Hoke's Ohio Gambit

Soon after Brady Hoke took over at Michigan, Ohio State fans started to realize that he wouldn't call the school as Ohio State, THE Ohio State University, or OSU but simply called the school Ohio.  This ploy is reminiscent of Woody Hayes habit of refusing to address Michigan other than as "That School Up North" or as Buckeye fans have grown accustomed, TSUN.  My particular favorite when referring to that school is scUM but most rabid fans have variations on that theme.  In the past I've heard Michigan fans refer to the Buckeyes as O$U or Suckeyes but none of that has raised an eyebrow until Brady started referring to the school as simply Ohio.

In the past 12 months this practice has caused more angst than the actual loss a month ago.  Of course the loss was tempered by the fact that Urban Meyer was hired 3 days later but it continues to amaze me how much this bothers people.

The most ironic thing about this is it was common early in the 20th century to refer to Ohio State as simply Ohio.  If you listen to a radio broadcast from the 60s the announcer doesn't call the school Ohio State but rather Ohio.  Merchandise in that era also typically only used those 4 letters.  Even today if you call out to any Buckeye fan - O-H! and you will almost certainly get an enthusiastic I-O! in return with nary a word about S-T-A-T-E.  The most famous Buckeye tradition is when the band spells out the team name but no one is upset that we only spell out O-h-i-o in script instead of adding the superfluous State.  Everyone knows that when you talk about football in Ohio, you are talking about Ohio State.  In fact, the university would most likely still be referring to themselves by that 4 letter designation if not for a lawsuit brought against them by Ohio Univeristy in the late 20th century as they felt the Buckeyes singular use of the word OHIO was an infringement of their team's copyright.  They won the case and Ohio State could no longer sell merchandise with only those 4 letters.  That infuriated some at the university and that is the reason we now refer to ourselves as THE Ohio State University.  That's because when it comes to most collegiate things in Ohio, it is THE State University.  This was a way to tweak Ohio for their silly lawsuit and it is a tradition that has stuck.  Which is why I find it odd that Buckeye fans are so upset about Hoke's description of the school as simply Ohio.  When he was growing up the school was known as Ohio and he is just returning to the past.

In that way Brady Hoke is a genius and Buckeye fans who dismiss him as a joke are kidding themselves.  He understands the rivalry and what will play to the Wolverine faithful much more than RichRod ever did.  Considering that Rodriguez got 3 years in Ann Arbor, Hoke is setting himself up for a lifetime appointment by playing to the Michigan fans.  The fact that he's a solid recruiter and has surrounded himself with outstanding football minds is icing on the cake.

The golden era of the Ohio State - Michigan rivalry will forever be linked with Woody and Bo but I have a feeling that Hoke and Meyer are about to bring about a 2nd golden age.  The rest of the Big Ten Conference should be worried as I see an era of Big 2, Little 10 on the horizon.

Does it make sense for Penn State to join the ACC?

I've written in the past my feelings about Penn State and I'm quite aware that my feelings about them have gotten increasingly negative over the years.  It hasn't always been that way.  My earliest memories of Penn State is the beating they gave Woody Hayes' last Ohio State team in 1978 and the movie about John Cappiletti and his brother Joey.  In all honesty thought I really never gave them a lot of thought until they joined the league in 1993.  I distinctly remember looking forward to meeting them in our first game and on the day of our first meeting I made a point to go out of my way to meet with Penn State fans to welcome them to the league.  Even though the brass at many of the universities weren't thrilled with the idea, the fans seemed to be excited to be in the league.  I particularly remember sitting with a couple at the Ohio State skull session and figured if they were representatives of the normal Penn State fan that we had done well getting them to join.

Fast forward 18 years and it seems to be a common thought in Happy Valley that they want to leave the league.  Certainly the Sandusky situation didn't help and the Big Ten official resposne just threw gas on the fire. But the feelings go back further than that and I've always felt that the main issue for Penn State is they are just a bad geographic fit with the rest of the league.   It seems odd to say that in a day when Boise State is in the Big East but that is why leagues like the Big East are continually in flux.  A solid league has teams that don't mind looking out for fellow league members and somewhere that went awry in regards to Penn State.

That got me to thinking about their options.  The Big East might have been a good option a year ago but it was aways a long shot as they'd need to get a few ACC teams to create a good league.  The exit of Syracuse and Pitt has weakened the Big East to the point that it is no longer viable.  Contrast that with the ACC.  In the past 10 years they ACC has picked up quality northern teams in Virginia Tech, Boston College, Pitt, and Syracuse. They are currently sitting at 14 teams and while I think 16 is a bit unwieldy, here's how the league would look if you added Penn State and Connecticut

North
Penn State
Connecticut
Boston College
Syracuse
Pitt
Maryland
Virginia
Virginia Tech

South
Miami
Florida State
Clemson
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Duke
North Carolina St.
Georgia Tech

If I were an Penn State/ACC fan, I'd drool at that league and it actually might make more sense than the current 14 teams as it lines up perfectly as two "leagues" of 8.  I could see this league not caring about getting interaction between the Northern and Southern teams so the league games would only be the 7 divisional games leaving schools free to play 5 out of conference or rivalry games.  The two divisional winners would meet in the championship game to represent the league in the BCS.

The problem of course for Penn State is that they'd almost definitely lose money on the sports side of things unless they got some sort of consessions from the league.  That ignores the possibility that the school could lose millions of dollars in grants if they left the Big Ten's academic consortium.  There are other schools that do things because they feel it is right for the university despite monetary loss (Notre Dame).  Is it possible that Penn State could do that as well?  Anything is possible and the fact that the ACC culture would be a better fit for Penn State might mean that the decision makers decide their forturnes are better found elsewhere.

Penn State - The Black Sheep of the B1G

I distinctly remember when Penn State got the invite into the Big Ten in 1990.  The B1G has always been a conservative organization but adding the Nittany Lions caught the nation unaware.  Things were a lot less politically correct back then and as the presidents did this without athletic department input, this set off a battle in the press between the presidents and the AD, most specifically Bo Schembechler at Michigan.  The person caught in the middle was Jim Delany, the newly hired commission for the Big Ten.  It was made quite clear to the Nittany Lions that they weren't wanted, the most obvious sign was the fact that the ADs refused to change the name from the Big Ten.  Over time passions cooled and rivalries were built.  Long time ADs retired and Jim Delany gained more power which made the B1G a much more welcoming place but the die had been cast.  Penn State had taken into its culture a feeling of persecution and self pity about any slight that came from their fellow members.

Like any school with a proud tradition, Penn State has an overdeveloped sense of their value in the grand scheme.  There is no doubt that they bring great value to the league as they along with Michigan and Ohio State are the only schools to contribute to the league the full share of gate revenues ($4 million per year).  When you consider that the average for the other schools is about half that amount it is fair to say that Penn State contributes double the value to the B1G of an average school (including TV contracts).  The administration knows this and has been frustrated for years that they don't have a true rival.  Some even have thought that Joe Paterno set off the latest round of conference realignment when he made a comment in 2009 wondering why they didn't add a school.  Many thought at the time he was looking for a Syracuse or Rutgers so they would have a season ending rival.  Instead the league ended up with Nebraska as no team from the East brought in anywhere close to the value needed to make financial sense.  When the time came to split the league into 6 team divisions, everyone knew that they couldn't put 3 of Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, and Penn State in the same division.  Most figured that since it was obvious that Ohio State and Michigan would be in the same division that Penn State would be put into the Western Division.

Penn State balked at that and I can't say I blame them.  Not only didn't they get a natural rival but they were being asked to travel 1000 miles for the closest in division rival.  Over time Penn State has realized that the only natural rivalry they can ever possibly have is with Ohio State but the thing is the Buckeyes don't really care that much about them due to their long time rivalry with that school up north.  I've felt for a long time that when it became obvious what they were being asked to do the Penn State brass blew up and threatened to leave the conference and join the Big East.  If that happened it would have given the Big East a ton of credibility that they lost when Miami/BC/VaTech left for the ACC.  The B1G couldn't allow that so they appeased Penn State.  The result was Ohio State and Michigan were split and the league was proposed that Penn State be inserted as the last game of the season.  Ohio State and Michigan fans joined up to kill the second part of the plan though I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the proposal.  Instead Penn State had to settle for being Ohio State's next to last game.

Of course there is a lot of supposition in that paragraph but Penn State has complained about their treatment for the last twenty years.  The fact that everyone in the B1G toed the line on the division split struck me as odd and it always felt like something was hidden.

One thing I have seen over the last twenty years is you don't want to mess around with Jim Delany because he will not hesitate to go a different direction if he doesn't get his way.  A good example is when he wanted to renew his college football contract with ESPN and they decided to play hardball and basically told him ... "where else are you going to go?"  That comment will end up costing them billions as he decided to form his own football network with FOX which forced ESPN to pay a premium to still get B1G games but also pay many times their worth for the contract for every other conference for fear everyone would form their own network and cut ESPN/ABC out entirely.

