Archives for March 2011

This is going to be a little difficult to write. I should start off by saying the following opinions are strictly my own and in no way do they necessarily represent the overall editorial consensus here at MotSaG.

My reaction to the most recent unpleasantness was initially one of disbelief. Not disbelief that Tressel could have done something dishonest, because I’m a grown man and I’ve learned over the years that no one is as spotless or honorable as you’d initially believe. No, I was in disbelief that so much controversy has come out of something I consider to be relatively minor. OMG SOME PLAYERS SOLD THEIR JERSEYS AND THEIR RINGS AND WHATNOT AND OMG TRESSEL KNEW ABOUT IT AND DIDN’T TELL OMGLOLWTF!!!11!!

I mean, really? This coming from a sport where the national champion’s star player and Heisman Trophy winner went through the following: player leaves on SEC school, player’s father tries to get another SEC school to pay him $180,000 to transfer there, player goes to a different SEC school, and he did so for free with NO knowledge of what his dad had been doing.

That’s the story we all got fed by the NCAA and it’s not as bad (at least didn’t warrant as severe punishment) as a bunch of twenty-something college students (in other words, idiots – don’t get mad, I was an idiot when I was a twenty-something college student too) selling some of their stuff for a couple grand a pop? Really?

*tilts head*

REALLY?!?

So yeah, you might say I was a little disgusted by the whole thing. But then I started thinking about how I would feel if I were a fan of some other program like Nebraska or Boise State or something. Then I started thinking about what I’d want to hear from Auburn fans given the Newton unpleasantness I described above. Or what I’d want to hear from a USC fan regarding the whole Reggie Bush deal. (Like there are any more USC fans left now that they are mediocre again. Nice fans you got there, Trojans, but I digress…)

What I’d want to hear from the aforementioned Auburn fan is something like this, “Yeah, I don’t buy that crap either. I bet we paid Newton’s ‘dad’ at least $180,001 to get Cam to come here, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Cam knew about it while it was going on. I don’t support it, but it’s not like there’s anything I can do about it. And to be honest, seeing my team win the MNC was still one of the high points in my life as a sports fan. That doesn’t terrify me any less that eventually the truth will come out and everything will collapse like a house of cards, but it is what it is. I hope that anybody involved with that whole deal* gets what they deserve for breaking the rules so egregiously and blatantly. I mean, they knew what they were doing was wrong and they did it anyway. There’s no excuse for that.”

*-Not a criticism, but a clarification: Southerners like to use “that deal” or “that whole deal” a lot when talking about more intricate topics. Trust me – my parents used to watch a lot of NASCAR

Wouldn’t that be nice to hear sometime? Or something like that? Just an acknowledgement what everyone else is already thinking, showing humility and brutal honesty regarding a messy situation that they, as fans, really didn’t have any control over.

I don’t know about you, but I would appreciate that, so in the same vein, here we go:

I’m very disappointed in what happened. I’d love it if Tressel hadn’t screwed up, but he did screw up. Whether or not it’s a bigger deal or a smaller deal than other situations out there, the fact remains that he knew the rules and decided not to follow them. For whatever reason – probably because he didn’t want to have to start Joe Bauserman all season if we’re honest (hard to blame him for that) – he decided to try and keep his mouth shut when he should’ve opened it. At the end of the day I don’t think there’s any excuse for that. As a fan, hopefully the punishment he and the University receive doesn’t go much further than the punishments we’ve inflicted on ourselves, but if there are more, we probably deserve them. I’d like to think that no more of this crap is in our future, but let’s face it – with as much money as is floating around college football, this probably won’t be the last time something like this happens. So I hope that when it does, the people up the chain keep their heads out of their asses a little better than they did this time, because the crime isn’t nearly as bad as the cover-up. Or the appearance of one.

That having been said, I’d still rather be a Buckeye fan tonight than a Michigan one. Because at least I don’t have syphilis.

Thank you and good night! I’ll see you all the next time I post which – given my history – will probably be sometime around July.

