NCAA coming to town
NCAA to reopen investigation of Ohio State on Michigan week
BY TOM REED
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - (KRT) - The team from ``Up North'' is coming to Columbus, Ohio, this week. So is a team from about 200 miles west of the capital city.
Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger confirmed Saturday night that representatives of the NCAA will be on campus Monday to reopen its investigation into the football program in wake of allegations made by Maurice Clarett and other ex-Buckeyes.
It might not be a Buckeye fan's ideal way to begin Michigan week, but Geiger welcomes the Indianapolis-based governing body for college athletics.
Five days after ESPN The Magazine released its original story on Clarett's claims of improper benefits bestowed upon him, Geiger remains certain his program will be exonerated for the second time in a year.
``Because they (the allegations made by the former players) are so bizarre, I'm more confident,'' Geiger said. ``But I want someone else to say that besides me. It's very important for this to be exposed for what it is.''
Both the university and NCAA will conduct probes. Geiger said the university will start anew with its investigation and he doesn't expect a resolution until at least January, if not later.
``It's so sweeping and so over-the-top that we are going to spend huge resources, time and energy to get this right,'' Geiger said. ``We have to start over as far as I'm concerned.''
Clarett has accused the university and coaching staff of academic fraud, supplying loaner cars, funneling players to deep-pocketed boosters and aligning players with lucrative, no-show summer jobs. ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com have done subsequent stories featuring other former Buckeyes who have supported some of Clarett's claims.
Former cornerback B.J. Barre, 23, who played as a freshman during the 2000 season, told ESPN The Magazine he made good money for little work, had tutors write papers for him and was placed, without his knowledge, in a learning disabilities program that enabled him to take tests with assistance and under no time limit.
Geiger denied Barre's charges and grew visibly upset discussing the matter.
``Nobody has the authority to put a student in a disabilities program,'' Geiger said.
ESPN has given OSU an opportunity to present its side throughout the investigative stories but Geiger does not think the network or its publications are doing enough fact checking. He believes ESPN has sought out former Buckeyes who have failed at the school, using them as their primary sources. He called the practice ``ridiculous.''
``(ESPN is) using the people who provided them with their wealth in a very bizarre way,'' Geiger said.
OSU coach Jim Tressel, a primary focus of Clarett's allegations, would not answer questions about the off-field controversy at Saturday's postgame news conference. He shook his head no when asked for a response. Geiger said he has complete trust in his coach.
``Every single contact I've had with Jim Tressel in the past four years has been honorable, has been within the rules, has been in the direction of doing things the right way.''
Geiger said he isn't feeling any additional pressure, but concedes he's having to work hard to control his anger.
He thinks NCAA representatives will want to interview Clarett again. Clarett was suspended last season for accepting improper benefits and then lying to investigators about them. The 21-year-old Clarett said he misled them to protect Tressel and the program.
``They (NCAA investigators) identified 17 areas where (Clarett) didn't tell the truth. . . . They are willing to add to the list,'' Geiger said.
© 2004, Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio).
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From the NY Times:
The historical roots of objectivity as a journalistic ideal suggest there's more to it than parking one's opinions at the curb. Before it was applied specifically to journalism, the idea of objectivity grew out of a variety of early 20th century intellectual movements recognizing that somewhere in the swamps of conscious and unconscious thought, people could be biased without knowing it. By the 1920's Walter Lippmann and others were arguing that reporters could combat unconscious bias by applying scientific method and its "sense of evidence" to journalistic inquiry.
Only by the rigorous testing of hypotheses could the investigator - the journalist - reach reliable, bias-free conclusions. The key word, and the one that has disappeared from the definition over several generations, is "conclusions." Fairness requires the consideration of all sides of an issue; it doesn't require the uncritical reporting of any. Yet even the best reporters will sometimes display a disappointing reluctance to set things straight.