Penn State has been a pain in Delany's side since they joined and if it weren't for the football money they bring I doubt they'd still be a member.  Now the same Penn State leaders that made his life tough are now gone due to their part in the Sandusky scandal.  Today Delany's office released a press statement that has strongly admonished Penn State for its role in the scandal and unlike the recent troubles at Ohio State and Michigan it was clear that the B1G office is going to be working with the NCAA to penalize the school instead of working actively to protect them.  The statement was worded so harshly that some Penn State fans are hoping to leave the B1G.  The problem is the Big East imploded over the last year and it really isn't an option for Penn State anymore.  The only place the could go is if the ACC wanted to goto 16 teams.Perhaps that's the best course as it seems the Penn State experiment has been nothing but grief for the last 20 years.  The only thing this needs is for Swarbuck at Notre Dame to send a back channel message that they see the writing on the wall for the Big East and are ready to join.  A swap of Notre Dame for Penn State would be a huge win for the B1G and Penn State would get what many have claimed they've always wanted.  Out.

Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

Should Tressel still be the coach in 2011?

With the Buckeyes poor showing this season one of the topics that keeps showing up on the forums is 'What would have happened if Jim Tressel were still the coach in 2011?"  My feeling is we probably would have lost to Miami/Michigan State but beat Nebraska/Penn State/Purdue.  Jim Tressel had a way to make teams believe in themselves and his teams always finished strong.  Does anyone think he would have allowed Nebraska to score 21 points in the 4th quarter, not come up with something to shut down Purdue, or figured out a way to get another score vs Penn State?  He was a master of the close games and protecting a lead.  Unfortunately he isn't with the team anymore.

That has created quite a backlash on forums as fan anger is now blaming the board for the decision to let him go as the wrong move.  In truth, there have always been a few that have said this they are now just louder since the results of the season are so poor.  Here's a good example of a recent post:

2011 didn't need to be "The Lost Year"; the OSU BOD could have retained JT&forced the NCAA's hands. We gave up too much *

My response was:  "The price of not getting a FTM or LOIC charge for Tatgate was Tressel."

If the university backed Tressel the NCAA would have given us a harsher penalty probably similar to USC. Backing him said to the NCAA, "The institution agrees with Coach Tressel's actons" which would have given the critics of the Buckeyes in the NCAA enough to punish us like they did with Bush/Carrol/Garrett. Instead, Tressel fell on his sword to save the program from his mistake. IMO the mistake was minor but once it became public the events had to play out like they did.

I wish people would move on. I love the 10 great years we got from Jim Tressel and look forward to the day when the NCAA rules and we can welcome him back with open arms in the stadium. I have no doubt we'd be in the B1G championship game with him at the helm but the sooner we move on as a program the sooner things will be able to return to the greatness that Jim Tressel gave us during his tenure. The BoT realized this over the summer and did the right thing to protect the future of the program. They have gotten a ton of grief for their decision but the reality is the program will be better in the long run because of it.

The response was: Says who? Gene The Weak? We gave up way too much and they'll STILL pile on. The Roo, for once, is right. * -

My response: Gene is gone too. I personally wish we'd have gotten rid of him after he allowed scUM and OSU in separate divisions

He's gone within 6 months after the sanctions are given.

In any big enterprise there is a conservative playbook for damage control. We might not agree with the decisions but in crisis large organizations make Tresselball look like the run and shoot by comparison. They don't take risks and anything that could possibly damage the "organization" is addressed in order.

Tressel was the most public issue and he was the first to go. It wouldn't surprise me if the NCAA gave back channel information to the Buckeyes of their penalty with or without Jim Tressel. Even if that didn't happen, part of the reason the Compliance Group was hired was to give the Board long term scenarios. I guarantee projections were made of donations and ticket sales for the next decade for all the possible outcomes. After reviewing everything they came up with their plan and part of that was to get rid of JT.

Many people here pretend that the Board is incompetent but many of them are very successful business people that face situations like this on a daily basis. I have no doubt that if we had all the information they did, most would have made the same decision.

The main opposition to the decision are people that look to the past and not to the future. That is fine for fans but the Board doesn't have that luxury as they have bills to pay. To do otherwise would been just as shortsighted for the athletic department as was Jim Tressel's initial decision to protect Pryor/Posey at the expense of the rest of the team.

Anyone that has spent any time in a large organization knows that what happened to Tressel had to happen. He was only going to coach 5-6 more years and the potential benefit was less than the threat he posed to the organization.  Organizations always do what is in their perceived best interest.  Tressel was a danger and had to go -- it is as simple as that.

Penn State Riots

I called it yesterday and although it happened a bit earlier than I expected, the Penn State students took a bad situation and made it worse.  As you can see from the picture on the right, last night the Penn State students took to the streets and left a path of destruction in their wake.


The catalyst was a press conference at 10pm EST last night where the Penn State Board of Trustees fired Joe Pateno ending his 62 year run on the sidelines for the football team.  All day was known that the Board was meeting last night where it was expect that the University President, Spanier, would be fired and that they would also address Paterno's future as well.  Paterno made his opinion known mid-day when he released a personal press release that stated he was going to step down at the end of the season but would coach the rest of the games.  A key component of his statement was,

Penn State students take over

At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.

While his stated goal was to make it easier for the Board, in effect this statement told the public what he wanted and dared the Board to defy him.  He got his answer a few hours later and the students hit the streets.

I wholeheartedly agree with the Board's decision and I'm pretty sure a large majority of Americans agree.  This morning ESPN reported that Joe wants to meet with the press and get his side out.  The ESPN sources said his message was that "Paterno recalls McQueary "vaguely" referencing "fondling" or "touching" or "horsing around" by Sandusky and a youth. But Paterno never had the understanding that McQueary had witnessed a "sodomy" or "rape.""  The sad thing is his statement to the Grand Jury also said that he could tell that was McQueary traumatized by what he saw and it was bad enough that JoePa thought it necessary to tell his boss..  I'm not sure how he believes clarifying that is going to improve his situation as I'm pretty sure everyone understands what he is saying but doesn't agree that passing it up the line to his superiors and never following up was an appropriate response.

The Board did the right thing.  They failed in a couple of other ways.  


First they fired JoePa on the phone.  I understand their reasoning as the timeline was short and visiting his home in person would have turned into a media circus.  Still, they should have seen this issue coming and asked him to attend the meeting so they could let him know what was going on either way.  I'm sure they thought of that and figured that would turn into a circus as well.  They are probably right but it doesn't seem proper to end a 61 year career with a phone call.


Another issue is that they didn't alert the local police of the press conference and instruct them to be on heightened alert in case of a student outburst.  Perhaps they didn't do this because that action would be stating that Paterno might be fired and they didn't want to tip their hand.  The lack of preparation had consequences as after the announcement the students hit the streets en masse and the police scrambled to get the situation under control.  It took a few hours as the student mob got so large they had to call for reinforcements from neighboring counties before they felt they were able to act.  In the meantime, television vans were overturned, windows were smashed and general lawlessness took over the campus.  This went on for about 3 hours until the police took action and took back the streets though it might also be true that the students got tired and went to bed.


The actions of the students have brought shame on their university and shown the world that the insular world in Happy Valley can be just as violent as any other campus.  I really feel for the football team in this situation as they have worked hard and performed well on the field.  Now they will be going into a big matchup with a new coach and will be cheered on by 100,000 angry alumni.  As a Buckeye fan I am rooting for a loss but I hope their fans respect their team enough to be on their best behavior before and after the game.  


Either way, I hope the Board of trustees have learned their lesson and bring in a large force to control the drunken masses.  Else, they risk a repeat of last night's sad events.

Call out the Guards at Penn State

Upset students + Alcohol + Cameras = Chaos

Good thing it is a noon kickoff as most students won't have as much time to party before the game. This might just move the chaos to Saturday night once the students wake up from their morning binge.

Ohio State has had a bad rap for student behavior in the past but some of that is because it is located in the middle of a large city with numerous news teams always looking for a story. Penn State is hidden in a valley far away from prying eyes without a lot of press. Students at the school take pride in their ability to consume large amounts of alcohol as evidenced by being voted a top 10 party school the last 3 years attaining #1 in 2009 (FWIW Ohio University has been #1 the last two years). "This American Life" did a radio program on it a few years ago and how ineffective the administration has been in trying to curb the culture of binge drinking at Penn State.

This weekend the students won't be secluded but will have the glare of the national media all over campus. I hope the Board of Trustees realizes they need to call out extra police to keep them under control or they could have another PR disaster on their hands.

