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.