The Postmortem: Dohrmann essay = bleh. Lots of things we knew, a few fun but irrelevant tidbits from the past, and anonymous sourcing; something tells me the author won't be winning another Pulitzer for this one. (Did you hear that George Dohrmann won the Pulitzer? Pulitzer Dohrmann Dohrmann Pulitzer Pulitzer!)
The Reaction: Ohio State fans are blasé. Every other fan base sees this as an opportunity to ascend the conference ladder. Except for Indiana fans.
The Candidates: No one has any clue. Much will depend upon just how severely Ohio State is hammered by the NCAA; it's tough to believe that an Urban Meyer type candidate will want to take on a reclamation project. Remember, USC had to go with their fourth or fifth option after getting hit with sanctions, and USC is arguably a better job than Ohio State (the weather is nicer, at least). I'm putting exactly zero credence into any of the lists floating around.
The 2011 Season: Who knows. The biggest question mark is whether Terrelle Pryor after game five; opinions seem to range from "probably not" to "absolutely not." If Pryor is gone, Ohio State will be starting either a true freshman or Joe Bauserman, a lesser-of-two-evils situation if ever there was one.
Unfortunately for Buckeye fans, the pain potentially doesn't end there. The NCAA meeting is set for mid-August, so there probably won't be enough time for a 2011 bowl ban or scholarship reduction. But Pryor wasn't the only player suspended for the first five games next year, and while the others haven't been implicated in the automobile-related hijinks, further suspension isn't out of the question. And Dohrmann's piece suggested that many more players on the Buckeyes have received improper benefits. Without better sourcing than Dohrmann provides, however, the NCAA is going to be hard pressed to follow up on those claims.
Showing posts with label Ohio State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio State. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Tressel Resigns
Not a shock that it happened, but certainly surprising that it happened before the 2011 season:
The Ohio State University announced today that it has accepted the resignation of Jim Tressel as head coach of its football program. Luke Fickell will serve as interim head coach for the 2011-2012 football season. Recruitment for a new head coach – which is expected to include external and internal candidates – will not commence until the conclusion of the 2011-2012 season.
“In consultation with the senior leadership of the Board of Trustees, I have been actively reviewing matters attendant to our football program, and I have accepted Coach Tressel’s resignation,” said President E. Gordon Gee. “The University’s enduring public purposes and its tradition of excellence continue to guide our actions.”Boom. We're still working with incomplete information on this (the George Dohrmann story scheduled to go up on SI.com later today will help explain some things), so any speculation beyond what is known seems unnecessarily premature. I'll post some extended thoughts once the article is released.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Big Ten Tidbits: 5/10/2011
Syracuse Isn't an Elite University Either! No, Syracuse isn't in the Big Ten (yet...</Delany cackle>), but news of its impending departure from the Association of American Universities should be a salve to offended Nebraska fans. Syracuse was one of the primary targets of the Big Ten's search and is an unquestionably strong academic institution; their failure to live up to the AAU's expectations says as much about the AAU's biases as it does about the school.
This is a bigger blow for Syracuse than it is for Nebraska, however, since the latter will be receiving gobs of money from the Big Ten/Committee on Institutional Cooperation, while Syracuse will not. But as I said before, the AAU is increasingly irrelevant. Its main function is to reappropriate federal grant money given to one institution to the rest of the group. Think of the AAU as an insurance policy against the possibility that the school won't get as much government money as hoped in a given year. Add in some cultural bias (no self-respecting academic wants to live in yucky upstate New York--especially not the cities--just like they don't want to live in Lincoln) and you've got the Incredible Shrinking AAU.
Pat Fitzgerald Was Wealthy, Is Now Wealthier: Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune reports that Fitzgerald's contract with Northwestern has been extended through 2020 for $1.8 million a year. The length of the contract is somewhat meaningless, since all that matters is the buyout cost (unknown), but the dollar size puts Northwestern squarely within the meaty part of the Big Ten coaching salary bell curve. It also makes any attempts by other schools to wrestle Fitzgerald away that much more difficult.
Bonus LOLs come on twitter as the Tribune-based Greenstein fights with Sun Times editor Chris LeDuca and writer Joe Cowley. Greenstein sometimes gets a little too far ahead of stories but generally does a solid job on the college sports beat; Cowley is a hack who has had his baseball MVP voting credentials revoked for being too hacky and pioneered such stories as "my friend AJ Piersynski is good at defense because he can throw me out at second base", while LeDuca is the editor who employs said hack and, until recently, employed Jay Marrioti. No conflicted loyalties on my part in this fight.