Link: http://onwardstate.com/2009/12/24/life-after-this-american-life/

My take on the Penn State scandal

I first heard about the investigation of Jerry Sandusky in an ESPN report last spring. At the time the story got little press which I thought was a bit odd considering the nature of the charges but this did come out about a month after the Tressel charges. The media circus was full go around the Ohio State program at the time and this story got little coverage. That changed last Saturday when the Pennsylvania State Attorney's office released a report that charged Sandusky with 40 criminal counts and also charged Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz of perjury. The official report from grand jury is a graphic depiction of a serial child molester that is difficult to read without anger. Late yesterday the Penn State Board of Trustees had an emergency meeting and afterward it was revealed that both Curley and Schultz resigned and are expected to turn themselves over to the authorities today.

I'm sure these charges came as quite a shock to most Penn State fans that don't obsessively follow every story about their team. Even the hardcore fans had to be floored because even though there have been snippets of information on the case, there wasn't any sign from the Attorney General the case had much merit. That all changed on Saturday and the reaction has been emotional on all sides.

We don't have all the facts yet and as this is only a grand jury finding I'm sure much more will be brought out in the next few months. Even so here is the timeline as I see it:

• 1969 - 1998 - Jerry Sandusky is hired by Joe Paterno and the two lead the team to multiple undefeated seasons and national championships in football. Sandusky is the defensive mastermind behind these teams and seen as the heir when Joe Paterno retires. 
• 1977 - Sandusky founds the Second Mile which began as a foster home to troubled boys and grew to a statewide organization that helped boys from dysfunctional or absent parents. It's mission was to "help children who need additional support and would benefit from positive human interaction." 
• 1998 - Sandusky is charged in Centre County (county where Penn State is located) with molestation but the charges are dropped when the county Attorney General, Ray Gricar, decides there is not enough information to prosecute. 
• 1998 - Sandusky's pay is cut in half but he continues to coach at Penn State. I'm sure Paterno would claim there is no relation between this and the charges of molestation but the timing seems odd to me. 
• 1999 - Apparently not getting the hint, Joe Paterno forces Sandusky out. His retirement package includes a pension, an office in the Penn State athletic offices, and the right to use the campus hotel on visits to the university (This is a pretty normal package for an exiting coaches. Earle Bruce/John Cooper at Ohio State have similar arrangements). 
• March 1, 2002 - Mike McQueary, a former QB and grad assistant on the Penn State football enters the locker room at the Lasch Football Building about 9:30 pm to get some game film and hears noises coming from the showers. He sees Sandusky with a boy about age 10 pinned against the wall having anal intercourse. McQueary left the scene distraught and calls his father who tells him to leave the scene and come to his house to discuss the situation. 
• March 2, 2002 - McQueary reports the incident to Joe Paterno the next day. 
• March 3, 2003 - Joe Paterno informs the Athletic Director, Tim Curley, of the incident. 
• Approx 10 days later - McQueary is questioned by Curley and Schulz and he is told that they would look into it. Joe Paterno is not present at the meeting. 
• A few weeks later - McQueary is told that Sandusky's keys to the university locker room have been taken away and the Second Mile foundation has been informed of the incident. 
• Also - Curley informs Penn State University President Graham Spanier of the incident and actions taken. Spanier approves Curley's method of dealing with the matter though no police agency is ever told of the situation. Schultz's job responsibilities include the campus police department though he is not engaged in the day to day running of the office. He doesn't bring it to attention of the campus police as was done in 1998 and no report is ever filed. 
• April 15, 2005 - Probably totally unrelated but oddly the DA in charge that dropped the 1998 incident for lack of evidence disappears after leaving work and is never heard from again. The only thing that is found is a laptop which has been thrown into the Susquehanna River near where is car is found. No body is ever found and he is declared legally dead in 2011. 
• 2005/6 - Sandusky meets an 11 year old boy designated at Victim 1 through the Second Mile program and over time becomes close to him. They attend many events together and eventually it leads to Sandusky performing oral sex with him more than 20 times in the next few years along with other sexual acts. 
• Early 2008 - Victim 1 is seen by various faculty at his school engaged in "suspicious activity" with Sandusky. School officials become aware of potential abuse when Victim 1's mother calls to report it. School officials forward the information to the authorities as mandated by law. 
• 2008-2011 - Investigation into Jerry Sandusky by local and state authorities leading to the Grand Jury finding released on Saturday. 

The story seems ready made for Hollywood if the subject matter wasn't so disturbing. A few thoughts:

• Some people are outraged that McQueary didn't intervene during the 3/1/02 incident. While he was a 28 year old man at the time, he witnessed a disturbing act by a man he'd grown up admiring. I think it is reasonable to think any person in that situation would be traumatized, retreat and get advice from a mentor on how to proceed. While we all would like to think we'd be a hero in the situation none of us really know how we'd react unless we were there. 

• I have seen a few comments similar to "Gays are perverted people and this is where their lifestyle leads" in regards to Sandusky. Ignorant comments like this piss me off as their is a big difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. Most pedophiles get sexually excited only by young children and the vast majority consider themselves heterosexual. It drives me nuts when people use an incident like this to falsely categorize a segment of the population they don't like. 

• Joe Paterno released a statement saying we all were fooled and that he met his responsibilities. He also said he was shocked by the revelations in the Grand Jury report. I'm not sure how we are expected to believe this as 1) Sandusky was his right hand coach for almost 30 years, 2) he had to have known of the charges in 1998 as they weren't exactly a secret in State College, 3) he essentially fired his heir apparent Sandusky the next season but never disclosed the reasons, and 4) he admits he was told by McQueary that suspicious activities occurred by Sandusky in the shower of their locker room and McQueary was traumatized by the event. Are we to believe after knowing all this Paterno never followed up or asked any questions? The person that witnessed the incident (McQueary) was one of his best players in the 90s and now is his Wide Receiver Coach. Are we to believe the two never talked about it again after he discussed it with Paterno on March 2nd? Or that he never asked the athletic director what happened with the case at a university athletic department he virtually ran and was well known for his no nonsense beliefs? Sorry but that isn't remotely believable. 

Three thing were damaged by Sandusky's actions and the subsequent decisions by Penn State:

1. Victims - My heart goes out to all of them and hope they can work their way through the residual damage caused by Sandusky. Words don't do this situation justice and I won't attempt it. 
2. Legal - Sandusky has been charged and will eventually spend the rest of his life in jail if he doesn't kill himself first. Curley and Shultz have been charged with apparently trying to cover up the incident and no doubt they are going to spend some time in jail and pay large fines. I do feel an odd sense of sympathy for them as they were put in a terrible position by Sandusky. They had two terrible options. They could turn Sandusky in and see their university endure a scandal that would cost it millions of dollars and see its reputation dragged through the mud. Or they could cover it up and hope Sandusky stopped his actions while they prayed none of his former victims came forward. They chose to do the latter. I don't in any way agree with their decision but anyone that has been in a large organization can tell you that there is enormous pressure to do whatever is necessary to protect it and sometimes lines are crossed. They chose poorly and now they will goto jail while the university will still need to pay out millions in punitive damages. 
3. Reputation - I touched on this in the last point but Penn State will forever be linked to this scandal. Twenty years from now you will still be seeing opposing fans called them "Ped State" and this has to be grating for the thousands of players/alumni/fans that did nothing wrong and only bring credit to the school. That is forever lost due to the actions of a few men. 

I want to end with a thought. A year ago I wrote an article about Jim Tressel and how grateful I was that he was the coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He is a moral man that was a great leader of young men that also happened to have the ability to win football games. Over the next six months the Tressel regime came to an inglorious end due to one bad decision. Something similar happened with Woody Hayes about 30 years about so it is safe to say that Buckeye fans are intimately aware of the fragility of their hero's reputations.

Everyone loves heroes. Whether it be Wyatt Earp, George Patton, or Knute Rockne we like to look to these men as models to which we can aspire. We place our values on them and build them up to a level that no man can possibly achieve. That doesn't stop us.

One of the best things I have ever seen on television is a show called "Friday Night Lights". It's the story of a small town in Texas that is filled with amazingly human characters that happens to have a good football team. The characters in the show are constantly making mistakes but they can always count on their football team to bring them relief. As for the team, many of the players find themselves in trouble but you can always count on "Coach Eric Taylor" to get involved and resolve the situation with integrity. He's the rock for the whole community.

That's what we expect of our heroes and whether they want it or not football coaches are revered in our society. They are molders of young minds and in today's age of electronic warfare, they lead their men in to combat. This appeals to the human psyche on a primal level. We want to believe these men are perfect but in truth that is an impossible bar to reach. They are human and as we have seen, they make human mistakes.

We will probably never know the full truth of what Joe Paterno was thinking on March 2, 2002 but one fact is clear. He failed the hero test and this incident will forever be linked to his legacy. That saddens me as the world needs more heroes and it lost one of its brightest with the revelations over the weekend.