Cross-posted at Not Dead Ninja Storage

For close to 14 years now myself and El Kaiser have had daily Buckeye sports discussions and every now and again we even mix in a discussion about actual real life stuff that matters but we try to limit that so it doesn’t effect our Buckeye discussions. One of the things we often discuss is how different fans of the Buckeyes are in their opinions on things OSU related.

With all that is going on in Columbus these days it seemed fitting for myself to kind of sit back and reflect on how healthy my fanaticism with OSU is for me. I remember when El Kaiser messaged me there was a Yahoo Sports report out that Jim Tressel had broken rules and covered up the Tattoo scandal. Together we spent the next few hours feverishly searching the internet for info any info. We took rumors and within seconds convinced ourselves that Armageddon had happened and even thought we may have seen a heavenly being coming down from the heavens to judge us accordingly. After several hours of constant page refreshing on twitter and various blogs I told El Kaiser that I thought I was going to be sick and it felt eerily similar to that feeling you get when sitting outside the principal’s office in elementary school after you just threw a spit ball at the prettiest girl in your class. I went to bed (notice how I didn’t say sleep) and I tossed and turned all night waking from the 15 minutes of restless slumber in cold sweats every hour like clockwork and I know I had at least 3 nightmares involving Tressel that night. When I finally gave up trying to sleep I got up and headed to my computer searching for news that it was all just a horrible early April’s fool joke. Alas, though, it was not. I did my best to pretend Yahoo was completely wrong but deep down I knew it wasn’t. All day I waited for word from OSU and then I watched the press conference like it was Pres. Obama telling us we just went to war with the alien army from the movie Independence Day. I even imagined Jim Tressel was Bill Paxton. After the presser finished I felt soothed and comforted like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. I began to put my thoughts together and realized everything is going to be okay. I convinced myself that the worst of things was over and that the NCAA will just rubber stamp the OSU self report. Then I made the mistake of going to other websites to look gleefully as the “experts” would simply agree with me and life would go back to normal. HUGE MISTAKE. The media is tearing apart Tressel and OSU like a pitbull on a kitten. I thought well I will just go to OSU specific websites for people who agree with me. That was a problem as well as there seems to be 3 camps: 1.) The people who think Tressel and OSU walk on water 2.) The people who think Tressel is evil and should be fired and is bad for OSU 3.) The people who don’t know what to think because it doesn’t make any sense. With that said, I still think that Tressel is a great person and coach. I think he absolutely is capable of bending rules and breaking them when needed to do his job which is to win games.

Then today I read that Kirk Herbstreit has up and moved his family to Nashville and is leaving Columbus behind. I have been a fan who has had a man-crush on Herbie for years and at times I think he has also been the devil reincarnate. One of the reasons I have heard from people who know Herbie personally for why he is moving is because of the constant berating he takes for his opinions from my fellow Buckeye fans. If he wasn’t a Buckeye I don’t think those words would bother him. After all, he upsets fans of all schools eventually. I truly believe once a Buckeye always a Buckeye no matter what that person says or does.

I am finding myself questioning whether I want to be a fan with Blind Allegiance or a Casual Fan. I have so much of my spirit and body and soul invested in OSU and the people who make up our University that I know I am blind to what is really happening. I shouldn’t be suffering from sleepless nights and anxiety for something I didn’t do and that in the grand scheme of things don’t effect my life personally. I also don’t want to be a flippant casual OSU fan who is happy when they win and could care less about it any other time of the year. I love OSU and I love that I am a Buckeye. I forgive Jim Tressel for what he did and at the same time I am angry at him for being so stupid as well. I feel bad that Herbie has been effected by fans of the school he loves so much and at the same time I am angry at him for trying to separate himself from that same school.

So I ask all of you who took the time to read my long winded rant…. Are you a Blind Fan who can see no wrong? Are you a Casual Fan who could care less about what happens at the school as long as they win more than not? Is it healthy to be so entrenched in Buckeye Nation that I feel the pain and joy of every action that happens at OSU good and bad?

This is a collaborative effort between most of us MotSaG’ers. Hopefully it isn’t too disjointed.

