Monday’s sudden resignation of former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel literally rocked the college football world. Here’s a sampling of the shock waves that rippled through the national media and sports blogs.
ESPN’s Ivan Maisel wonders, “Can something be inevitable and surprising at the same time?”
Indyposted.com’s Paul O’Connor explains that When you are the target of an investigative reporter who happens to be the most recent sports journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize and his nickname is ‘the pitbull,’ you are in trouble.
Gregg Doyel says getting rid of Tressel was just a good start, but that it won’t be enough to save them from the mighty hammer of the NCAA.
Paul Newberry of Associated Press thinks a “death penalty” for rogue coaches is a good idea.
Ralph Russo puts it in a business perspective—keeping Tressel would have been too costly.
ESPN’s Pat Forde notes that Tressel and Ohio State only told the truth when damage control was the only option left.
CBSSports.com’s Adam Jacobi asks if the Tressel tenure was ‘worth it?’
To add my own two cents to the kitty: This Sports Illustrated piece from George Dohrmann and David Epstein reveals that Jim Tressel has a long, sordid history of playing ignorant while his players routinely broke NCAA rules against improper benefits. As long as he was winning and as long as everything stayed under the radar, no one said a word.
It’s hard to imagine that the NCAA Enforcement staff won’t amend the Notice of Allegations it delivered to the school in March to include allegations that the program is/was guilty of the dreaded “lack of institutional control,” which brings a whole new fabric of sanctions into play.
Such a high profile case against such a significant football program doesn’t leave the NCAA much wiggle room on deciding sanctions and if the USC case is any indication, the penalties will have effects that will continue being felt for the better part of a decade. Sanctions are designed to hurt and punish the offenders.
Tressel’s resignation or eventual dismissal was widely expected. Few coaches have survived the Bylaw 10 breach of ethical conduct. But Buckeye fans need to brace for an even harder blow, a blow that will take a decade or more to recover from.
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1 comments :
I am curious to know how you feel about mark May making official statements about Saban being a candidate for the OSU job. IMO it's very irresponsible to make these kinds of statements because this is ammunition other schools try and use against Bama in recruiting. This is common coming from opposing school outlets but from a so-called analyst and sports reporter from a major media outlet it is wreckless. Thoughts?
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