http://www.cleveland.com/livingston/index.ssf/2011/07/ohio_state_now_treating_jim_tr.html
Ohio State now treating Jim Tressel as a rogue: Bill Livingston
Published: Friday, July 08, 2011, 6:38 PM Updated: Friday, July 08, 2011, 6:41 PM
By Bill Livingston, The Plain Dealer The Plain Dealer
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Print Suddenly, Jim Tressel did not choose to resign as Ohio State football coach, although that was the school's story on Memorial Day.
Friday the school said it "sought and accepted" the resignation of the greatest coach in Ohio State history not named Wayne Woodrow Hayes. This is the school's stance with a trip to the principal's office coming up at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis next month. Judgment Day could be very unpleasant, so all unessential items can be thrown under the bus now.
Officials also said OSU would vacate the victories from last season, including the one in the Sugar Bowl, and impose a two-year probation on itself. Dumping Tressel and blackening his name clearly is the linchpin of the strategy to lessen future penalties.
No longer is Tressel's "body of work" a defense for the cover-up of the memorabilia sale violations, although that was the school's story in March at a fiasco of a news conference designed to defuse the explosive story. That was when school President E. Gordon Gee said he never considered firing Tressel and was more worried that the coach might dismiss him. Gee should be kept locked in his office when serious issues are on the table in the future, lest his propensity to be the boardroom clown come out again.
All the "body of work" items -- Tressel's personal kindness on many levels, the inspirational messages to students and players, the patriotic gestures to troops in the Middle East -- will never be known. But the stories are real, and, by the hundreds, especially here in his hometown, people who came into contact with him can attest to them. On many personal "scoreboards," Tressel, despite the scandal, is still ahead.
Now that is no longer a factor. Tressel is simply a rogue coach to OSU now. What Tressel did usually results in firing or resignation, so it was no surprise that he did not survive failing to report -- indeed lying about -- ethical violations.
There is at least some surprise at how swiftly OSU officials have changed their tune, though.
"The responsibility is upon Tressel. No other institutional personnel were aware" of the violations, said Ohio State's official response to the NCAA's allegations.
"The institution is embarrassed by the actions of Tressel," the statement adds.
The people at the institution were so proud of Tressel when he was winning seven Big Ten championships, the past six in a row, and one national championship, though.
So proud, and so willing to look the other way. There was ample room for Ohio State to have been embarrassed before. Maurice Clarett, the best player on the 2002 national championship team in Tressel's second season; Troy Smith, the 2006 Heisman Trophy winner; and Terrelle Pryor, the starting quarterback for most of the past three seasons, were the highest-profile players of the Tressel era. They were all suspended for receiving improper benefits.
In March, OSU was willing to limit Tressel's punishment for the cover-up to the wrist-slap of a $250,000 fine and two-game suspension. Reportedly, OSU will forget about the fine now. In exchange, the fingers that once signaled "We're No. 1" will now point incriminatingly at the former coach.
Despite the dribble of negative stories that came out, the scandal that claimed Tressel's job was never as big as academic fraud in the Minnesota basketball program years ago. There was no payroll to meet, as at SMU in the Pony Express Days. It was not former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer complaining, "I never knew I had to put signs up in the dorms that said, 'No shootin', no dopin', no rapin'."
It was not covering up positive drug tests, as at the University of Miami under former coach Dennis Erickson.
Tressel was, however, a trimmer, as are many successful coaches. He polished an image as a scrupulous follower of the rules, then got caught breaking them. The response in the media was toxic.
A hypocrite is the media's favorite meat. Scapegoat, however, is clearly the meal of choice at Ohio State.