Wisconsin vs Ohio State

I rarely do predictions but that is because 90% of the time it is because Ohio State is favored and then they proceed to pummel the opposition for a victory.  This season has been a struggle and the team has lost a few games I thought they'd win (Miami and Michigan State).  I figured they'd lose the Nebraska game which they should have won.  I did think they'd beat Illinois mainly because all signs pointed to Ron Zook's Illini winning the game and those are the games that Zook always loses.  There were many positive things that came out of that game but there were three things that will play a huge role in the Wisconsin game.

1. The return of Boom - Boom Herron was a huge difference in the Illinois game as he has vision and toughness that was missing from the other running backs.  No doubt the other running backs have talent and are great backups to him but it is nice to have a feature back that we can trust.  This offensive line is possible the best in the last decade and it is a shame that Boom only will get a half season to show his talents.
2. The maturation of Braxton - Braxton Miller didn't do anything particularly well against Illinois and only threw 4 passes with 1 completion.  Most people that didn't see the game would think it was a bad game by him but the reason they didn't pass more was the 30-40 mph winds and the coaches didn't want to risk the young QBs psyche in the swirling winds.  If the game was closer I'm sure they would have passed the ball but the team was content run the clock and win the surest way.  The key for me is that Braxton looked entirely comfortable behind center for the first time all season.  That annoys me a bit because it makes me think that if he'd played more earlier that the Miami and MSU games would have turned out differently.
3. The rise of the Silver Bullets - This years defense is really young and lost 7 starters from last years team and due to injuries have 9 players that are really new.  It takes time for a young defense to learn how to play together and this team is really coming together.  I feel sorry for teams that have to face them next year but they will continue to get better every game this year and as they shut down the previously high powered Illinois offense I expect that to continue.

These were positive signs coming out of the game.  The Buckeyes also have the advantage of a bye week which I expect the coaches used to reflect on the first half of the season and implement changes to better take advantage of their personnel and put together a specific game plan for Wisconsin.

This game is especially important because the Buckeyes should be the favorites in the rest of their games but they need to win this one to have a shot to win the league title.  The coaches know this and can't afford to play passive so I expect no holds barred.

Here are the keys to the game:

• The Ohio State linebackers - Wisconsin isn't very tricky as they expect to run the ball and wear down their opposition.  The one weak area on Ohio State's team is at linebacker as the play has been several levels down from what we've seen in the past.  The players there are big though not especially quick.  That works well against Wisconsin as their running game is a power game so the key is making sure they take good angles.  If they do this they will shut down Wisconsin's running game (meaning <150 yds as you can't shut it down completely).
• Contain Russell Wilson - The defensive line has to stay in their lanes and not let Wilson get to the outside where he can hurt you with his legs.  I expect the Buckeyes to put a safety in the box  to contain the running game and as the cornerbacks will need to stay manned up on the receivers on roll out passes, roll out passes could be especially dangerous.  I expect to see a quite a bit of blitzing to keep Wilson off balance and hopefully contain him.
• The offense needs to keep the defense off the field - Boom Herron has to have a good game and the team needs to have many long drives to keep the defense fresh.  We can't have a let down like happened at Nebraska as the defense folded but the offense didn't do them any favors with the 3 and outs.
• Braxton has to pass the ball - Wisconsin's defense isn't as great as their numbers suggest as their competition thus far hasn't been great (Neb and MSU excepted).  There are holes in this defense and Braxton has to take advantage.  I'm hoping the coaching staff has developed a game plan exclusively for Braxton to take advantage of his talents.  Now that Guiton is the #2 quarterback (and he has similar talents) there is no reason for two gameplans which should allow them to simplify and diversify the offense.  If I was Wisconsin I'd put 9 in the box until Braxton showed he could beat them deep which is why I'd start the game running for the first few plays then start working on the edges with swing passes and out patterns (I know Braxton can do this but we haven't seen one yet).  Once Wisconsin has to play honest, the running game should dominate.

My gut feeling in this game is that people have over rated Wisconsin because they haven't played a single team with a good offense.  Their offense is no doubt good but they haven't played a team with the talent that Ohio State has on defense.  This is absolutely a game that Ohio State can win but it is largely going to fall on the shoulders of the linebackers and Braxton Miller for it to happen.

I'm unsure if the linebackers will be able to hold Wisconsin all game so the Buckeyes are going to need to score points but I do think that Braxton is going to surprise people tonight (Posey would be really nice to have though as I'm still worried about our wide receivers).  Final score - Ohio State 28 - Wisconsin 24

GO BUCKS!!!

Gene Smith putting Luke Fickell as head coach should get him fired

I want to blame Luke for the way the team has played this year but I can't.  He's a young coach that is going through the growing pains that occur for any new head coach.

He inherited a team with a lack of experienced talent at the most important position on the field - quarterback.  He inherited a team with a definite lack of senior leadership with the departure of Pryor and the suspensions of Boom, Adams, and Posey.  He inherited a team that was replacing 7 starters on defense.  He inherited a team that has 22 freshmen or redshirt freshmen in the 2 deep.  He inherited a team that lost its two best minds on the offensive side of the ball (Hazell and Tressel).

This is a team that needed a firm hand on the rudder.  It couldn't afford a new coach to learn on the job.

As Athletic Director Gene Smith should have known all this and done what was necessary to give the team the best chance to succeed.  The problem he faced was finding a coach in June that was willing to come to Ohio State when all signs at the time pointed to a multi year probation.  The flip side is he needed a coach that was willing to come in with the interim tag as Ohio State needed to be able to go out and hire a better replacement once the NCAA sanctions were finalized.

In most cases no decent coach (head coach or assistant) would come to any school under those circumstances.  In spite of this Ohio State had an opportunity because of Glen Mason.  Mason was an Ohio State linebacker in the early 70s and an assistant coach under Woody and Earle Bruce.  He then went on to be a head coach at Kent, Kansas, and Minnesota and lead the last two schools to arguably their finest performances in the last half century.  He applied for the Ohio State job the last two times it was open and went he was passed over he reportedly broke down in tears.  This caused a rift in Minnesota and when he had a losing season in 2006 they parted ways.  He is now a member of the Big Ten Network broadcast team.

Mason's dream job has always been to coach at Ohio State.  Would he have taken an interim job knowing that he'd be replaced at the end of the season?  In a heartbeat.

Ohio State needed a coach that could deal with tough questions from the media and who better than a coach that has spent the last few years working in front of a camera.  Ohio State needed a coach that didn't have emotional baggage of coaching a bunch of men he considered mentors.  Ohio State needed a coach that didn't have preconceived opinions about the players.  Ohio State needed a coach with an offensive philosophy.

Glen Mason fit all those categories and quite frankly was the perfect fit for the situation.  Gene Smith instead decided to put Luke Fickell in an impossible situation (yes Luke could have declined but no true Buckeye could turn down the university when it asks for help) and has possibly permanently damaged his career.  It is Gene Smith's job to be the long term caretaker of the football program and put the team in the best situation to win.  He failed miserably with the hire of Luke Fickell and this more than any failing in compliance is why he should be fired once the dust settles.

JT was a great coach in most every way but micromanagement was his biggest flaw

I just read this article and agree with it almost 100%.

Jim Tressel is a great man and should be remembered as one of the best coaches of all time.  Most of us were annoyed in the past 10 years with his micromanagement but we mostly overlooked it as he gave us wins.

The scary thing is we could have been better if he would have allowed more talented individuals into his inner circle.  During his era the talent level in the rest of the Big Ten declined while Ohio State's talent was as good as ever.  Tressel used that talent to win the surest way and while the results on the field weren't always pretty he won.  The thing is after many of Ohio State's games you were often left with the perception that we made the games a lot harder than we needed.  That was usually because we didn't adapt to what the other defense gave us and instead insisted on running into the strengths of the other team.  We won in spite of that because we outmanned the other team but it did little to prepare us for teams with speed that matched ours.

The fact that Jim Tressel won as many games as he did is a testiment to his ability to micromanage the team but in the end his decision to micromanage punishments were his downfall.  His departure has left a massive hole in the football program and as there is no one on the staff with Jim's ability the only way to fix it is to bring in a new coach and overhaul the whole thing.  The talent level at Ohio State is still great and assuming the NCAA sanctions are light it shouldn't take a decent coach very long to restart the recruiting pipeline that happened in the Tressel era.  Whether they can have the same success on gameday is the big question.

In hindsight that was probably inevitable but I'm sure most people would have never imagined at this time last year that the program would be in this state in a short 12 months.  I for one can't wait for the nightmare to end.

