With Jim Tressel at the helm, the Ohio State football program had more cover up than an abused call girl. What seemed like an endless stream of lies may finally come to an end with the departure of Jim Tressel from the football program.
College football is a dirty game. And I’m not talking about hits to the head. The numerous NCAA infractions and shady activity that Tressel has been accused of, have cast a black eye on the Ohio State program. And now, just months before the school is set to appear before the NCAA, they tried to cut off the bad leg.
If Ohio State hopes that the NCAA won’t come down hard on the school with Tressel out of the picture, they should have another thought coming. It’s become clear, regardless of what the school says, that whether they knew what Tressel was doing or not, nobody tried to stop him or his players.
With or without Jim Tressel, the numerous NCAA violations against the school are still scathing. The school knew key players had received cars and sold irreplaceable mementos and memorabilia for cash and tattoos. They knew Tressel was covering up ineligible players, they knew the dirt that was going on violated every single NCAA rule in the book. They did nothing.
When it comes to these things, the NCAA and college football is so riddled with politics that I doubt if they’ll get it right. Surely they’ll lay down some sanctions on Ohio State and they might show some leniency because Tressel was removed from his post. But the bottom line is that there is still an entire athletic department at Ohio State that’s new and condoned everything that Tressel and his players did.