For reference, OhioStateBuckeyes.com has the press conference video. It also has a link to the Self Report document that Ohio State submitted to the NCAA. The O-Zone has the emails referred to in the press conference.

(NB: The linked document states that Coach Tressel is not allowed to coach in the spring or summer sessions. Ohio State has since clarified that this is not one of the punishments self-imposed. Tressel will be with the team through the spring and summer. He will not coach the first two games of the season.)

After watching the press conference and digesting things, here are some points we think need to be made

• Yahoo! Sports didn’t break this case and their two month investigation was a farce and they received info from an OSU investigation through a leak. They didn’t even request the emails through the Freedom Of Information Act until after they put their story out there.
• OSU initiated this investigation and had the NCAA involved the entire time and had their input on the case the entire time. OSU did a TWO month exhaustive investigation. NOT YAHOO.
• SYR is happy with the outcome of this investigation and the penalties. He doesn’t believe the NCAA will add anything or they would have advised OSU of that in their dealings.
• The attorney who emailed Tressel asked for explicit confidentiality and this was an on-going Federal Criminal Investigation. While, yes, he should have said something, it is quite conceivable for him to think he couldn’t tell anyone.
• It should be reiterated that not only did OSU initiate the investigation and self-report and self-impose but they also did it extremely quickly and no one quit to go take a job in the NFL instead of staying to face the case head on.
• The national and local sportswriters are really taking Tressel to task, but it is obvious that you can’t make everyone happy.
• Tressel seemed genuine and YNBA is glad he is the coach and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
• Tressel was visibly upset when talking about past players that had been involved in the law. That was sincere and anyone in the media to question that needs to take a deep look in the mirror.
• The players involved in this really owe Tressel Really owe him, because regardless of what he did, this is a non-issues if the initial violations don’t occur.
• This University (and we fans) are represented by the three men who stood up there today and represented all of us in Buckeye Nation. The world did not end and all will be fine. No long term bad side effects will come from this. Those who hate OSU will always hate OSU and this will just be fuel for their fodder.

I think it’s fair to say that this went about as well as possible from an Ohio State fan’s perspective.

Needless to say, we are with this team more than ever before. The 2011 season is going to be a crazy one.

Of course, that’s our opinion. We’d love to hear what you guys are thinking. Don’t hold back. If you disagree, let us know.

It’s talking head time for the next ninety minutes on ESPN, and it’s inevitable that Ohio State’s potential woes will be the lead on all three programs.  So for those of you away from your televisions (or emotionally unable to operate them at the moment) here’s a rundown of what the Worldwide Leader’s stable of chatterboxes had to say on the matter:

Jim Rome Is Burning

Rome took the opportunity to get in another quick jab about the lack of a Sugar Bowl suspension, then recounted the Yahoo! story.  As fair as he’s ever going to be, Rome noted the possibility that the allegation may not be true and then listed the standard-issue ramifications if it is.  He wrapped up with a typical rant, the gist of which is that if Jim Tressel is crooked, everyone is crooked.  It should be noted that Rome did say he hoped it wasn’t true.

Bomani Jones joined Rome later on, parsing Gordon Gee’s earlier statement and determining that it was a “ruh-roh” moment for Tressel.  Rome intimated that while he may not get fired, Tressel’s image would be forever damaged by the incident.

Around The Horn

After the obligatory recap, the question posed to Horn’s panel:  “How big a deal is this?”

Michael Smith:  Huge.  No reason to doubt Wetzel/Robinson.  If true, Tressel “is a liar” and was taking advantage of the players.  Lots of righteous indignation.  Call for the hammer.

Kevin Blackistone:  Big.  Further exposes hypocrisy of college athletics.  University/coaches/etc. make millions of off poor students who get busted for selling stuff.

Jemele Hill:  Tarnishes Tressel’s legacy.  Sum total of Clarett, Smith, and this is damning.  If report is true, he looks “deceptive, dishonest, and disingenous.”  Agrees with double standard for coaches vs. players mentality of previous commentators.

J.A. Adande:  No immediate denial is telling.  Reiterates Blackistone’s position.  Suggests that Tressel’s actions throughout situation were only to serve best interest of Ohio State.