Texas and TCU hold the cards in expansion

A few weeks ago I wrote that Texas A&M's move to the SEC was the death knell to the Big East.  A few days after that I wrote on the Ozone this statement,

The bottom line for the Big 12 is how badly does Texas want to keep the Longhorn Network.  There is no way the Pac 12 is going to accept them and keep that network in tact.  The funny thing is Oklahoma has made no secret of the fact that they want to go to the Pac 12 regardless of Texas decision.  I guess no one told them that while the Pac 12 would love to have Oklahoma's tradition, the only way they would extend an invite to them is if Texas joins as well.  The Big 12 will have a BCS invite as long as Texas is in the league and they from all reports they want to keep it.  The league's survival depends entirely on Texas' decision on the Longhorn network.

 Many people thought this statement about Oklahoma was ludicrous as they are a top 10 program in terms of wins and tradition.  The Pac 12 no doubt would like that but they are more concerned with academics and market share.  The first problem for them is that they cannot move anywhere without taking Oklahoma State as well which dilutes profitability. Also, Oklahoma academics are third tier and their sister school Oklahoma State is even worse.  Finally, Oklahoma has a lot of fans but they are centered in a low market share with many graduates in Texas.  There aren't enough of them to create a regional network like the Pac 12 network plans to do in their current markets.  That wouldn't be the case if Texas joined.

Yesterday a story broke from Oklahoma that they'd stay in the Big 12 if Texas changed the revenue sharing for the Longhorn network and fired their commissioner Dan Beebe who has long been looked at as a Texas lacky.  That was an interesting development considering they had publicly stated for over a month that they were leaving if Texas A&M left.  I should have realized there was more to the story but I wasn't surprised when late last night the Pac 12 announced they weren't expanding.

The funny thing from the announcement is it initially said that the Pac 12 decided not to expand but after the reporters started talking to their inside sources it fell apart mostly because they couldn't get Texas' assurance about the Longhorn Network.  That doesn't mean the Pac 12 isn't going to expand, it just means that both Oklahoma and the Pac 12 are saying that if they are in either league there will be revenue sharing and they need to change their thinking.  It appears they've had to resort to a public statements to make the trustees at Texas see the light.

That doesn't mean they will do it.  Oklahoma has very little bargaining power as Texas knows that they are going anywhere without them.  The Oklahoma State anchor is their achilles heel as no one will take both.  That puts the decision where it has always been -- in Texas.

At this point I'd be shocked if Texas went to the Pac12.  There's just too many reasons not to go, least of all is geographically and the fact that most of the Pac 12 games are shown when Texans have moved on with their day.  I'm sure there aren't many fans that would have enjoyed the 1800 mile road trip to Seattle to watch a conference game (And I thought my dad's 600 mile trip to see Iowa was crazy).

In any event the question in my mind is where does the Big 12 go from here.  My guess is Texas will give the league a few concessions on the Longhorn network and announce a new commissioner but they have a few other obstacles.  Texas A&M is leaving and as I've said before, Missouri is the SEC's best option for the 14th team.  There are rumors out there that the SEC has already given them an invite and Missouri is waiting to see how things play out in the Big 12 before responding.  Don't believe that for a second.  What Missouri is really doing is waiting to see if the league disbands so they won't have to pay the exit fee.  That is probably what is happening with Texas A&M as well.  When it becomes apparent that the Big 12 will survive I think both schools will go despite the exit fee.

That will then mean the Big 12 is sitting at 8 schools of which only Texas has a realistic option to leave.  The question is what happens next and the obvious answer is they will grab at least 2 schools.  As I've said before I think the best choices are TCU and BYU though SMU/Houston/NTexas/Tulane/Rice are possibilities.  Some might think that some of these schools are too small to join the Big 12 but they are forgetting that the fact that the league doesn't share revenues equally so size doesn't matter as it won't impact any other schools revenue.

The other league in turmoil is the Big East and they are hurting from the recent defections of Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC.  The ACC might not be done as they are waiting to see if the SEC takes one of their schools (Florida State/Georgia Tech/Clemson/Va Tech) before making their next move.  If the SEC doesn't take anyone they may stay at 14 as it is much more manageable then 16 though they could take Rutgers/UConn to try to pin down the Northeast market.

That means the Big East has 6 schools in the league with TCU joining as the 7th next year.  That puts TCU in a pivotal spot.  The Big East is talking about expanding but their choices of  Army/ Navy/ Villanova/ Temple/ Central Florida/ Marshall aren't exactly powerhouses so I'd be shocked if they kept their automtic BCS qualifier status.  All it would take is that Texas give TCU assurances that they are committed to the Big 12 there is no doubt in my mind that they will join.  Their defection would pretty much end the Big East as a BCS league and bring them to the equivalent of Conference USA.

How Texas A&M's move dooms the Big East

If you've read any of my past columns you'd know I'm an unabashed Big East hater.  Part of it is due to my allegience to Ohio State and Miami University which means I have an inbred hatred for all things related to the University of Cincinnati.  The other part is the fact that the Big East has one of the coveted automatic BCS slots that they earned through sheer politics and has nothing to do with football prowess.  Be that as it may, I think the recent announcement by Texas A&M that they are moving to the SEC is a death blow to the Big East.


I know it sounds crazy.  Most thing the Big 12 is the conference that is in real trouble but as long as Texas wants to be a part of it they will keep their BCS designation which will attract other teams.  Even if the worst happens and somehow Oklahoma decides leaves Oklahoma State (won't happen), Texas knows it has a good thing in the Big 12.  Texas really doesn't need to move to continue as the biggest moneymaker in college sports and they know it. Even if the SEC really went off the deep end and went to 16 with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Missouri there are a bunch of teams that would jump at the chance to join a league with an automatic bid.

Who are these teams?  The first 4 are SMU, Houston, TCU and BYU.  Plug these schools into a new Big 12 and you'd have a weak league but one filled mostly with schools that really have no other options that could make them nearly as much money.  The exception would be BYU but as long as they were able to continue to broadcast their games on the own network, I'd think they would jump at the chance to be the western division counterpart to Texas' eastern division dominance.

The best scenario for the Big East is that the SEC only takes Big 12 teams.  The thing is there are a few ACC schools that might make good sense like Florida State, Clemson, Ga Tech, or Virginia Tech.  These aren't likely to happen because of politics (Florida doesn't want Florida State to join, Georgia doesn't want Ga Tech, etc, while the Virginia legislature won't let Va Tech leave Virginia) but it isn't out of the realm of possibility.  If the ACC loses a school the only place they are going to look is the Big East which will weaken the league.

If the SEC doesn't come after an ACC school another good option would be to just target a Big East school.  Syracuse, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and possibly Louisville are all targets that would open up additional markets and add television dollars.  Losing any of these schools would be a big loss for the Big East.

In the end I still think the most obvious thing that will happen is the SEC will only add Missouri.  It adds huge population base to the SEC footprint that is currently firmly follows Big Ten/Big 12 football and the politics are simple.  If that happens then that should be good news for the Big East but they aren't out of the woods because of their recent addition of TCU.  That's a problem for the Big East because after BYU, TCU is the most obvious target for the Big 12.

TCU is important to the Big East for a reason that few realize.  After this season the BCS does another recalculation which determines which schools get to participate as an automatic qualifier.  Many people don't know that the last time the BCS gave out the automatic qualifiers that they held a special hearing to give the Big East its slot.  That's because they'd just lost their 3 premier teams in Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the ACC so their existing members didn't rank high enough on their own to earn a spot.  Politics got involved and the members didn't want the political hassle with taking it away so they gave them a pass.  Fast forward to today and you have the Mountain West pushing hard for the 6th automatic spot.  After the completion of the 2011 season the BCS will take the results of the last 4 seasons and recalculate the automatic rankings which will determine automatic bids.

This is why TCU is important.  The calculations are based on the leagues current affiliation and last season was putrid for the Big East.  In fact their champion ended up out of the top 25 in the final BCS standings while Boise State and TCU were in the top 5.  That is huge hit in the calculation and will almost certainly mean that the Big East won't automatically qualify unless TCU joins their league.  That's when the politics will start again and as the Mountain West has had a lot more success they have a much better claim on the 6th spot.  That will be even more true if the ACC picks off a Syracuse or the SEC West Virginia.

I'm sure most Big East fans don't even realize the danger but I'm sure the league office is well aware and are working to get assurances of TCU's loyalty but in the end I can't believe they'd turn down a Big 12 offer.  I'm rooting for them to leave as it might be the final blow to break up the Big East so their teams can revert to their proper place in college football.

Dr Saturday is the new Brooks

I'm no fan of Miami and deep down a part of me would like to enjoy the Shapiro allegations but the recent TAT5 scandal makes that impossible. The hundreds of false allegations against the Buckeyes has shown me that most of these guys are clueless when it comes to actual journalism and I don't trust anything any of them. ESPN has been bad but some of the worst hack jobs against Ohio State have come from Matt Hinton and mediots at Yahoo's Dr Saturday. They've been so wrong so often that it makes me wonder how they keep their jobs and it appears they aren't starting off any better in the Miami scandal.