Investigators Question Tressel about Smell Coming from Crawlspace: OK, that hasn't happened yet. But Ohio State's already overworked compliance department is now fighting another fire, this time about some potentially shady car deals that Ohio State athletes have procured over the past few years, including one deal for the low, low price of $0. There could be a lot of explanations for that, including some that are entirely innocent, such as tax fraud on the part of the car dealer (innocent to Ohio State, that is; the car dealer would be screwed).
Then again, maybe Ohio State's compliance department isn't overworked. Adam Jacobi makes the persuasive case that a finding of violations here would be especially damaging to Ohio State's NCAA enforcement apparatus and could result in the dreaded "lack of institutional control" label being applied. Meanwhile, Jim Tressel had no idea that the omelete he had for breakfast was made of condor eggs, and he's looking into rumors that former players have recorded Indians games without the express written consent of Major League Baseball.
Quick bits: Gabbert the Younger leaves Missouri; Indiana is an intriguing possible landing spot. Penn State basketball lands Dayton transfer Matt Glover, who will be eligible for 2012-13, while Michigan State gets Valpo transfer Brandon Wood for next year through the grad student exemption (loophole?). Do journalists have a macro that inserts "Tubby Smith" into every coaching vacancy story?
This is a bigger blow for Syracuse than it is for Nebraska, however, since the latter will be receiving gobs of money from the Big Ten/Committee on Institutional Cooperation, while Syracuse will not. But as I said before, the AAU is increasingly irrelevant. Its main function is to reappropriate federal grant money given to one institution to the rest of the group. Think of the AAU as an insurance policy against the possibility that the school won't get as much government money as hoped in a given year. Add in some cultural bias (no self-respecting academic wants to live in yucky upstate New York--especially not the cities--just like they don't want to live in Lincoln) and you've got the Incredible Shrinking AAU.
Pat Fitzgerald Was Wealthy, Is Now Wealthier: Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune reports that Fitzgerald's contract with Northwestern has been extended through 2020 for $1.8 million a year. The length of the contract is somewhat meaningless, since all that matters is the buyout cost (unknown), but the dollar size puts Northwestern squarely within the meaty part of the Big Ten coaching salary bell curve. It also makes any attempts by other schools to wrestle Fitzgerald away that much more difficult.
Bonus LOLs come on twitter as the Tribune-based Greenstein fights with Sun Times editor Chris LeDuca and writer Joe Cowley. Greenstein sometimes gets a little too far ahead of stories but generally does a solid job on the college sports beat; Cowley is a hack who has had his baseball MVP voting credentials revoked for being too hacky and pioneered such stories as "my friend AJ Piersynski is good at defense because he can throw me out at second base", while LeDuca is the editor who employs said hack and, until recently, employed Jay Marrioti. No conflicted loyalties on my part in this fight.
Investigators Question Tressel about Smell Coming from Crawlspace: OK, that hasn't happened yet. But Ohio State's already overworked compliance department is now fighting another fire, this time about some potentially shady car deals that Ohio State athletes have procured over the past few years, including one deal for the low, low price of $0. There could be a lot of explanations for that, including some that are entirely innocent, such as tax fraud on the part of the car dealer (innocent to Ohio State, that is; the car dealer would be screwed).
Then again, maybe Ohio State's compliance department isn't overworked. Adam Jacobi makes the persuasive case that a finding of violations here would be especially damaging to Ohio State's NCAA enforcement apparatus and could result in the dreaded "lack of institutional control" label being applied. Meanwhile, Jim Tressel had no idea that the omelete he had for breakfast was made of condor eggs, and he's looking into rumors that former players have recorded Indians games without the express written consent of Major League Baseball.
Quick bits: Gabbert the Younger leaves Missouri; Indiana is an intriguing possible landing spot. Penn State basketball lands Dayton transfer Matt Glover, who will be eligible for 2012-13, while Michigan State gets Valpo transfer Brandon Wood for next year through the grad student exemption (loophole?). Do journalists have a macro that inserts "Tubby Smith" into every coaching vacancy story?
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The Big Ten and the NFL Draft: 1st Round
While none of the players likely to be taken in the top five picks this evening will hail from the Big Ten, the conference will be well-represented tonight at the Music City Concert Hall. I’m going to err on the side of including everybody that could possibly be taken in the first 32 picks in this, partly because it will make my job easier tomorrow when I look at the next two rounds.
Illinois:
Corey Liuget, DT: In a draft less stocked with interior defensive line players (Nick Fairley and Marcel Dareus, for starters), there’s a good chance that Liuget could have been the first player at his position off the board. Even with the deep defensive line stock this year, Liuget is almost certain to go somewhere in the first round, with a range anywhere from the St. Louis Rams at 14 to the Chicago Bears at 30.
