2011 College Football Megathread

Status
Not open for further replies.
jdustu said:
Cheating is cheating. So every crime is equal? STFU. These infractions are in entirely different planes of existence.
Click to expand...

They are. But the lying is on Tressel, not the university. See Bruce Pearl and UT. The school will get hit, and worse than Michigan. Improper benefits are worse than too much practice. The cars will actually be more of a problem for the universirty.
 
Swifster said:
They are. But the lying is on Tressel, not the university. See Bruce Pearl and UT. The school will get hit, and worse than Michigan. Improper benefits are worse than too much practice. The cars will actually be more of a problem for the universirty.
Click to expand...


I think the way OSU's AD and President handled this is not going to bode well for the university when it comes down to the NCAA's punishment.
 
Bye Bye Prior...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-ohiost-pryor

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—Terrelle Pryor’s career at Ohio State, which started with so much promise and potential, came to an abrupt and scandal-ridden end.

The Ohio State quarterback announced through his attorney Tuesday that he would not play for the Buckeyes this season. He had already been suspended for the first five games for breaking NCAA rules by accepting improper benefits from the owner of a tattoo parlor.

“In the best interests of my teammates, I’ve made the decision to forgo my senior year of football at The Ohio State University,” Pryor said in a statement issued by Columbus lawyer Larry James.


Ohio State quarterback Terrell…

AP - May 31, 8:58 am EDT NCAAF Gallery AdChoices

Pryor will most likely make himself available for an NFL supplemental draft.

“I would hope so. Also, he would hope so,” said James, who added that Pryor was not available for comment. “But he’s going to take the next couple of days to get his head together.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported Pryor’s announcement.

The NCAA is looking into all aspects of Ohio State’s once-glittering program, from cash and tattoos to players, cars deals for athletes and other potential violations.

Pryor’s announcement comes just eight days after Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel was forced to resign for knowing about the players’ improper benefits but not telling any of his superiors.

“He did not want to be a a distraction to his teammates,” James said of Pryor. “This is something he came to consider after much thought.”

Ohio State’s athletic director, Gene Smith, quickly issued a statement wishing Pryor the best.

“We understand Terrelle’s decision and wish him well in this next phase of his life,” Smith said. “We hope he returns to The Ohio State University one day to finish his degree.”

Luke Fickell, who will serve as Ohio State’s interim head coach in place of Tressel this fall, found out about Pryor’s decision on Tuesday night.

“I was notified this evening that Terrelle has decided to pursue a professional career,” Fickell said. “I wish him the best in his pursuits.”

Pryor came to Ohio State on March 19, 2007, from Jeannette, Pa., as the most acclaimed high school quarterback prospect in the country. His career will be remembered in his adoptive home state for his three victories in as many tries against archrival Michigan, and victories in the Rose and Sugar Bowl.

But it will also be remembered for a series of missteps and controversies that seemed to follow the 6-foot-6, 233-pound physical specimen wherever he went and no matter what he said.

In the midst of an NCAA inspection into his cars, he drove a sports car to practice on the day that Tressel resigned. Even when it was shown that his mother had legally bought the car, which is four years old, many fans were angry. The fact that he was driving it made it headline news across the state and around the Big Ten.

On the field, Pryor was very good. He had a 31-4 record as a starter (starting one bowl game as a wide receiver), rushed for an Ohio State-record for a quarterback 2,164 yards and passed for 6,177 yards. He was often at his best in big games, holding the school record with seven games with at least 300 yards of total offense and 22 games with at least 200.

But there were other moments that kept him from ever becoming a fan favorite.

He wore “Vick” on an eyeblack patch in honor of Michael Vick in 2009, after the NFL quarterback had been involved in a dogfighting operation. Pryor then infuriated many by saying, “Not everybody’s the perfect person in the world. I mean, everyone kills people, murders people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever. I think that people need a second chance.”

After Wisconsin beat the Buckeyes in October, handing them their only loss last season, Pryor petulantly said that Ohio State could beat the Badgers nine out of 10 times.

He also has called former Ohio State quarterback and current ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit “a fake Buckeye” for questioning Pryor’s emotional sideline behavior.

Few NFL draft experts consider Pryor to be a ready-for-the-NFL quarterback. With his speed and size, he might be better cut out as a big wide receiver in the mold of Plaxico Burress.

Despite the NFL labor problems, a supplemental draft could still be held this summer, although no one has yet committed to entering it. Former Ohio State star Cris Carter went that route after he lost his senior season due to NCAA infractions involving an agent and he went on to a stellar career as one of the best receivers in NFL history.