Hinton's recent article ends with this quote:

"But if the death penalty is in the bylaws, it must be on the table here. Practically speaking, if this isn't a death penalty case, then the death penalty no longer exists."

Really Matt? Do you even know anything about the death penalty? First, the NCAA doesn't call it the death penalty, they call it the repeat violator clause which should give you a clue how it works but here's the relevant part of the NCAA statute on the "death penalty":

19.5.2.3 - An institution shall be considered a “repeat” violator if the Committee on Infractions finds that a major violation has occurred within five years of the starting date of a major penalty. For this provision to apply, at least one major violation must have occurred within five years after the starting date of the penalties in the previous case. It shall not be necessary that the Committee on Infractions’ hearing be conducted or its report issued within the five-year period.

In other words, to be a repeat violator you have had to have committed a major violation within 5 years of the start of the penalties from another major violation.

When was the date of Miami's last major penalty? Dec 1, 1995 or almost 16 years ago. Even Shapiro says he didn't start funneling money to players until 2002 which means the death penalty isn't possible in the Miami case even if every allegation from a man charged with fraud is true and you ignore the NCAA's statute of limitations.

Next time I wish these guys would do a little research like their brethren on the Yahoo investigative side before they publish anything. I'm sure that won't happen but a guy can dream.

I shouldn't post the link but here it is if you feel the need....

Link: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/For-Miami-booster-s-bombshell-means-it-s-time-t?ur

Why did Smith's opinion of Tressel change.

The editor of the Ozone wrote an open letter to Gene Smith that basically were calling him out for not getting invited to last week's press conference.  You can read it here.  My thoughts?

 There are legitimate reasons to be upset at the handling of the situation since the beginning but you write an open letter because of an impromptu press conference?  Seriously?

Despite being a bit frivolous, the article does ask a few good questions, most notably, why did Smith's opinion of Tressel change?

I've always assumed that Gene Smith's initial issue with Jim Tressel was that JT never apologized.  You know that Tressel had to promise this before March's press conference or it wouldn't have been included in the NCAA filing.  Keep in mind that Smith spoke first then Gee and finally Tressel.  Once they both unequivocally endorsed Tressel it was really too late to take it back when Tressel gave his rambling speech that had nothing resembling an apology.  I know Smith and Tressel sat down a few days after the press conference so Smith could instruct Tressel on what he was expecting in an apology but what I saw over the following weeks wasn't any better.*

The apology request disappeared afterward so I always assumed that Smith told Tressel to hold off for the August meetings for a firm statement of responsibility.  About 6 weeks after the March press conference, Smith had an odd conversation with a member of the press that made it obvious that he and JT weren't seeing eye to eye.  In hindsight my suspicion is that time passed the gulf between the two widened from not agreeing about an apology to not agreeing about compliance.

Why would it widen?

One constant of most high level managers is they all have large ego's and people with ego's have a high opinion of their own ideas.  Another constant is the longer someone has been in an organization, the tougher it is for that person to change.  As change is constant in any organization, turf wars are the inevitable result.

When the Compliance Group came back with their recommendations my suspicion is their proposal included a lot of things that would take away a lot of the free reign that Jim Tressel had grown used to over his last 20+ years of coaching.  I know Andy Geiger recommended changes to football compliance so this isn't exactly a new idea.  His long tenure would have allowed that to happen pretty easily but his abrupt departure left the job undone.  When Gene Smith arrived he was in a weak position to implement change in the football program.  Some might say -- well he's the boss and it is his call.  You need to keep in mind that any change in policy still needs to have approval from Smith's bosses and he really was in a weak position to implement change in a program that was winning league championships every year.  All it would have taken was a phone call from Tressel to a few of the football friendly board members and any changes would have been tabled.  I have no doubt that Smith saw the TAT5 situation as an opportunity to improve compliance and when they were told to Jim Tressel he pushed back hard.  At some point Smith insisted and Tressel declined to comply so it went to Gordon Gee and the board. 

Of course all that is conjecture and  all we know is Smith supported Jim Tressel in March then asked for his resignation in May.  One hint we do know is when recently asked how long Smith felt he had spoken too strongly in Tressel's defense, he gave a one word answer - "Days".

I do know the answer to one question from the article - Why has Gene Smith never publicly spoken as to why he changed his mind?  The answer is simple - There is nothing to be gained from airing dirty laundry inside the program.

* "I'm sorry for what Buckeye fans are going through" is not an apology for the act.

Best LoIC quotes from the NCAA's report on USC

Something the national media doesn't seem to understand is that a Lack of Institutional control penalty isn't about violations.  It's about whether compliance has necessary procedures in place to catch violations and whether a these procedures are strictly enforced as no one can ever stop isolated incidents.  The key is how you catch them and what you do when you find an irregularity.  I've summarized my favorite quotes from the NCAA report on USC and specifically the portion on lack of control on pages 46-55 of their report (NCAA Public Report on USC).  Then compare this list  to Ohio State who self reported and has mostly been in front of this the whole time from a compliance standpoint.  The two situations aren't even close.

USC had a 2 person compliance department -  "... adequate resources must be dedicated to compliance.  In this case, while the football violations were occurring, the institution had insufficient numbers of compliance staff to do the thorough and complete job..."

Adequate tracking processes for vehicles - "Adequate  processes also require that institutions obtain automobile registration records, and, when appropriate, records  documenting purchase and car payments, and not simply rely on uncorroborated information provided by student-athletes.  Neither of these processes was in place at the institution at the time."

Incomplete Automobile tracking - "... the FAR stated that the  institution would check to see if the information contained in the automobile registration form was complete, but it was "sometimes hard to get all of the information.""

Incomplete records specifically concerning Reggie Bush's car - "The institutional automobile registration form was incomplete; while it listed the date the young man had acquired the vehicle and from whom he had allegedly received it (his parents), the lines on the form for the license number and place of purchase were left blank.  The  institution did not require student athlete 1 to provide the missing information or the  records on the purchase and financing of the vehicle."

Carroll got Bush a job that provided the improper benefits with knowledge of compliance - "There was information in the record  that the former head  football  coach encouraged  sports marketer A to hire student-athletes as interns.  A current NFLPA certified agent ("sports agent B") is the chairman of a sports agency and a colleague of sports marketer A.  He reported that the former head football coach asked sports marketer A to consider hiring football student-athletes as interns in his agency."

Bush's employer seems nervous -  "Even though sports marketer A had assured the former director of compliance that he was doing everything  "by the book," the former director of compliance came away from the conversation with the impression that "the reporter shook up  (sports marketer A) and has him second guessing himself.""

An allegation by a reporter that Bush's employer seems especially close to him - "The e-mail from the former director of compliance concluded as follows: "I think we should call [student-athlete 1] in to discuss and confirm.  I can do that today (since they most likely leave tomorrow for the Cal game)."  However, no followup meeting with student-athlete 1 concerning the issues raised by the journalist ever took place.  The FAR claimed no recollection of receiving or reading the email."

Response to a Nationally published article - "... the institution failed to undertake even a limited inquiry into the issues raised by the journalist to determine if sports marketer A provided student-athlete 1 or his family with impermissible benefits.  The FAR could not recall anyone at the institution discussing the issues raised in the article, and the former director of compliance stated it was concluded within the department of athletics that the article was "sensationalistic" and "the internship was being misconstrued as something more than it was." "

Knowledge of improper payment of Bush's disability insurance policy - "... the former director of compliance received the forms from sports marketer B. The former director of compliance told sports marketer B that it was inappropriate for the sports marketing agency to be involved with student-athlete 1's disability insurance policy, but he did not take any action to sever the involvement or investigate the matter...  Instead, he passed the forms on to  an institutional athletics trainer, who assisted in completing the forms."

First approached by Mayo's "promoter" - ...  asked  his assistant coach to stay in contact with representative B regarding the recruitment of the two young men.  He did  so even after establishing that representative B was not a parent or guardian of the young men and called himself an "event promoter." To his credit, the former head men's basketball coach reported the meeting to the director of athletics and the compliance office."

Finding out the Mayo's "promoter" had been acted improperly in the past - "...within three weeks of
his initial meeting with representative B, he and his staff had learned  that representative B provided impermissible benefits  to the former student-athlete almost five years earlier.  When questioned about the situation, representative B denied he was a professional sports agent and told the assistant men's basketball coach  that the NCAA  had erroneously labeled him."

More allegations but no action taken regarding Mayo's recruitment - "... director of athletics went to the men's basketball office after receiving an e-mail from a sports reporter looking for a response to a report that representative B was a professional sports agent and involved with student-athlete 2.  When advised by the former head men's basketball coach that representative B had on numerous occasions denied he was an agent or runner, the director of athletics responded, "That's all I need to know," and left the office.  No further follow-up was done."