Is Tressel’s job in jeopardy?

Smith:  Yes, and it is justified.

Blackistone:  No, it’s all about money.

Hill:  Yes, poor track record.

Adande:  No, he brings in money.

Ouch.  Pretty harsh from this group.  Also, Kevin Blackistone and J.A. Adande are apparently the same person.

Pardon The Interruption

Somehow, Tiki Barber’s planned un-retirement usurps the Tressel news here.  Kornheiser calls Tiki and Ronde the “Winklevii.”

Both Kornheiser and Wilbon agree that this is potentially bad for Tressel.  Kornheiser admits that he always roots for journalists, but questions the article’s failure to cite anything besides one unnamed source and would like to see something a little more solid.  Wilbon thinks the whole thing is stupid because the rule that the players broke in the first place is absurd.  Neither seem to think anything is going to happen to Tressel.

We pretty much got the whole spectrum of opinion from these shows, and that’s probably by design.  Personally, I was glad that PTI, the only one of the three that I can really stand to watch on a regular basis, essentially came down on our side.

There’s nothing left to do now but wait.  Will it be a happy day, or will we be burning down the house?

OSU President E Gordon Gee and OSU AD Gene Smith as well as OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel will all be present tonight for a news conference to discuss the Yahoo Sports allegations.

According to SI.com

“Ohio State has issued no other information since the story first was posted by Yahoo! Sports.

The news conference, set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday night at the Jack Nicklaus Museum on the Ohio State campus, includes Tressel, Smith and Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee.”

So certainly you’ve seen the recently posted story at Yahoo! Sports that Jim Tressel knew as early as last April that the five suspended players (Pryor, Posey, Herron, Adams and Thomas) had sold memorabilia to Fine Line Ink Tattoos owner Edward Rife. This is in stark contrast to Tressel’s comments in December that this was the first time he was aware of the situation.

The heart of the matter:

According to a source, a concerned party reached out to Tressel last April, alerting the coach that memorabilia transactions had taken place between Rife and a handful of Buckeyes players, including Pryor. The selling of items violates NCAA eligibility rules. The source said Tressel was troubled by the information, and the coach indicated that he would investigate the matter and take appropriate action.

So here is where we tell you to take this with a grain of salt. So far, all we have is “a source.” An unnamed source at that. It’s also where we tell all the haters to #dealwithit. We don’t want to hear your take. We already know it and we’ve heard it all before. Don’t bother.

Here is also where we say that both Yahoo! Sports and Dan Wetzel has a good track record. He took on USC and was right in the end.

If these allegations are true, this is VERY BAD NEWS.

If Tressel failed to inform Smith or the Ohio State compliance department about the players’ dealings with Rife, he could be charged with multiple NCAA violations including unethical conduct, failure to monitor and a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. In general, a coach is required to act on, or pass along reasonable information about possible rule violations for further investigation.

Also, he could be fired for cause. It’s right there, in his contract.

And all this is bad, but as far as I’m concerned, this could be even WORSE:

Ohio State itself could be cited with playing ineligible players and forced to vacate its 2010 season, when it won a share of the Big Ten championship and finished 12-1. It could also face further sanctions for major infractions.

That means we oh-fer again against the SEC. Oh no! We suck again!

So now we wait. Is this what Colin Cowherd was talking about when he said he had heard that a major college football program being brought to its knees? Because if this is true all that Tressel has worked to build up comes crashing down.

MotSaG’s official stance: This “unnamed source” had better have serious concrete proof (audio recording, email conversation) for us to put any credence into this story. Tressel’s ten plus years has earned him that much. We will wait for the University’s response and give all involved the benefit of the doubt. In every other situation (most notably the HWSNBN fiasco) Tressel and the athletic department has been ahead of the curve, taking the necessary actions to avoid impropriety and problems. Let’s hope that trend continues.

Let me put in this precursor: if you like posts with fancy pictures and great links stop, reading now. If you hate when Buckeye fans whine and complain, stop reading now. If by chance you are a Big Ten coach or voting media member stop reading now.