Ohio State will go before the NCAA’s committee on infractions on Aug. 12. With Tressel no longer with the program, along with Pryor who has been the most visible of those who were suspended, it was no surprise that Buckeyes fans expressed relief at Pryor’s surprise announcement.

With Pryor no longer a college football player, he is no longer obligated to meet with the NCAA.

James would not comment on whether Pryor would continue to cooperate with the NCAA.

James said that Pryor was reflective when he made the decision to quit college football.

“You know how sometimes you have the weight of the world on your shoulders and then something like this takes a little bit off,’ James said. “He’s still only 21.”
 
The start of the leaking for the 12 "other" players?

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/te...o-state-kenny-guiton-tattoo-shop.html?sid=102

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State backup quarterback Kenny Guiton allegedly visited the same business that is at the center of an NCAA investigation involving players exchanging their memorabilia for tattoos.

Until this point, Guiton's name has never been associated with the tattoo shop at the center of suspensions for six of his teammates, but 10 Investigates obtained a photo of Guiton, who was allegedly there in December.

A woman who spoke with 10 Investigates last week said that while she was at Fine Line Ink tattoos on Dec. 7, several Buckeyes were there, including Guiton, who she photographed in the tattoo chair.

"We saw something we probably shouldn't see," said the woman who requested anonymity.

The NCAA has already suspended starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor and others for swapping memorabilia at the shop but the infraction occurred before April 2010, 10 Investigates' Paul Aker reported.

The incident the woman described allegedly took place after the infractions occurred and a full eight months after former coach Jim Tressel first learned of his players swapping memorabilia at the shop.

"I feel bad it's all going on," the woman said. "It's a shame to see everything that has come out."

The woman said that someone at the shop told her players had swapped an autographed football for tattoos. It is not clear whether Guiton took part in the alleged trading.

10 Investigates attempted to contact Guiton for several days but could not reach him.

A Fine Line artist who refused an on-camera interview confirmed that players visited the shop in December but he said the allegations of swapping are mistaken.

Ohio State administrators continue to say that the university has an active investigation with the NCAA "and are working jointly with them until the investigation is resolved."

The university said it would not release any details about its investigation until the NCAA has completed its work.
Click to expand...
 
Don't worry, the NCAA will do nothing because USC was so much worse than this. Or that's what Swift says.
 
One of the best articles I've read! Love the news of how Pryor got checks for signing memorabilia.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...-wetzel_why_osu_case_is_worse_than_usc_060811

Among the latest avalanche of allegations surrounding the Ohio State football program here’s the one that could be the kill shot, the one that, if true, should cause the NCAA to level sanctions against the Buckeyes far in excess of even the carpet bombing it delivered to USC last year.

The website SportsByBrooks reported that the NCAA enforcement staff has discovered “dozens of payments [quarterback Terrelle] Pryor received in past years from a Columbus sports memorabilia dealer. … the NCAA violations were discovered when the name of the local memorabilia dealer, Dennis Talbott, was seen on checks Pryor was depositing in his personal bank account.”
More From Dan WetzelFocus on OSU, Big Ten brass, not Pryor Jun 1, 2011 Compounding mistakes cost Tressel his job May 30, 2011
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith declared in December that there was not a systemic problem inside his program. That is looking less and less likely.

Checks? Seriously, checks? In the long, illustrious history of NCAA violations, the existence of a paper trail of deposited checks is almost unprecedented. Bags of cash? Absolutely. Tricked-out car registered in grandma’s name? Standard operating procedure. Downtown condos where the rent is never due? Of course.

Checks? Oh, my.

If this is true then it’s the big one for Ohio State because there is nothing the NCAA likes more than the irrefutable evidence that documents provide. It’s why so many cases involve seemingly minor violations such as excessive phone calls. Cell bills don’t lie.

The checks would be more than just proof that Pryor, who left the program on Tuesday, was accepting compensation for signing memorabilia, which is a violation of NCAA rules.

It could be the smoking gun that proves Ohio State’s 11-day investigation last December into Pryor and his teammates profiting off memorabilia sales was nothing but a shallow show designed to sweep the scandal under the rug and get the players back on the field for the upcoming Sugar Bowl.

It’s the proof that the school, and its highest leaders, not only failed to monitor the behavior of its star athletes, but even when tipped off by federal authorities of a major scandal, failed to find out what was actually going on.

