Jim Tressel to miss 5 games Now that the NCAA has finalized its ruling that five Ohio State football players who took improper benefits are suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season, Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel says he wants the same punishment.
Sounds like posturing to still attempt to make a strong Big 10 run if nothing else. But, the NCAA will most likely add more games for the HC in the end.
Matching the players suspension is better but still not proportional. The players did something dumb for free tattoos or whatever they received (rumors are still lingering of goods for drugs).
CJT is not an 18-21 year old kid. He is in charge of setting the standard for the organization around which the entire culture of the program is based. He ignored his duties to act and follow through with his obligation to enforce a standard, he lied either directly or through omission during the initial investigation, and his combined efforts looked to be part of a cover-up simply initiated to protect his star players, the season, and later their bowl game. I guarantee that had it been a different group of players involved they would have been set and tOSU would have continued to lead the league in self-reporting (when the known impacts will be minimal to team success).
In my mind, CJT's actions from last April (or whenever he found out) through the discovery of the emails that proved his knowledge of the event and led to the current issue at hand were much worse than the actual deed that was done...and (bias aside) definitely much worse than scamming some textbooks through a loophole in the system to help out friends. Especially, when those events were self-reported and appropriate action was taken to correct the oversight issue and punish the players involved.
tOSU laughed in the face of the NCAA with the 2 game suspension which covered some real powerhouse teams in Toledo and Akron. Now, they have decided to up the ante only after the media backlash revealed it for the BS that it was. I think they know now that the NCAA is going to further increase the punishment.
I assume their hope is that by further increasing the self-imposed penalty that NCAA verdict will be somewhat less than it would have been had they maintained the laughable 2 game suspension. 5 games is a start, but the whole thing is still a PR stunt above all else on behalf of CJT and tOSU to feign remorse and try and make it seem as if CJT suddenly wants to "handle this adversity together " with his players.
I’d expect a couple more games tacked on and the vacation/forfeiture of wins from 2010 before it is all done. I doubt they lose schollies or receive a post-season ban, but probation is easily in their future.
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