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Ohio State Athletic Program Violations

Would those calling for Gene Smith's head on a platter because of this matter please refer to the below illustration:

mountain-molehill.gif
 
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And here we go again...

The guys at TexPN about to attempt another circle jerk all over tOSU once again....

Don't these guys have anything better to do?!? Sheesh - that's why Yahoo Sports has been scooping their asses for a few years now.

I know one guy who is actually finding guys doing wrong...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wowy-EdU4Eg"]COCAINUM!!!! - YouTube[/ame]
 
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MaxBuck;2159054; said:
Would those calling for Gene Smith's head on a platter because of this matter please refer to the below illustration:

mountain-molehill.gif

I had Gene Smith's back up until the time we received our bowl ban. I thought he knew what he was doing letting us play in the Gator Bowl. I never blamed him for tatgate or emailgate. I only blame him for his approach to it. He COMPLETELY misread the seriousness of the investigation from the outset and it was his job to read it correctly so we could implement proactive measures.

In the aftermath of all that, he has now himself committed an NCAA violation with the video and he allowed this latest story to become something out of nothing by giving an interview to the Lantern implying that possibly more serious violations were on the way.

No one calling for his head is looking at these latest secondary violations in a vaccum. Part of this guy's job is too keep my alma mater from getting crushed in the media. He doesn't have full control over that since the media (ESPN) obvious loves to jump all over OSU stories. But Gene also knows this about them.

He's handled the whole situation about as poorly as an athletic director could since December 2010. This latest PR gaffe is just further proof that he doesn't get it.

I don't want someone leading our athletic department that doesn't seem to understand the NCAA as well as he thinks he does. The alumni don't trust him. He's not well liked by the fanbase (some of whom wrongly believe that Tressel took the fall for him). He's ineffective.
 
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OH10 is absolutely right. Taken in isolation, this latest public screw up is rather minor. Taken in context, it becomes much worse.

What has he gotten right? The initial press conference about the yahoo report was an unmitigated disaster. He attempted to throw the compliance department under the bus (OK fine, but it was HIS department! Where does that buck stop?) He utterly misjudged the national reaction (and much more importantly the internal reaction among some major power players) in not releasing Tressel immediately. He completely misjudged the self-imposed penalties/bowl ban.

.....and now he's not only screwing up an unnecessary interview to address these secondary violations, but he is actually responsible for the worst one himself.

The man is an unmitigated disaster. Send him and his payrolling wife packing.
 
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Agree with the last couple posters. What exactly has the man done right?

He reacted too quickly and put Tressel in front of a firing squad before he flew off to deal with the NCAA tournament. Why couldn't he just pull an Oregon and say they'll let the NCAA process play out. Pretty much forced the NCAA's hand by admitting guilt and not firing him which caused a ridiculous national backlash.

Said it wasn't an systemic problem. Guess that's why we got a failure to monitor.

Said multiple times there would be no bowl ban and promised our new coach this. His utter stupidity may have actually helped us get Urban so he has that going for him.

Now we have to have another 24 hours of bad publicity because he can't even do a proper interview with the student newspaper and others have to try and put out his fire. Not to mention he is responsible for the most unacceptable violation by the football team.

The guy is just a national joke at this point and our rivals love him as our AD. He has zero clout with the NCAA, the department he is in charge of is responsible for a failure to monitor, and zero clue how to deal with the press. He must be a master of politics or have someone high up there backing him as it makes no sense why this man still has a job.
 
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And let me just supplement by saying that I defended Gene Smith up until the penalties were handed down. I thought and still think it was unfair to imply that he was aware of the Tressel/Cicero emails before they were disclosed. There was absolutely no evidence of this; and quite to the contrary, it seems clear the athletic department did not know about it since they were the ones who ultimately turned it over to the NCAA when they found out.

Plenty of people have insinuated that Gene Smith got this job and/or still has this job because of his race. I have not done that, would not do that, and I think the assertion is absurd.

But the man has failed at a very important job in this state that pays him a significant salary. He no longer deserves to have that job or the responsibility that comes with it.
 
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The man has to go.