While it may be Gestapo-esque, Ohio State always had the ability to access Pryor’s bank records. That’s one of many rights student-athletes are forced to give up in exchange for a scholarship and it’s how the NCAA could get them during its current investigation into the program.

“At the beginning of each school year student athletes sign a statement that gives consent for that information to the school,” said NCAA spokesperson Stacey Osburn, who would only confirm there is an ongoing investigation at OSU.

(For the record, let’s reiterate our disagreement with this, among other NCAA policies, which are mostly designed to maintain some veneer of amateurism so schools can profit from not paying either players or taxes. However, these are the rules the schools themselves created and should be on the hook to obey.)

If there are deposited checks from a memorabilia dealer in Pryor’s account, then the school should have found them in December. There is simply no excuse for not uncovering them. This isn’t a hundred-dollar handshake in a back alley somewhere. It’s all there in black and white. All they had to do was look at the statements.

Instead, 11 days later, a time frame that included repeated lobbying to the NCAA reinstatement committee in an effort to maintain a full roster for the Sugar Bowl, the school concluded its investigation with no such discovery.

“There are no other NCAA violations around this case,” athletic director Gene Smith implausibly declared. “We’re very fortunate we do not have a systemic problem in our program. This is isolated to these young men, isolated to this particular incident. There are no other violations that exist.”

In fact, there were many other violations. Sports Illustrated has since found nine other players tied to the tattoo parlor. The Columbus Dispatch has since raised questions of why more than 50 players and family members purchased automobiles from the same local used car lots.

And now there is word that sitting in Pryor’s bank records all along were checks from a memorabilia dealer and part-time photographer that SportsByBrooks claims was banned from attending games by OSU in the middle of the 2010 season.

Throughout this case it’s been the cover up, not the crime, that’s ruined everything. What could’ve been brief suspensions for a few players has, courtesy of mismanagement, snowballed into a scandal that could level the program.

First coach Jim Tressel resigned last month because he failed to alert his bosses of the memorabilia deals back in April of 2010.

Now here comes an even bigger problem.

USC was drilled with a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships for not keeping tabs on star player Reggie Bush and his dealings with two separate sports marketing agencies. A key part of the case came down to the NCAA claiming that the school (through one assistant coach) either did know or should have known about the relationships. It also leaned on a concept that claimed “high-profile players demand high-profile compliance.”

The initial news of Bush receiving impermissible benefits didn’t come out until three months after the Heisman winner had left school and turned pro.

The word on Pryor came while he was still a student-athlete. It was followed by the push to keep him eligible for the Sugar Bowl.

If USC was guilty of not acting on allegations that weren’t made until after a player’s career was over, then Ohio State faces the more significant problem of not fully acting on allegations made while a player’s career was still active. Plus there are more players than just Pryor involved.

This is on Gene Smith. And it’s on school president E. Gordon Gee and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, both of whom rubber stamped the investigation that even those uninitiated in NCAA procedure knew was ridiculous. Gee and Delany have no excuse for playing along with such a whitewash.

If Ohio State and the Big Ten were really committed to following NCAA rules, Smith, Gee and Delany would’ve given up on the reinstatement process, conceded a likely loss to the hated SEC in the Sugar Bowl and dug in for a true exhaustive look at the situation. At the very least it would have taken a look at Pryor’s bank account.

When it comes to the NCAA, the issue isn’t usually the initial violation (those happen everywhere). It’s how the school responds.

For Ohio State, it was another form of the cover-up Tressel started nine months prior. This is college sports’ highest-paid AD (Smith), highest-paid president (Gee) and arguably most-powerful person (Delany), millionaires one and all, making a mockery of the very NCAA statutes and procedures they create, enforce and claim to hold dear.

In one purposefully weak internal investigation, they managed to put the proud Ohio State football program directly in the NCAA crosshairs, debased decades of honor from former players, coaches and fans and all but begged for sanctions even more crippling than the Trojans received.

Hope that win over Arkansas was worth it, guys.
Click to expand...
 
Swifster said:
Like every year, OSU will get who they want in the state of Ohio. And it will take 2-3 years of solid recruiting before UM has a chance against OSU (or MSU).
Click to expand...

Chalk up another "Hey, Switf really don't have the slightest clue what the fuck he's talking about".

