3 hours out of a day at times.
As much as I would like to see Spielman get into the coaching game with Ohio State, I’ll take a 3 time Super Bowl champ to coach the linebackers in Mike Vrabel!
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2011/07/10/vrabel-will-return-to-osu-as-assistant.html?sid=101
Yeah. Isn’t that cool. I really like the idea of Vrabel coming back to coach. Yet another post I need to write.
A good dose of reality.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/15305047/apparently-ohio-state-needs-ncaa-help-to-get-punishment-right
You tOSU guys are a bunch of media hoes. 9 out of 24 headlines on USA TODAY SPORTS are about Ohio State. oh wait a tick ……. Oregon is under investigation …….. scratch that thought …. grab all the media you want.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/default.htm
This is AWESOME!
Ohio State fan take O-H-I-O to the grave.
http://sportsabyss.tumblr.com/post/7574623273/too-much-ohio-state-fan-takes-o-h-i-o-to-his
Good grief. Are you kidding me?
Looks like the worst is over for tOSU. New report says that the NCAA will not hit you with the most serious violations….
http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/NCAA-wont-hit-Ohio-State-with-failure-to-monitor-charge-072211
I guess you guys can let out your breath now. I am sure that the NCAA will add a few more penalties tou your self imposed sanctions and then call it a day.
@Gonzo ….. as info ….. I was just messin with you. You were going after the Nuts relentlessly and I wanted to divert your attention for a while. Although I was a bit surprised at how many felons are on your team. Maybe Masoli can come back for one more year and replace Mallet?