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.