Archives for May 2011

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start this one with the good, the bad, or the ugly. But it’s been a rough couple of months for Buckeyes fans. So let’s go with this. The GOOD:

WE’RE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! Ohio State’s Mens Volleyball team won the 2011 NCS (Net Championship Series) Championship with wins over the Nittany Lions (in their own backyard, LOL) and those dirty hippies from the West Coast.

In what is becoming an increasingly common experience, I watched the final sets against UCSB with my kids and nothing is better than seeing them jump around with excitement when the Buckeyes score. This started manifesting itself strongly during the Mens Basketball and I can’t wait for it to continue this fall.

The BAD:
So long, farewell: Dorian Bell, we barely knew thee. What with his problems with staying out of trouble and what I imagine to be crushing expectations, maybe a change of scenery will do him good. Plus, being closer to home is usually a good thing. Since there’s a pretty good chance we’ll never cross our paths with Pitt, we can wish Bell good luck.

And now there are rumors that Kenny Guiton may also be transferring. Again, these are just rumors. But I don’t think it would surprise anyone if he decided to take his talents elsewhere. And if that was the case, we’ll wish him well wherever he may go.

And The UGLY:
Used Cars. And then there’s the Car Scandal. (I will now refuse to refer to any scandal by -Gate. Someone must take a stand.) At first, I thought things were really starting to look bad. Almost Fab Five-level bad. So I really don’t want to think about it. For now, I am putting myself in a holding pattern. We won’t know anything substantial until August. We can speculate and we can hem-and-haw and we can fret. We OSU fans are going to be piled on by fans everywhere (and they’re all hypocrites, don’t let them tell you otherwise). We’re thick skinned and we can take it.

Instead of going on and on, I’ll just direct you to Ramzy’s post over at 11W:

Two former NCAA enforcement officers anonymously told the Dispatch that there was cause for concern. There are exactly two causes for concern in the article as far as I’m concerned: One, obviously Gibson’s $0 car. Two, the fact that four of the Tatgate players also bought cars: That they were willing to part with trinkets at the tattoo parlor is precedent enough to be suspicious at the dealership or anywhere else. It’s circumstantial at best, but unfortunately Ohio State has earned the burden of circumstantial evidence being fishy enough to stink.

With all the trouble and issues surrounding our beloved the Ohio State University lately, I have been thinking a lot about which is better. I must add this caveat: I firmly believe from the bottom of my broken sports heart that bending the rules or breaking the rules happens at every institution where sports is played from pee wee football to the NFL. In college sports only two schools have never had a major violation against their athletic program. Penn State is one and (I think) Standford is the other. Let’s be honest though: over the last 10 years no school has had more player arrests then PSU in the Big Ten. And if you have ever been to State College, PA you know there is little for those players to do to get caught in and if they are getting cars or cash there is no real media out there to dig deep to find it for the NCAA to investigate. This is neither here nor there really. I am not here to accuse other teams of anything. I am not even here to defend OSU for what they are accused of.

I am curious as to what you, the reader, believes. Would you rather win games no matter what the cost? Would you rather be a mediocre team that plays by the rules as often as possible aka BYU?

The one thing in common for all the winning programs in college football from the beginning of time is the constant of being accused of or proven to be cheaters. You don’t need to look much farther back then the last 5 years to see this to be true. Oregon is under investigation. LSU is under investigation. Auburn is under investigation. Alabama has been under investigation. Florida is lucky the NCAA doesn’t care about players being arrested. Add to that the Miami’s and UNC’s and USC’s and every other winning program and it is clear all of these schools could care less about morals and only care about wins. It is safe to assume the fans of these schools feel the same way or they wouldn’t feed the schools billions of dollars in revenue each year. No matter how much media outlets scream about how they hate the way schools are behaving they still pay them a premium to be able to show their games and criticize them.

So to sum it up I would like to hear from you the fans. Do morals in sports matter to you? Are you less of a fan now knowing what you know about all that is going on at OSU? Would you be willing to give up being a top 10 school annually to a team with a good year every now and then but mostly you are a middle of the pack school with great morals and plays by the rules?

I have said before, I don’t care about morals on my teams and I expect them to bend and break every rule they can to get more wins. I want them to cheat just a little more then the others so they have a better shot at winning NCs. I know this is not something many of you will agree with publicly but in private it is a different story as evidenced by supporting teams that are known to break rules. I will give you all a chance to respond now.

You most likely didn’t miss it, but just in case…

2011 NFL Draft Recap: A lot of people were saying how amazing it was that Tressel won 11 games with just one first rounder. While I think that’s a little short sighted (there will probably be 2 or 3 first rounders next season) but it does make you think. Tressel doesn’t get enough respect. (And that sentence would have been A LOT easier to type (and defend) just 3 months ago.)

It’s always bitter sweet to see a beloved Buckeye go to the Hated Pittsburgh Steelers, but it was great to see Cameron Heyward get the call in the first round, even if it was to the Steelers. It will be nice to see him get to work with former Buckeye Dick LeBeau. The next to go was Chimdi Chekwa to Oakland in the fourth round. Jermale Hines to Rams. Ross Homan to the Vikings in the sixth round is going to work out well for Minnesota and Brian Rolle is headed to the city of Brotherly Love (and Morimoto) that same round.

We’ll add our incredulous voice that Dane Sanzenbacher went undrafted and we’re beginning a letter writing campaign to the Cleveland Browns HQ up in Berea to sign his as an undrafted free agent post-haste.

OH! Almost forgot: Lawrence Wilson went in the second round of the UFL draft to Las Vegas.

Dorian Bell: When it rains, it pours. I don’t even know what else to say.

Speaking of suspended linebackers: Oregon is having their issues, too. Alonso should be fine, though. I’ve heard SEC schools have a thing for Oregon criminals.

BEE ONE GEE! BEE ONE GEE! The Big Ten is the premier player development conference going to the NFL.

Oh and Herbie leaves Twitter — he did know he could block people, right? Someone showed him that feature?