Head Coach Jim Tressel Faces a Rules Violation Suspension and Fines

Jim Tressel remains a quality coach despite a few bumps in the road due to misguided athletes with star power that try to take advantage of him, the football program and the school. Maurice Clarett understood his fame and thought that he was above the rules because of his ability to run the football. He found out differently. A number of players were under the impression that they could profit from their local notoriety and they would not be punished. But they have also discovered that breaking the NCAA rules is a dangerous game to play.

The player violations that suspended 6 players for this coming season at Ohio State were brought to light in December when ESPN broke the news that players were trading autographs and memorabilia for tattoos. This was quickly handled by Gene Smith, OSU Athletic Director, and the NCAA. And now another “news” organization, Yahoo! Sports, has stirred the pot again with facts about Head Coach Jim Tressel being notified by a past player back in April about the NCAA violations. Emails available to public reveal that he had knowledge but did not follow Ohio State’s policy of revealing that knowledge to his boss.

This week Ohio State self imposed a two game suspension on the prolific coach along with a fine of $250,000. The NCAA has yet to make a ruling and could be more severe on the coach for his lack of sharing about the player enterprises. The player suspension are also under review after an appeal by OSU. Gene Smith hopes the new violation does not affect the appeal and he would not answer questions about the later in their press conference this week at the Jack Nicklaus Museum.

This leads me to wonder how many violations occur at major universities and go unnoticed/unreported. How many are swept under the rug? The violations are wrong and hiding your knowledge of the violations is also wrong. And everyone at Ohio State is being reprimanded accordingly. The national media is dragging Coach Tressel and Gene Smith under the bus, calling them some pretty outrageous names in the press on the airways. Lucky for Ohio State fans, members of the program and the university, this will all be dealt with by the NCAA and not by someone with a blog or a column in some small paper across the country. Stay tuned as new information is being made available daily.