Director of Athletics and Director of Compliance's lack of understanding of NCAA rules - "... failed to recognize that representative B was a representative of the institution's athletics interests and that his involvement with student-athlete 2's recruitment was a violation of NCAA rules.  But even without making the booster connection, both of them were aware of representative B's provision of impermissible benefits to the former  men's basketball  student-athlete in 2001. This fact alone should have resulted in a higher level of scrutiny of representative B, but no further investigation was done."

Compliance eventually wants to end recruitment of Mayo but can't get support - "... director of compliance told the former head men's basketball coach of his concerns regarding potential problems in the recruitment of student-athlete 2.  The director of compliance recommended that the basketball coaching staff formally end  the  recruitment of student-athlete 2 given the very public questions about student-athlete 2's amateur status and the young man's association with representative B and his AAU coach.  The former head men's basketball coach failed to heed the advice, and the administration took no further action."

Did the Buckeye's Oversign their 2011 class?

Over the weekend James Jackson made headlines on the O-Zone site and all over the internet because he claimed the Buckeyes oversigned.  They key quote was:

“They had an oversigning issue,” Jackson said. “They had to free up a few scholarships, and coach (Jim) Tressel told me I probably wouldn’t play and maybe Ohio State wasn’t the place for me.”

Ohio State fans have long been critical of oversigning as the practice isn't allowed in the Big Ten.  It is a normal practice in the SEC and discussions between these two groups of fans will almost always lead to an argument about the merits of oversigning.  When this article hit the internet it poured fuel on the fire as the SEC fans cackled, "See Ohio State does it too!"

This really bugged me because 1) I think oversigning is wrong on principal and 2) I couldn't imagine the Buckeyes oversigned because they missed out on a player they really wanted on signing day (Aundrey Walker).  I had to figure it out for myself.

Schools don't really share scholarship information with the public but it is pretty easy to figure out who has a scholarship if you are willing to dig a little.  I used two resources to research the Buckeyes scholarships.  The first was the Rivals.com scouting site for scholarships and the Scout.com site for the Buckeye roster.  What I essentially did was cross-check the recruiting list for the last few seasons with the 2010/2011 Buckeye roster to see who was still on the team that had signed a letter of intent to play for Ohio State.

The following are players on the current Buckeye roster (by year recruited / alphabetical order) followed by the year they appear on the Rivals Website:

Recruited Players
Joe Bauserman - 2004
Tyler Moeller - 2006
Evan Blankenship - 2007
Donnie Evege - 2007
Dan Herron - 2007
Nate Oliver - 2007
Solomon Thomas - 2007

Mike Adams - 2008
Michael Brewster - 2008
Ben Buchanan - 2008
Zach Domicone - 2008
Garrett Goebel - 2008
Travis Howard - 2008
Orhian Johnson - 2008
DeVier Posey - 2008
Etienne Sabino - 2008
J.B. Shugarts - 2008
Jacob Stoneburner - 2008
Andrew Sweat - 2008
Nathan Williams - 2008

C.J. Barnett - 2009
Dorian Bell - 2009
Adam Bellamy - 2009
Jaamal Berry - 2009
Zach Boren - 2009
Corey Brown - 2009
Dominic Clarke - 2009
Melvin Fellows - 2009
Chris Fields - 2009
Reid Fragel - 2009
Kenneth Guiton - 2009
Jordan Hall - 2009
Marcus Hall - 2009
Adam Homan - 2009
Carlos Hyde - 2009
Storm Klein - 2009
Corey Linsley - 2009
Jack Mewhort - 2009
Jonathan Newsome - 2009
Johnny Simon - 2009
Jordan Whiting - 2009
Jamie Wood - 2009

Darryl Baldwin - 2010
Drew Basil - 2010
Corey Brown - 2010
Christian Bryant - 2010
David Durham - 2010
Taylor Graham - 2010
Adam Griffin - 2010
Chad Hagan - 2010
Johnathan Hankins - 2010
James Louis - 2010
Scott McVey - 2010
J.T. Moore - 2010
Andrew Norwell - 2010
Verlon Reed - 2010
Bradley Roby - 2010
Roderick Smith - 2010
Tyrone Williams - 2010

Michael Bennett - 2011
Brian Bobek - 2011
Tommy Brown - 2011
Chris Carter - 2011
Jeremy Cash - 2011
Conner Crowell - 2011
Chase Farris - 2011
DerJuan Gambrell - 2011
Curtis Grant - 2011
Doran Grant - 2011
Joel Hale - 2011
Ken Hayes - 2011
Bryce Haynes - 2011
Jeff Heuerman - 2011
Braxton Miller - 2011
Steve Miller - 2011
Ryan Shazier - 2011
Devin Smith - 2011
Evan Spencer - 2011
Ron Tanner - 2011
Antonio Underwood - 2011
Nick Vannett - 2011

Dionte Allen - Transfer

That's a total of 82 scholarship players on the roster right now (60 in school now and 22 true freshman) .  Since it is possible that walk-ons have been given a scholarship I checked each of the following and haven't found any that have been given a scholarship:

Walk-ons
Dan Bain
Dalton Britt
Bo Delande - Preferred
Nate Ebner
Derek Erwin
James Georgiades - Preferred
Tony Harlamert
James Hastings
Tony Jackson
Jon Lorenz
George Makridis
Don Matheney
Chris Maxwell
Taylor Rice
Justin Siems
Spencer Smith
Stewart Smith
Ben St. John
Julian Vann

That leaves the changes that have occurred since last season.  After dropping off graduating seniors you are left with 6 players and I split them into two groups:


Gone but expected to be on roster on signing day

Ejuan Price - Enrolling at Pitt
Terrelle Pryor - Declared for the NFL
James Jackson - Transferred to Grand Valley State


Not expected to be on August roster on signing day
Nic DiLillo - Given a scholarship for 2010 but according to Dave Biddle was kicked from the team last fall.
Sam Longo - Told coaching staff of his intention to transfer in January.
Cardale Jones - Recruited as part of 2011 class but was told at the time he would need to greyshirt

On signing day the Buckeyes had 62 players on scholarship and signed 23 players (excluding the greyshirting Cardale Jones) for the mandated total of 85.  Since then Jackson, Pryor, and Price have left which leaves them at 82 scholarships.

After doing this it does make me wonder what the Buckeyes would have done if Glenville's Aundrey Walker would have signed with the team on signing day as they would have then given 86 scholarships.  My suspicion is since Adam Griffin's scholarship was a last minute gift in 2010 that the same principle held in 2011.  Since Aundrey didn't sign we will never know.

The one thing I know for sure is when James Jackson announced his transfer in March the Buckeyes weren't oversigned and didn't need to make room to get in compliance.

Double standard for Jim Tressel

When the TAT5 story first broke back in December the O-Zone boards were split between the fans that wanted the players kicked from the program and the fans that didn't.  The posts were really heated and I was personally outraged that they'd disrespect the university and do something as stupid as selling their trophies for money.

I wanted those players kicked off the team so we could move forward with players that valued the tradition of Ohio State.  As time went on and the players were allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl I was outraged that the university and the NCAA could allow this to happen.  At that point I put my faith in Jim Tressel.  Certainly he understood the magnitude of what these players had done.  Certainly he would put everything right.

As I posted in another article, Jim Tressel proceeded to have a masterful press conference where he chastised the fans and alumni for thinking of themselves first and not the kids.  Three months later that press conference had a different meaning altogether.

The day in March the news broke about Jim Tressel  it was chaos. Various rumors were coming out and a question was asked on the O-Zone forums:

"To all you people that wanted the players to be kicked from the program in December ... Do you feel the same way about Jim Tressel?"

The question was asked condescendingly as it was unthinkable to most that this could cause Jim Tressel to leave the program.  I started to post but stopped myself.  I didn't know what to think as frankly we didn't have all the information at the time.  Even a few weeks later when I wrote the post I linked above I hesitated because I didn't want to face it.  The truth in hindsight is what Jim Tressel did was unpardonable.  He's the coach and  he can't lie to the NCAA.  He had to go.

My first reaction when the question posed above was asked was ... "He has to go too!"  I didn't think about it but it was my gut reaction.  It's funny how we react when we are faced with tough situations.  Being human means any decision can be affected by our emotions and it is up to us to see if we remain true to our values or bend them because of past deeds (or wins).  I modified my opinion over times because while the rest of the world was calling for his head, Buckeye Nation was pretty much following Gordon Gee and Gene Smith's lead in supporting the coach.  There were a few Buckeye trendsetters like Bruce Hooley and I personally remember being chastised repeatedly for even suggesting that Jim Tressel lied as many thought it was a grand conspiracy of some sort.  Despite the administration's support, public opinion gradually shifted and Jim Tressel went from 90% support to barely a majority with the minority getting more vocal every single day.  I found it funny as I saw my opinion go from being a radical Buckeye hater to being called a mindless supporter.  My position never changed -- once Gene Smith said they were going to support the coach and present information to the NCAA in August I felt we owed it to Coach Tressel to give him his day in court before making a final judgement.  Pressure mounted though and ultimately Jim Tressel decided to end the circus by resigning.

