# The NCAA needs to lighten up on tOSU. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109 "2011-05-08T00:58:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/81 "2011-05-31T04:57:54Z")
Speaking of which, I think the NCAA should make the school forfeit its “The.” That’d be punishment enough as far as I’m concerned: make them stop pretending they’re too good to be Ohio State University. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/82 "2011-05-31T12:24:48Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Tressel’s program was mega dirty. It involves players from his second year on. They did not want to force him out. They were beating Michigan regularly. Now they will vacate the victories and Michigan will be on a 6 game winning streak against THE Ohio State cheaters. That’s not how that works - Michigan doesn’t get wins in those games. They still have losses - Ohio State just won’t have the wins. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/83 "2011-05-31T14:08:54Z")
You people condemning Jim Tressel need to ask yourselves: what makes _you_ so high and mighty? Jim Tressel has written TWO books on faith and integrity! How many books on faith and integrity have _you_ written? Hmm? HMM??? I liked the story about Tressel rigging the raffles at OSU football camp so the star recruits would win. There surely will be more dirt revealed down the line. > [@Marley23](#): > > Speaking of which, I think the NCAA should make the school forfeit its “The.” That’d be punishment enough as far as I’m concerned: make them stop pretending they’re too good to be Ohio State University. But…but then people might confuse them with Ohio University, that low-rent establishment down in Athens. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/84 "2011-05-31T15:02:33Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > But…but then people might confuse them with Ohio University, that low-rent establishment down in Athens. :eek: With the killer buds…and female dorm building named “Bush Hall”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/85 "2011-05-31T15:12:53Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > But…but then people might confuse them with Ohio University, that low-rent establishment down in Athens. :eek: Nobody in Ohio thinks that Ohio U. is “low-rent” compared to Ohio State. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/86 "2011-05-31T15:24:02Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > That’s not how that works - Michigan doesn’t get wins in those games. They still have losses - Ohio State just won’t have the wins. Then it needs to be fixed. I am a completely neutral observer though. Tressel was dirty all the way back to Youngstown State. He was a rule bender as an assistant at OSU too. If they could find a way to sweep his actions under the carpet, they would have. Pryor is a target now. He was one of 25 football players with cars provided for him. There are lots of tatoos swapped for equipment and rings. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/87 "2011-05-31T15:34:16Z")
One thing that gets me in the SI article was Tressel publicly scolding players who violated rules for not following “the little sensors in their heads” while he was privately facilitating and/or covering up for those violations. What a piece of work this guy is. It’s amazing how much you can get away with if you wear a WWJD bracelet on your wrist and spew religious platitudes. He was a complete fraud, but he got away with it because he pretended to be a Christian and went around telling everybody he had integrity. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/88 "2011-05-31T15:42:16Z")
But christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven! :rolleyes: WWJD? Tell all these people not to invoke his name with their mouths full of money changer dick, and that he ain’t buying their ersatz Cleansing of the Temple. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/89 "2011-05-31T15:54:34Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Fortunately for Tressel, his retirement was vested. That line is good enough to shamelessly steal!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/90 "2011-05-31T16:01:34Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > One thing that gets me in the SI article was Tressel publicly scolding players who violated rules for not following “the little sensors in their heads” while he was privately facilitating and/or covering up for those violations. What a piece of work this guy is. > > It’s amazing how much you can get away with if you wear a WWJD bracelet on your wrist and spew religious platitudes. **He was a complete fraud, but he got away with it because he pretended to be a Christian and went around telling everybody he had integrity.** …bolding mine. Is that covered in the SI article? What did Tressel get away with for being Christian? I think it’s more like OSU fans turned a blind eye to what was going on with the program because…well…they’re OSU fans. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/91 "2011-05-31T16:02:51Z")
As an Ohio taxpayer, I want the resignations of Ohio State president Gordon Gee and Athletic Director Gene Smith on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/92 "2011-05-31T16:05:17Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Nobody in Ohio thinks that Ohio U. is “low-rent” compared to Ohio State. Yes they do. Athens is a hellhole you brave once a year for a halloween party. Then you return to civilization the next day. /OSU alum ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/93 "2011-05-31T16:18:51Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > …bolding mine. Is that covered in the SI article? What did Tressel get away with for being Christian? I think it’s more like OSU fans turned a blind eye to what was going on with the program because…well…they’re OSU fans. Incidents like this, for instance (from the SI article): > [@](#): > > In 1988, according to court documents from a jury-tampering trial involving Mickey Monus, a wealthy school trustee and the founder of the Phar-Mor chain of drug stores, Tressel had called Monus about arranging a job for Isaac. The player and the CEO had never met, but Isaac told SI that he had heard of Monus’s “philanthropist-type hand” from two basketball players. At his first meeting with Monus, Isaac received $150. According to the court documents, by the time he left Youngstown State, in 1992, Isaac had collected more than $10,000 in cash and checks from Monus and Monus’s associates and employees. > > In January 1994 the NCAA’s director of enforcement sent Cochran an ominous letter. It said that according to an anonymous source, Isaac had been driving a car provided by a local business, which would turn out to be Phar-Mor; 13 Penguins had had jobs with Phar-Mor during the season, in violation of NCAA rules; and nonscholarship student athletes were being illegally paid by the university’s director of athletic development. > > Over the next month Cochran quizzed football staff members in informal meetings. **He believed that if anybody was aware of what was going on in the program, it was Tressel. But Tressel told Cochran that the tipster was just a disgruntled former employee. Given Tressel’s sterling reputation, Cochran felt confident relaying a nothing-to-see-here message to the NCAA.** > > In 1995, Monus was convicted in federal court of 109 felony counts of bank, wire and mail fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and interstate transportation of stolen goods related to his looting of Phar-Mor’s corporate coffers. Three years later Monus was on trial for jury tampering in the government’s first prosecution of him, which had ended in a hung jury. During this trial (at which Monus was found not guilty) Monus and Isaac, who had pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe a juror on Monus’s behalf, disclosed their financial dealings while Isaac was a student and alleged that Tressel had set these in motion with that first phone call. The article goes on to say that Isaac told SI that Tressel was not only aware of the car, but routinely fixed traffic tickets for him. Tressel cultivated this pure, unimpeachable reputation largely on the strength of his religiosity. People believed him, even when he was lying his ass off, because of his pious reputation. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/94 "2011-05-31T16:21:57Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Then it needs to be fixed. I am a completely neutral observer though. The term is “vacating wins”. It’s not “completely reversing the outcome of the game.” As an ND fan who was at the 2005 ND/USC Bush Push game, as much as I wanted the Irish to win, they didn’t. The fact that USC doesn’t get to claim a win either is good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/95 "2011-05-31T16:50:49Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Yes they do. Athens is a hellhole you brave once a year for a halloween party. Then you return to civilization the next day. > > /OSU alum Hah. Ohio State is the school that has stadium-sized classrooms and everyone and his hamster can get admission to. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/96 "2011-05-31T17:01:14Z")
> [@](#): > > What if your employer colluded with everyone else in your industry to give you no more than they wanted to give you and said nothing more than “were not actually making you take loans in order to work for us, so you should be satisfied.” Sounds like every internship and cooperative education agreement in the history of the planet, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/97 "2011-05-31T17:10:16Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Sounds like every internship and cooperative education agreement in the history of the planet, actually. Unpaid internships should be illegal too, and there’s an argument that many of them are. Anyway, no one is making millions in revenue on the back of interns, not the way college athletics does. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/98 "2011-05-31T17:20:18Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Hah. Ohio State is the school that has stadium-sized classrooms and everyone and his hamster can get admission to. Well, you’ve got me there. It _is_ a hugely popular college. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/99 "2011-05-31T17:26:12Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > As an Ohio taxpayer, I want the resignations of Ohio State president Gordon Gee and Athletic Director Gene Smith on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. Is that because you think they also knew what was going on or because they put too much trust in Tressel? > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Tressel cultivated this pure, unimpeachable reputation largely on the strength of his religiosity. People believed him, even when he was lying his ass off, because of his pious reputation. The article didn’t say anything about Tressel’s religiosity, and I’ve never heard it mentioned as part of his good character until you brought it up. I just wondered if that’s accurate of the national perception, because here in Ohio he was always called Senator Tressel for his no-nonsense, business-like approach. He never made any huge varbal gaffes or displayed horrible behavior until all this broke loose. Of course, being compared to a senator should have been the first clue that he is a dirtbag. ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109/100 "2011-05-31T17:45:24Z")
I was living in Cleveland when Tressel was first hired, and his religiosity was a major talking point in his hiring. Although the real reason his predecessor (John Cooper) was fired was his 2-10-1 record against Michigan, the public excuse for his firing was a series of off-the-field incidents involving his players. Here comes Jim Tressel, the religious father figure that would help these poor, misunderstood teenagers turn into men. Even now that I’ve moved back to civilization, Tressel’s piety was an obvious part of his reputation. This is a man who wrote a book titled: _[Life Promises for Success: Promises from God on Achieving Your Best](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Promises-Success-Achieving-Your/dp/1414337280/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306863667&sr=8-1)_ Think about that: he wrote (or, rather, had ghostwritten) a book about how God was helping him win football games! So, yeah, he has been exposed as a hypocrite of the highest order. If you read the _Sports Illustrated article_, it becomes crystal clear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ncaa-needs-to-lighten-up-on-tosu/581109.md?page=6)