Even if he is doing a good job on the administration side, a significant component of the AD position is public performance and the perception of the program...and we are failing on these fronts. I don't see how it can be argued otherwise..either he is either not capable of turning the violation spigot off (and compliance is his responsibility), or he is letting miniscule events turn into public floggings by not controlling the message. Either way... it reflects poorly on Ohio State.

These secondary violations in and of themselves are more an indictment of the NCAA rule book than OSU....I mean who cares if a grown man wants to put a dip of skoal in...but Gene has managed to juggle them into yet another black eye for Ohio State. It is yet another train wreck..when the original situation was actually a prime opportunity to show how serious OSU takes the rules..even if the rules themselves are flawed.

Gene continues to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at OSU expense. If there is any good being done at the AD level now would be a VERY GOOD TIME to make the public aware of his value...because absent that data..he remains a punching bag. Either show his value..or show him the door. The status quo implicates OSU as an institution even more so than Gene as an AD. When a manager tolerates bad employees or clear poor performance/poor outcomes: it is an indictment of the manager more so than the troubled employee.

I'm talking to YOU Ohio State: show us what he is doing well or do what needs to be done to improve the athletic department's performance, reputation, and brand.


1) he completely botched the original press conference in the wake of tattoo-gate.
2) the way JT was dismissed was mismanaged..it should have been done right away or not at all..but certainly not after the president gave his very public support of Tres as the coach and no additional misconduct by JT was revealed between giving that support and dismissing him
3) There was no need to comment on these tic tac violations..and if you *must* comment then don't go on the record with vague statements that can be misinterpreted to imply there may be major violations..prompting the department to now make a public showing of the 12 additional possible violations in an effort to undue the damage, but further drawing attention to the situation. Meanwhile. for all we know just about every school in the country is looking into several potential secondary violations right now..but no one knows, cares or is discussing it... because it doesn't have to be made public to counter the stupid shit their AD says.
4) we became the only program in NCAA history to receive a bowl ban for the violation shown in our NOA..with other repeat offenders before us not receiving such a ban for the same set of rule violations..yet Gene's 'inside understanding of the NCAA" was going to help us
5) He himself is directly committing secondary violations

Please show me a list of the benefits he has provided so I can have a better understanding of his performance. Personally I don't understand why he still has a job. All the above aside, on his watch as the AD OSU did have a major violation, went through a mess..and continues to attract attention to OSU's violations while offering no information or context to help show how we are REALLY doing compared to other programs. Instead we are once again under fire yet no one knows how this list compares to other schools..but we do know other schools have similar/worse performance but that isn't making news.

Oh, and another thing..in his effort to 'explain' his poorly worded comments about the initial list of new violations: he back peddled and said there were no additional violations for the football program...and then when the list is made public: boom...football.

He doens't even appear to know what is going on. That list is more silly trivial garbage..but you have to ask yourself: why are we all reading about and discussing such insignificant violations? Because Gene can't keep the lid on anything.

Oh no...we used mini basketballs! But now everyone knows it..and it *is* a violation no matter how minor. Why does our dirty laundry have to be continually aired? Why not just shut the **** up for a change? Many people don't bother to read WHAT the violations are...our reputation stops at MORE VIOLATIONS....more violations that should have never seen the public eye because they are more about dumb rules than actual VIOLATIONS...but once again the horse is out of the barn.

If he were to just say "NO COMMENT" his job performance would approve tremendously..stop feeding the trolls Gene!
 
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This is a matter of perception and reality. However, for most people perception is reality, so the minute they see that tOSU has some sort of minor violations the perception is that we are dirty. One of Gene's major roles is to manage the perception (e.g. everyone's reality) of tOSU athletics. In this regard Gene has not only failed, he has failed at a nuclear blast level.

I am actually shocked that the Board of Trustees has not forced this guy out the door.
 
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[sarcasm] This man is not only our AD, he was 2010 AD of the year. Clearly, he's completely up to the task at hand. Anything to the contrary is just going over your little heads. It's all part of his master plan.

Just wait... You'll see!

[/sarcasm]
 
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sparcboxbuck;2159196; said:
[sarcasm] This man is not only our AD, he was 2010 AD of the year. Clearly, he's completely up to the task at hand. Anything to the contrary is just going over your little heads. It's all part of his master plan.

Just wait... You'll see!

[/sarcasm]

He is even two steps ahead of Kaiser Sloze.....
 
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