I am not all in

[Jake]

All I really know at this point is, no matter who's coaching or playing or directing athletics this year or next or twenty years from now, I'll never have to think twice about going to a game, if I can afford it.

That's nice to know, but I don't know why you're directing that at me. I've never said anything remotely along those lines.

I'm questioning those who run the university and as a member of the alumni association I have every right to do it. Frankly, I think they've screwed the pooch here, haven't been honest about it, and are trying to figure a way out of it while taking as little responsibility as possible.

It has nothing to do with whether I'll attend football games in the future, as I hope to do as often as I can. Supporting the football players who choose to be Buckeyes is entirely different than supporting highly compensated adults who run the university and its athletic programs.

 

[BUCKYLE]

That's nice to know, but I don't know why you're directing that at me. I've never said anything remotely along those lines.

I'm questioning those who run the university and as a member of the alumni association I have every right to do it. Frankly, I think they've screwed the pooch here, haven't been honest about it, and are trying to figure a way out of it while taking as little responsibility as possible.

It has nothing to do with whether I'll attend football games in the future, as I hope to do as often as I can. Supporting the football players who choose to be Buckeyes is entirely different than supporting highly compensated adults who run the university and its athletic programs.

I wasn't claiming you thought otherwise. Just kinda agreed with that post, and pretty much all of this one.

 

[NFBuck]

Given the lame explanations to date and the evidence that continues to mount, if heads start rolling in Columbus so be it. I don't expect anything to happen until August at the earliest, however, and maybe not even then. Deny, deny, deny, as the politicians say.

The shenanigans with the cars iced the cake for me, but I'm sure some will still take the Miss Piggy "What an unbelievable coincidence!" route. I can't do it. I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. I'm sure some explanation will be offered and I suspect it will be laughable, at best, like the February presser.

I'm just extremely disappointed in all of them right now.

Agree 100%, and the sad thing is some of these rules (Cars, if true) are being broken knowing full well it is wrong...and it's the players doing it. Hard to put your support behind that, even on the field...at least for me. That said, guarentee this isn't something isolated to Columbus. High profile players/programs around the country are doing this, we're just in the crosshairs because the whole tattoo crap opened a pandora's box, and now you have reporters swarming like sharks because there's blood in the water.

I always loved college sports because I thought it was pure...that it was kids playing with passion because they loved the game and/or the program they represent. Obviously, that was pretty naive. I don't feel that way anymore. Unfortunately, this day in age, you have sycophants that want to get close to these programs any way possible and that often means offering kids, who are often broke, special "deals" and benefits and it's tainting it all. Just a sad state of affairs.

 

[OSUK]

Drip, drip, drip...

 

[buckeyesin07]

That said, guarentee this isn't something isolated to Columbus. High profile players/programs around the country are doing this, we're just in the crosshairs because the whole tattoo crap opened a pandora's box, and now you have reporters swarming like sharks because there's blood in the water.

Bingo. Not that this absolves OSU of any guilt, but I only hope that all the short-sighted clown fans of other programs who are standing on their soapboxes and acting with an air of moral superiority someday endure the same with their programs.

 

[SmoovP]

Tress believes in redemption or at least in giving people the opportunity for it. See the lengths to which he went to help MoC post-drama. I do not think many other coaches would've done that. I believe that Tress is more than due the same opportunity. His offense was not simply a crass grab for wins. There was, although we can certainly disagree about the scope/extent of it, more to this whole situation. Yes, he sailed a little (or lot) too close to the wind, but he did so, at least in part, for the right reasons. I'm still all in.

The part of this argument that I don't get is how anyone can believe that letting people skate when they break the rules is helpful to the rule breaker, or that the person allowing the rule breaker to skate is doing it for the 'right' reason.

When one of my boys gets caught breaking a rule, I do him no favor by letting him get away with it. It would be the exact same thing as telling him "Good job son! Do it again!". It only encourages the behavior to continue.

The OSU players were breaking the rules - evidently in an on-going fashion - and Tressel looked the other way. And to compound that poor judgement, he did not come clean despite multiple opportunities to do so.

There is no one person, team or institution in the entire situation that was helped by that decision.

It looks now as if he was obfuscating, being willingly dishonest and doing everything possible to cover up what was going on.

With his poor decisions, he has made things exponentially worse than they would have been had he simply done the right thing to begin with and self-reported the original offense, because the coverup is nearly always worse than the actual offense. It certainly is in this case.

I don't think there is any reasonable explanation at this point other than to conclude that Tressel saw a NC run on the horizon and took a calculated gamble that he could get away with it by handling it 'in house'.

That was probably a good bet when he made it. It probably happens all the time with every team in the country. But Coach Tressel's real 'crime' here was to not come clean at the first opportunity.

And that is a real shame for Coach Tressel, the Buckeyes and tOSU.

 

[Buckeye513]

I only hope that all the short-sighted clown fans of other programs who are standing on their soapboxes and acting with an air of moral superiority someday endure the same with their programs.

We were all doing the same shit when the hammer dropped on USC and the Cam Newton story broke.

 

[BB73]

There are a shit load of people paid far more money than I, that will make these decisions.

All I really know at this point is, no matter who's coaching or playing or directing athletics this year or next or twenty years from now, I'll never have to think twice about going to a game, if I can afford it.

