Tuesday night Ohio State University suspended head football coach Jim Tressel for two games and fined him $250,000. 
The reason?
According to a report released by Yahoo Sports on Monday, Jim Tressel knew that five of his players, including QB Terrelle Pryor were selling merchandise to Edward Rife, the owner of Fine Line Ink a tattoo parlor in Columbus Ohio back in April of 2010. The problem with that is it wasn’t made aware of to the NCAA until late December of 2010. Tressel admitted Tuesday that he indeed knew what his players were doing something that the University wasn’t made aware of until January 13th while reviewing files for another matter.
“I’m disappointed this happened at all,” Tressel said in a news conference which included Smith and Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee. “I take responsibility for what we do at Ohio State tremendously seriously. Obviously I plan to grow from this. I’m sincerely saddened by the fact that I let some people down and that I didn’t do some things as well as I could possibly do.”
The NCAA, which considers such a violation major, issued a statement that read: “We appreciate Ohio State University’s prompt response regarding this issue and we are committed to continuing our cooperative investigation.”
The NCAA which considers this violation to be major said that “We appreciate Ohio State University’s prompt response regarding this issue and we are committed to continuing our cooperative investigation.”
Once again, Tressel’s suspension and fine came directly from Ohio State University. The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions may very well choose to impose a stricter penalty on Jim Tressel and Ohio State University.
Right now it seems inevitable that the NCAA will conduct their own investigation into the allegations surrounding Jim Tressel and the rest of the football program.
Now the NCAA is dirty itself but if more major violations are uncovered in their investigation they will have no choice but to act on them. Even if that means blowing the whistle and imposing sanctions and further punishments on one of their biggest cash cows in college football. You don’t have to look any further to what happened to USC, arguably the biggest program out on the west coast.
Much of the controversy surrounding Tressel stem from email’s that were sent to him by an attorney that stated several of his players were selling memorabilia to Rife who was under investigation by federal investigators allegedly for criminal drug trafficking. Tressel said that one of the reasons why he didn’t come forward was because he was unsure on who he could talk to about this considering he was told that these emails were to remain confidential and that he wanted to protect the players involved in the memorabilia scheme.
Ohio State president Gordon Gee said that Jim Tressel’s job was never in jeopardy for withholding information from the NCAA and the University. And when asked on whether or not he considered firing Tressel at anytime for his actions he stated, “Are you kidding me? Let me be clear. I just hope the coach doesn’t dismiss me.”
In the coming weeks, it will also be interesting to see what happens with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany who went to bat for Ohio State in terms of keeping these five player eligible to play in the Sugar Bowl.
Source: Yahoo Sports
