I don't think Tressel should've been forced to resign. I'm disappointed that Gene Smith and Gordon Gee didn't stick by him when they said they would. However, I'm done with being his apologist. The Sports Illustrated Article that published late last night is pretty damning. There are ways pick at the article. Just like pretty much everything else that has become news about Ohio State since December the sources are dubious. Most of the sources really lack believability as they're anonymous, have an ax to grind or are criminals. That being said I won't deny any of the claims in that article. I've been denying for 6 months and everything is proving to be true thus far.
I suspect that Terrelle Pryor and probably the rest of the Players who were suspended will enter the NFL Supplemental Draft. First, I think they're loyalty was to Tressel. That's why they stayed. Second, with this entire shit storm, it's pretty clear that Pryor won't be playing at all next Season at Ohio State and I wouldn't be surprised if the others aren't implicated in this as well.
It was worrying when the allegations about the 6 players came out six months ago. When ever Journalists and the NCAA start digging around in a major College Football town, they're going to find stuff. There are too many boosters who want to feel like they're part of the success of the team and the players aren't mature enough to resist. Major College athletics is corrupted everywhere. It's not just Columbus, Ohio where stuff goes down no matter how much ESPN tries to say otherwise.
It's strange though how much the tenor has changed since we found out about the Tattoo scandal in December. Back then it was about how unfair it was that the players couldn't sell their own property. Now it's all encompassed in this business and those are such terrible violations of NCAA rules. A lot more has come out since then, but it all still points back to the dealings at the tattoo parlor. It seems to me this scandal is blown out of proportion.
I've already had my rant about the lack of legitimacy of the NCAA though.
However, I don't think Ohio State fans should fret too much. Just because Tressel and in all likely Pryor are gone doesn't mean next year is a waste. It still seems to me that OSU should be favorites for the Big-10 again. Even if some key players are missing, it's not a huge deal, because the back-ups at Ohio Sate are pretty damn good. Recruiting may be down for a while, but it'll recover.
The only thing that could really screw Ohio State up is the NCAA being to heavy handed with their ruling in August. There will be penalties and they're deserved, but all these media hype may make them want to slaughter the Buckeyes to try and show they aren't horribly corrupt and useless. Ohio State doesn't deserve penalties as severe as what USC received, because despite the hype these violations aren't as bad as what Reggie Bush did all by himself.
I think a fair* ruling would be Scholarship reductions similar to USC, increasing the player suspensions, vacating the wins from 2010, and a "show-cause" penalty for Tressel.
Thanks for reading
-Michael
*I'm not really objective here though and the NCAA has no concept of what "fair" is so it's kind of useless.
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