Dodson, a very talented OT from the Cleveland area, had been hoping to get an Ohio State offer for the class of 2012,. He finally got his sometime yesterday.
Later in the day, however, he shocked Buckeye fans by committing to Wisconsin over the home-state team.
That alone speaks volumes about the cloud of uncertainly looming over the OSU program, and from a recruiting standpoint points to why they need things to be settled one way or another as soon as possible.
Good or bad, OSU needs a solid, definitive path for the future to keep these talented players in-state, which OSU has done well in the 2000s.
Click to expand...

Rivals/Bleacher Report/any other news article you want to search for if you want a link.
 
Im telling ya USC looks good compared to OSU like I said NCAA was chasing tressel for years and OSU is gonna get hammered like a drunk cheerleader at a frat party
 
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/27865/more-talbott-allegations-sting-ohio-state

Maybe somewhere, Jim Tressel is spending some time alone with the NCAA rules manual.

But the disgraced former Ohio State coach opted not to attend a rules-compliance seminar in Tampa, Fla., last week that was supposed to be a part of his school-imposed punishment for lying about his knowledge of NCAA violations, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Of course, now that he has resigned from his position as Buckeyes coach, Tressel didn't need to be at the seminar. While it may have helped his cause to show up at the seminar if he wants to land another college job in the future, the attention and potential media frenzy that would have followed him there probably didn't make it worthwhile for anyone. Interestingly enough, former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez did attend the seminar. <CITE></CITE>


Perhaps someone from Ohio State should have forced Dennis Talbott to attend a rules seminar. Colleague Mike Fish has an investigative piece on ESPN.com looking at the Columbus businessman/photographer and his relationship with Buckeyes players, including Terrelle Pryor. Among the story's more interesting findings:
  • Talbott brought Pryor and another Buckeyes player to his son's birthday party two years in a row. (Linebacker Thaddeus Gibson was there the first year, while receiver DeVier Posey came the other time.) "We all thought it was crazy," one partygoer told Fish. "It was a Saturday night, and I remember sitting there watching them watch the SEC championship game [on TV]."
  • Talbott drove around town in a Buckeyes-themed van with the vanity license plate "TPRYOR."
  • Talbott's relatives told Fish that he wore the national championship ring of a Buckeyes running back and openly bragged about paying rent for a wide receiver on the 2003 championship team.
  • Talbott owes more than $278,000 to the IRS and nearly $75,000 in unpaid Ohio taxes.
ESPN has reported that the owner of a private golf club warned Ohio State that Talbott was bringing Buckeyes including Pryor to play expensive rounds at the club. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Tressel was sent an email in 2007 warning of memorabilia sales by Talbott. The fact that Talbott was still given a media credential and access to the field during Buckeyes games is something that may very well come back to haunt the program when the NCAA sinks its teeth into this whole mess.

If nothing else, the Talbott situation might make an illustrative example at the next NCAA rules seminar.
 
Ryan, recruiting isn't done yet. Michigan has been ranked higher than MSU every year I can remember. Where has it gotten UM? A step up from Indiana and Minnesota? RichRod had a top ten recruiting class his 2nd year and the cream from that crop has spoiled.

Again, as the only large school in the state of Ohio, OSU will get most of the players they want. One guy going to Wisconsin isn't a stampede. I noticed you mentioned nothing about the DB they received a commetment from a couple days after Tressel resigned.

No, I don't think OSU will get slammed as hard as USC. No one bought Pryor a house for his family, unlike Reggie Bush. You could add up all the perks that OSU players may have received, at it won't equal the cost of the house. Yeah, the NCAA could hammer them, but who really knows?

You look at this with corn colored glasses. This recruiting class that Hoke is putting together won't see the field until 2012. And even then, half of them will most likely be redshirted. Hope none of the newer recruits haven't been paling around with Daryl Stonum.
 
Yep. That's what everyone keeps saying. Supposedly there's even been a slight discussion of a death sentance. I don't see that happening, but I would say that 3 years bowl suspensions, vacated last 2 years of games, loss of 40 scholarships isn't out of the question.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

wrath
Used vehicle and discretionary vehicle pricing
Replies
3
Views
2K
WhiteHawk
WhiteHawk
C
Official Woodward Dream Cruise Parking Saturday August 17th, 2024
Replies
8
Views
12K
DRAG-ULA
DRAG-ULA
C
**Official Woodward Dream Cruise Parking Saturday August 19th, 2023**
2
Replies
31
Views
15K
SSpdDmon
SSpdDmon
Fro
A Marine's Christmas 2022
Replies
0
Views
339
Fro
Fro
WhiteHawk
Time to Stock up on R134A
2
Replies
20
Views
17K
4Gas$
4Gas$
Back
Top