Why the fuck would you have to think about it? Even if you're broke, just give up Natty light for a month to afford the ticket. If you like beer more than the Buckeyes you're dead to me.















I hope everybody realizes that's just a Devil's advocate position, questioning the fandom of someone who used those same exact words to another poster on the previous page.

Seeing some of us questioning the Buckeye loyalty of others is one of the worst aspects brought about by this whole mess.

Let's all try to avoid that as we express our opinions on the issues.

 

[BB73]

I don't know if tOSU made the NCAA aware of 'player G' back in December or not. I think it's possible that they mentioned it outside the report, and didn't include it since the player's eligibility was over.

But the PR aspects of the while thing haven't been well-handled. Whenever there are serious revelations (as in December and in early March), it seems to me that it would be much better to reveal everything publicly at that point in time.

Having 'player G' information coming out later, having some of Tressel's handling of the emails coming out later, etc. is like death from a thousand cuts.

As far as the car thing from this morning, I'm waiting to see more complete information on car values and sale prices. The claim that the tOSU compliance department directed players toward a dealership is troubling. I don't know why someone in compliance would want to do that under normal circumstances - since having numerous players and their families all getting cars from the same dealership is a PR problem at best, and could be institutional cheating at worst.

 

[buckeyesin07]

The claim that the tOSU compliance department directed players toward a dealership is troubling. I don't know why someone in compliance would want to do that under normal circumstances - since having numerous players and their families all getting cars from the same dealership is a PR problem at best, and could be institutional cheating at worst.

According to the Dispatch article, the source of that claim was Kniffin.

 

[jwinslow]

We were all doing the same shit when the hammer dropped on USC and the Cam Newton story broke.

The worst part of that sentence is the other way it reads when viewed first on BPSpy without context.

 

[RugbyBuck]

The part of this argument that I don't get is how anyone can believe that letting people skate when they break the rules is helpful to the rule breaker, or that the person allowing the rule breaker to skate is doing it for the 'right' reason.

When one of my boys gets caught breaking a rule, I do him no favor by letting him get away with it. It would be the exact same thing as telling him "Good job son! Do it again!". It only encourages the behavior to continue.

The OSU players were breaking the rules - evidently in an on-going fashion - and Tressel looked the other way. And to compound that poor judgement, he did not come clean despite multiple opportunities to do so.

There is no one person, team or institution in the entire situation that was helped by that decision.

It looks now as if he was obfuscating, being willingly dishonest and doing everything possible to cover up what was going on.

With his poor decisions, he has made things exponentially worse than they would have been had he simply done the right thing to begin with and self-reported the original offense, because the coverup is nearly always worse than the actual offense. It certainly is in this case.

I don't think there is any reasonable explanation at this point other than to conclude that Tressel saw a NC run on the horizon and took a calculated gamble that he could get away with it by handling it 'in house'.

That was probably a good bet when he made it. It probably happens all the time with every team in the country. But Coach Tressel's real 'crime' here was to not come clean at the first opportunity.

And that is a real shame for Coach Tressel, the Buckeyes and tOSU.

Not suggesting that he should flat "get away with it" (even though I'm not sure how appropriate that phrase would be here). Tress broke some rules and is/will be paying a price. My point is that I don't think he should be run out on a rail (and certainly not based upon some groundswell of external pressure) because of his record and because of the somewhat unique circumstances here. Policies and rules exist to facilitate principles. When they conflict with the principles they effectuate, they are subordinate. That doesn't mean that one shouldn't still be punished for the rule-breaking, but the offense should be considered in context and the punishment should be adjusted, where appropriate. If one of my daughters (and of the two, it would definitely be the younger) ever seriously ran afoul of the law, especially if there was any type of extenuating circumstance, I absolutely would try to work every other avenue before reporting it to the cops. That isn't to say that there wouldn't be in-house penalties, however. We live in a world of moral triage, despite what the ncaa may think. I can/do live with that.

 

[BUCKYLE]

If the NCAA hammers tOSU and/or JT...good luck getting any university that wants to keep it's coach to self report a fuckin' hiccup.

Just sayin'.

 

[SmoovP]

Not suggesting that he should flat "get away with it" (even though I'm not sure how appropriate that phrase would be here). Tress broke some rules and is/will be paying a price. My point is that I don't think he should be run out on a rail (and certainly not based upon some groundswell of external pressure) because of his record and because of the somewhat unique circumstances here. Policies and rules exist to facilitate principles. When they conflict with the principles they effectuate, they are subordinate. That doesn't mean that one shouldn't still be punished for the rule-breaking, but the offense should be considered in context and the punishment should be adjusted, where appropriate. If one of my daughters (and of the two, it would definitely be the younger) ever seriously ran afoul of the law, especially if there was any type of extenuating circumstance, I absolutely would try to work every other avenue before reporting it to the cops. That isn't to say that there wouldn't be in-house penalties, however. We live in a world of moral triage, despite what the ncaa may think. I can/do live with that.

I don't necessarily disagree with that, but my more relevant point was that Tressel wasn't doing the players any favors by letting them skate - let alone himself, the team, the program or the university.

 

[TwinsBuck]

the claim that tOSU directs players to certain dealerships came up with the MoC issue. The Athletic Dept said at that time that they have a short list of dealers they know to be reputable who won't cheat and give players special deals. in other words, they have some dealers who they have fully vetted. I hope that's the situation in this case.