By Justin Kane
Last April Ohio State football head coach Jim Tressel received an e-mail saying two of his players were involved in federal drug-trafficking case and the sale of memorabilia, breaking the law and NCAA rules. Tressel responded, “I will get on it ASAP.” Nine months later, he finally reported the infractions to the Ohio State athletic director.
On March 8, Ohio State suspended Tressel the first five games of the 2011 season, fined him $250,000, and announced he will receive a public reprimand and must make a public apology.
Big freaking whoop.
Tressel said in his press conference March 8, “I take my responsibility for what we do at Ohio State tremendously seriously and for the game of football. I plan to grow from this. I’m sincerely saddened by the fact that I let some people down and didn’t do things as well as I possibly could have.” He’s not sorry that it happened, he’s sorry he got caught. If he was truly sorry why did he let it go on for nine whole months?
When Ohio state president Gordon Gee was asked if he considered firing Tressel his response was, “No, are you kidding?” He then followed it up by saying, “Let me be very clear. I’m just hoping the coach doesn’t dismiss me.” Gee hopes Tressel doesn’t get mad at him, are you serious? Why wouldn’t Ohio State fire Jim Tressel? He violated his contract that states that he must immediately report any, which is underlined, information that pertains to violations of NCAA, Big Ten or Ohio State bylaws.
In 2010 Ohio State went 12-1 and beat Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. Before the Sugar Bowl reports came out that five Buckeyes would be suspended the first five games of the 2011 season, but not the Sugar Bowl, for selling memorabilia (the same that was mentioned earlier). The five players were: starting quarterback Tyrell Pryor, starting receiver DeVeir Posey, leading rusher Dan Herron, offensive lineman Mike Adams and backup defensive lineman Solomon Thomas. The three offensive players accounted for 50 of the 86 touchdowns scored by the Buckeyes.
The first five games for the Buckeyes the teams faced went 32-31 last season. Only three had winning records. On gameday’s Tressel cannot have any contact with any of his players or coaches and cannot be on the premise during the games he is suspended.
Back in November a similar situation occurred in Knoxville, where Tennessee basketball head coach Bruce Pearl was suspended the first eight SEC games of the 2010-2011 season, docked $1.5 million over five years and was banned from participating in off-campus recruiting for a year. The Volunteers went 5-3 in those eight games. On March 21 Tennessee fired Pearl after six seasons and sent a shockwave through the college world. The self-imposed punishments by Ohio State are a mere slap on the wrist for Tressel and did not teach him a lesson at all.
The right punishment for Ohio State is to take away the whole 2010 season. Erase the 12 wins, all the stats for Pryor, Posey and Herron and put Tressel on probation. The games are not enough, especially cupcake games they will win by 30 without those players. He needs to be fired, but we all know Ohio State won’t do that, so he should be suspended four Big 10 games, and scholarships need to be limited.