I’ve got $180,000 that says even Southeastern Conference schools would have come down harder on their head coach than Ohio State did on Jim Tressel.
(OK, maybe not all of them.)
The situation was embarrassing to the university before the latest revelations about Tressel.
Now: Complete abomination.
If you’re just dialing in after a day of work and March Madness viewing — it’s tough to be a Buckeye these days — here’s the latest:
The Columbus Dispatch reported that last spring, Tressel forwarded emails with incriminating information about his players to Terrelle Pryor’s handler … err, mentor … while not even bothering to tell his bosses. (Pryor, of course, was one of the players in trouble.)
When asked by OSU officials, Tressel repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the possible NCAA infractions committed by his players, who were selling memorabilia to the owner of a Columbus tattoo parlor under federal investigation for drug trafficking.
Tressel’s stated reasoning for doing nothing: He didn’t want to violate the confidentiality of the investigation, which was an absurd excuse at the time because he had two weeks to act before the confidentiality request was made.
Now: The excuse is beyond absurd, since we know Tressel shared the info with Pryor’s handler, a Pennsylvania businessman named Ted Sarniak. Confidentiality only extends to your employer, apparently.
Think about that for a second: Tressel wouldn’t inform OSU officials of a possible NCAA violation, and even lied to them, but he did inform Pryor’s handler.
But here’s the worst part:
Not only did Ohio State president Gordon “foot in mouth” Gee and athletic director Gene Smith know that Tressel tried to cover up a violation, not only did they know he lied repeatedly … but we can assume they also knew Tressel had forwarded the email to Pryor’s handler.
And they only suspended him two games!
(The suspension has since been increased to five games, but only after the NCAA denied the players’ appeal to have their five-game penalty reduced to two.
(Rest assured, if the appeal had been granted, OSU wouldn’t have added three games to Tressel’s total.)
Although it never said specifically in the Dispatch story, we can assume that at the time the initial two-game suspension was handed out, Gee and Smith knew about Tressel forwarding the email to Pryor’s handler.
And we can assume this because:
1) The school had searched Tressel’s emails and it presumably would have found the one sent to Sarniak, and
2) When Tressel was asked during the sham of a press conference if he had told anyone about the incriminating emails, Smith … well, here’s the Dispatch’s account:
During a news conference on March 8 to announce NCAA ethics violations by Tressel, the coach said he kept the information to himself to protect the confidentiality of the federal investigation and for the safety of his players.
But Tressel also nodded his head and said “um-hmm” when asked whether he had forwarded the emails to anyone.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith quickly intervened to prevent Tressel from answering that question about the matter currently under investigation by the NCAA.
Why would Smith intervene in that manner if he didn’t know the answer — if he didn’t know that Tressel had forwarded the email to someone else — someone who wasn’t a school official?
(And if they really didn’t know at the time, they have since found out. And done nothing.)
So for those scoring at home:
Covering up possible NCAA violations … not informing your bosses about incriminating information but forwarding that same info to the handler of your star quarterback … and repeatedly lying about everything — all that only warrants a two-game suspension!?!?!
Even the SEC has higher standards.
Congrats on that, Buckeyes.
Now it’s up to the NCAA, which must view TresselGate as manna from heaven after the PR bashing it took over the Newton case.
Ohio State’s embarrassing handling of the situation has given the association’s enforcement and compliance divisions a perfect chance to show they’ve got some teeth.
The NCAA has the authority to increase Tressel’s suspension. If it passes, it might as well fold up shop.
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