Another Big Ten sports award ceremony and another knife in the back from the media and coaches in the B1G. First, let me tackle my complaint about the Men’s B1G basketball coach of the year. Neither the media or the coaches gave the award to Thad Matta and instead both gave the award to Matt Painter of Purdue. The excuse I have heard most for why he was their choice for the award was that he had a team not stacked with talent and had to deal with the loss of Robbie Hummel AGAIN. Then I go to the All-B1G awards and see Purdue is the only team with 2 consensus players on the first team of both the coaches and the media in JaJuan Johnson and E’Twan Moore and they had an Honorable Mention on both lists in Lewis Jackson. On top of that they had the defensive player of the year and the best player on both lists in JaJuan Johnson but I will get to that later. Needless to say, Purdue was not lacking in talent and maybe he overcame the loss of Hummel but honestly the guy is hurt so much no one can remember if he was that good to be missed. So, yes, I am sick and tired of hearing the same, “OSU always gets the best recruits and has the best facilities and has the most upside” BS as to why people can’t seem to vote for Thad Matta or Jim Tressel for COY. Matta and the Buckeyes finished 29-2 and won the outright B1G title while dominating a league designated one of the best conferences in the country this year. So I say to you B1G coaches and media guys who couldn’t allow yourselves to vote for Matta to be the COY of the year: SCREW YOU.

Next, the Player of the Year award. I am less angry at this award so I won’t write as much but I will say this to JaJuan Johnson: congrats on winning the individual award in a team based sport. I would have loved for Sully to win the award for all he has done this year but wouldn’t trade it for the 2nd place finish Purdue has and the B1G championship Sully has.

First team All-B1G is an area I am extremely angry about. Not that more Buckeyes didn’t make it, I am fine with that. I am angry that on the Coaches First Team that JaJuan Johnson was the only consensus first team member voted by all the coaches in the league. That means that at least ONE coach in the league did not vote for Jared Sullinger to be on his All-B1G first team. On top of that, JaJuan Johnson and Jordan Taylor were both unanimous First Team All B1G and the only First Team members on the media’s team. So some member/members of the media also didn’t have Sully on their first team… ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME? So to whoever didn’t vote for Sully to be on your first team I say to you: SCREW YOU.

B1G defensive player of the year JaJuan Johnson again won this award which I suppose is fine if getting 2 blocks a game and less than 1 steal a game is good stats for the award. Meanwhile David Lighty is charged with guarding the opposing teams best player every night and guards every position on the floor and he may not even be our best defender anymore now that Aaron Craft is on the team and that is saying something as both of those guys deserved the award more than Johnson did. So to the media members who didn’t get this one right I say to you: SCREW YOU.

So yes, to say the least, I am angry again as once again I heard the same tired excuse that OSU is supposed to be this good and didn’t do anything special while yet another team somehow magically exceeded expectations and henceforth deserves the awards that somehow the players and coaches of the Buckeyes don’t deserve because the people who vote for these awards determine at the beginning of the year what said expectations are. It isn’t like most of you picked OSU to win the B1G as most of you picked MSU to win it all and sweep the awards ceremony in the pre-season so I guess based on the fact that MSU turned turned out to be so crappy I shouldn’t be bothered by the way you vote because you after all picked MSU and proved what idiots you are….. but still I must say it: SCREW YOU ALL.

Hopefully though when all is said and done the national awards are better to the Buckeyes then the people who vote for the B1G awards are but if they aren’t I think you all know what I will have to say to you……..

2/12/2011 – Jared Sullinger is spit on multiple times by wisconsin fans rushing the court at the end of the Badger’s upset of then number one Ohio State. Asked afterwards about the disgusting behavior of some of his team’s fans, Bo Ryan was quoted as saying:

“All I know is we won the game, deal with it, our end, their end,”

3/6/2011 – Ohio State dominates Wisconsin and wins 93-65. Fans subsequently ask Bo Ryan that he “deal with it”.

(Unfortunately, Bo Ryan is a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Terminator. He senses injuries. The data could be called “pain.” But he is unable to “deal with it.”)