In hindsight I wish I had stood by my gut reaction because although I still think Coach is a good man he just had to go.  Taking a position like that would have been tough in Columbus back in March but I regret having a double standard.  I know I was uncompromising in December when I felt the players should have been kicked from the team but caved when the subject changed to the coach.

In the end I think that's the key.  We love our heroes and Jim Tressel was a hero for Buckeye Nation. We would have followed him almost anywhere and believed anything he said until he was proven to be human like the rest of us.  It took a while for us to realize it and once we did the double standard disappeared.  Once that happened, it was impossible for Jim Tressel to remain coach of the Buckeyes and his departure was only a matter of time.

Michigan is a bunch of cheaters and I can prove it!

Ok maybe not prove it but I noticed something suspicious on the EA's "NCAA Football Traditions" voting.

The place to vote is on ESPN at the following link: http://sports.espn.go.com/sportsnation/story?page=ncaatraditionsvote

In a shocker, #15 Nebraska's Horseshoe beat #2 Script Ohio 53 - 47% with 71k votes cast.  #6 Colorado Ralphie lost to #11 Michigan Banner by a 38 - 62% Margin with 78k votes cast.

If you look at the details for the Ohio State-Nebraska matchup you see that Ohio State won 30 of the 50 states with 2 ties.  The votes are all pretty consistently in Ohio State's favor except for the international vote which cast 52k votes at a 82% margin for Nebraska which is what won the poll (Note - this poll by state adds up to much more than 71k).

If you look at the details for the Colorado-Michigan matchup you see that Colorado won 41 of the 50 states with a pretty consistent winning margin in the 55-65%.  There are only 10k international votes and they have Colorado winning as well.  If you look at the number of votes by state there's no way it adds up to the 78k listed by ESPN.  Somehow this all added up to a convincing Michigan win.

I looked at all the other matchups and here is the number of votes cast:

54k - Notre Dame - WVU
44k - Georgia - Tennessee
41k - Florida St - Florida
45k - Clemson - USC
52k - Auburn - LSU
39k - Texas - Oklahoma

That's an average of about 45k votes for these 6 matchups while Ohio State had 71k and Michigan had 78k.  No doubt there are a lot of people that follow each of these schools but it certainly seems likely that someone is hacking the system in the OSU and Michigan contests by about 20k votes.

If you look at the voting maps on the other contests you also see a consistent pattern where the state results are reasonably similar to the national results.  The only matchup that looks out of line is the OSU-Nebraska and Colorado-Michigan.  If you back out 20k votes for Nebraska and Michigan suddenly things look closer to what you'd expect from the maps.

The big question is who is sneaky enough to do such a thing?  I think we all know the answer to that question ... scUM.

Should college football players get more money?

A discussion occurred on the topic of paying football players more money.  The comments that got me to respond were these:

• We can't expect these guys to eat all their meals at the cafeteria and do nothing else but eat, sleep, study, and play football.
• He isn't talking about survival, he is talking about a quality of life.
• This is part of the reason why this country's economy is in such bad shape. Too many people trying to live beyond their means. It's not enough to have the basics, they have to have more. If someone wants something beyond that they need to budget and save, not ask someone else for more.

Here's my thoughts:
If college football used the free market they'd be paying millions in salary.  A free college degree isn't nothing

but it isn't close to market value at Ohio State.  Just to give you an example:  The NFL is the only free market football system we have in the United States and their contract requires that player salaries equate to a little over 50% of revenue.  When you consider that Ohio State football brought in over $70mm last year, if college football paid its athletes like the NFL, they'd have to pay $35 million to the players.  If you divide the $35 million by 85 scholarship players you get and average payout of over $400k which is over 10x more than they receive in scholarship benefits.

I'm not sure if you know this but there was a study done last year to calculate the cost of attending college that aren't covered by a scholarship.  It estimated the average at almost $3000 with Ohio State one of the highest with a  $4572 shortfall annually.

I don't have a problem with the current system because the situation is much more complicated than paying fair market as that would effectively end non-revenue sports in the country.  What I don't understand is why we can't pay the full costs of attendance that the NCAA itself acknowledges.  $4572 per player at Ohio State isn't a ton of money ($389k) when you look at the overall budget and it at least lessens the need for players to go elsewhere to look for alternative ways to get money.

The current system was fine 50 years ago but TV has changed everything.  It's well past time to try to make it a little fairer.

Call for the Death penalty for Ohio State

I see more and more people calling for the death penalty for the Ohio State football program.  I'd find it funny if it weren't such a serious situation.  Someone posted the question today if Ohio State should get the death penalty and this is my response:

Even as bad as it was, the NCAA later admitted they didn't realize the massive effect on SMU and wouldn't do it again.

If they did the same thing to Ohio State, they'd basically be shutting down 30+ other programs that were totally innocent.  The NCAA knows they are dancing with the devil when it comes to college football and the funding for all the other sports.  They can't kill the golden goose for fear of killing the whole thing.  Colleges are already hemorrhaging money from rising costs/government cutbacks so they depend on their football teams to pay for everything else.  Without football you don't have college athletics.

Players are paid comparatively very little when you consider their counterparts in the NFL.  Keeping kids away from people that want to buy access is impossible to achieve 100% of the time.  The colleges and the NCAA don't have near the amount resources available to police this so eventually every school is going to get hit.  All it takes is one kid that does something stupid and somehow it gets documented.  At that point the NCAA has to go through the motions and while the media points to the program and says, "Shame on you!" while behind closed doors their opponents all breath a sigh of relief, thankful that it isn't them.

((I'm in no way saying that I feel a lax compliance atmosphere or Jim Tressel's omission was acceptable.  I expect tough compliance at Ohio State and lying from the head coach is inexcusable.))

Dorhmann will get credit for Coach Tressel's dismissal but it had been in the works for weeks

The brass at Ohio State didn't even know there would be an article until it was pretty much too late to do anything. You just don't find out on Friday there is going to be an article and fire him on Monday. At that point they don't even know if the allegations in the article are true or even exactly what is going to be said. It takes a while to do these things because lawyers will always be involved. Yes I know Ohio State has the misstatement on the October compliance report as cause but the last thing they want is a public battle of any sort. You just don't get that kind of agreement over a holiday weekend.

I've thought for a while that if the administrators were going to fire Jim Tressel that they had to do it now. The NCAA has been in town for a while and I'd be disappointed if there hasn't been off the record conversations between Gene Smith, The Compliance Group, and key members of the NCAA infractions committee about "what can we expect?" Assuming the response wasn't good for Coach Tressel, waiting until the official ruling could be devastating. Once camp starts making a change any time before NLoI day in February would be really messy. Better to do it now to minimize the damage to the program than wait and affect the regular season and recruiting.

Dohrmann will get the rep as someone that fired Coach Tressel but it isn't true. He just had fortunate timing for his article.

I've got a dirty little secret - I subscribe to Hooley's twitter feed.

Clicking the link is like watching a car accident.  I know I'm not going to like what I see but I can't help myself.

My main reason I follow it is because I really do like to get different opinions to help me form my own but following his thread is like an act self-flagellation.  As you can imagine Hooley's twitter account is a non-stop diet of negativity about the Buckeyes along with congratulatary posts to authors that bash the Bucks.  It's like a one stop shop for negative Buckeye articles.  So today he links two articles with the following tweets:

BHOOLZ: My man @chris_spielman bringing the TRUTH!
http://t.co/lc2FjYm”

BHOOLZ: @DanWetzel Very strong and dead on the money on #OSU, #Pryor
http://tinyurl.com/3wechjd

The first article is essentially an interview that Chris Spielman had with a Detroit News in which he bashed today's culture of entitled athletes and linked it to the issues at Ohio State.

The second article is by Dan Wetzel which essentially says the  issue is the Ohio State brass and not Pryor.

So Chris is bringing the truth about spoiled athletes but Wetzel is right that its not about Pryor.  HUH?  Not sure that both can possibly be true.

Seems to me the only truth for Bruce is as long as it is anti-Ohio State it has to be true.  Which reminds me ... I've seen him publish articles going back to his days at the Plain Dealer -- Has he ever publish on that said something nice about the alma mater he says he loves?  I'm having trouble ever seeing one.

The funny thing is I used to listen to his radio program all the time.  He tempered his negativity for the airways and when he had Spielman as a partner it was a pretty good listen.  I even went so far to send an angry letter to the station when he was fired as he had a role when they didn't replace Spiels they set him up to fail.  Now that Hooley is back to his old tricks, I'm sorry I defended him.

((I'm sure people will say I should just stop following  him and they'd probably be right.  The frustration is not worth the little info I get.))