Martez Wilson, LB: A stretch for the first round, but possible after an impressive showing at the combine. There’s still some question as to whether Wilson will play in the middle or on the outside, mostly focusing on his ability to cover and fall backwards into a deep Tampa 2 zone. This is a very weak draft for linebackers, especially in the middle, so a team with a serious need (San Diego, perhaps) could reach, but Wilson is probably a late-second to third round pick.
Mikel LeShoure, RB: LeShoure has neither hurt nor helped himself greatly during the pre-draft workout process, showing reasonable speed for his size. Concerns about reliability (he had some poor games against awful defenses like Indiana and Purdue) and receiving skills have dampened his stock. The first round might be a stretch, but LeShoure is a lock to be gone by the second round, and he may be the second running back taken off the board (behind Alabama’s Mark Ingram).
Indiana:
James Brewer, OT: If Brewer played for Illinois or Wisconsin I’d probably just wait until tomorrow to write him up, but he is Indiana’s only hope of sneaking into the first round, so here you go, Hoosier fans! He’s probably a better bet for the third or fourth, though he could go as high as the mid-second round, with some whispers that Brewer might be higher than anticipated on a few teams’ draft boards.
Iowa:
Adrian Clayborn, DE: That Clayborn is still considered a possible first round pick is a testament to his fantastic junior year, because (in my opinion) Clayborn may have been the most disappointing player in the Big Ten last year. The potential is still there, and every now and again the ability snuck through, but despite claims to the contrary, Clayborn wasn’t even drawing double teams by the end of last season. Add in that two other Iowa defensive linemen will be drafted this weekend, suggesting that he had quite a bit of help in creating pressure, and Clayborn looks like a huge risk. That being said, he’s unlikely to fall lower than the mid-second round, and a mid-first round pick is still possible.
Michigan:
No potential first round picks.
Michigan State:
No potential first round picks
Minnesota:
No potential first round picks.
Nebraska:
Prince Amukamara, CB: The Big Ten’s likely first draft pick this evening, depending upon how you look at things (he never played a single Big Ten game, nor is Nebraska a conference member yet, but why let silly little details like that get in the way?) Most people have Amukamara going with the 7th pick to the San Francisco 49ers; he’ll almost definitely be the second cornerback taken, after Patrick Peterson.
Northwestern:
No potential first round draft picks
Ohio State:
Cameron Heyward, DE/DT: It’s a little crazy that so much of the Big Ten’s elite talent last year was on the defensive line. It’s also a little crazy that Ohio State and Michigan have only one player combined that could possibly go in the first round tonight (add Penn State to that list as well if you think Stefen Wisniewski has no chance of going in the first). Heyward is probably a lock for the first round, but I think he’s no better than the fourth-best defensive line prospect from the Big Ten, behind Ryan Kerrigan, JJ Watt, and Corey Liuget. Part of Heyward’s value comes from his versatility, as he could play the interior or exterior in a 4-3 defense or play defensive end in a 3-4, so he could go to any team with a need anywhere on the defensive line.
Penn State:
Stefen Wisniewski, OG/C: A stretch for the first round if only because of his position (interior offensive lineman are usually seen as later picks), Wisniewski will nevertheless be one of the first guards taken off the board, whether today or (more likely) tomorrow. He is probably a lock for the second round, though it’s more likely a team with a need for line help at the end of the first round (Chicago, perhaps) would reach for him than that he’ll fall all the way to the third round.
Purdue:
Ryan Kerrigan, DE: The Big Ten’s best NFL prospect this season, if you don’t count Nebraska’s Amukamara. What Kerrigan did last season for Purdue was downright heroic, considering how little talent he had to support him on defense and how long the defense stayed on the field. Unlike Clayborn, Kerrigan was facing double and even triple teams all season, yet his numbers remained solid. The one question mark for Kerrigan is where he will play; a defensive end in college, NFL teams may see him as more of a 3-4 OLB. That limits his potential draft locations, but it shouldn’t keep him from falling out of the first round.
Wisconsin:
JJ Watt, DE: Competitor with Kerrigan for first non-Nebraska Big Ten player taken tonight. I like Kerrigan a little bit more, but that’s quibbling; Watt was a fantastic player last season on a defensive line that, while talented, did not give opposing offenses nightmares (besides from Watt, that is). Like Kerrigan, he may be seen as a better fit for the 3-4; unlike Kerrigan, he would still play defensive end. It’s not impossible that he’ll be drafted as an interior lineman either, but unlikely. Watt is a lock for the first round.
Gabe Carimi: The latest in a long line of great Wisconsin linemen, Carimi isn’t quite the prospect of Joe Thomas but isn’t all that far off. Indianapolis looks like an extremely strong possibility for Carimi with the 22nd pick; if he doesn’t get taken there, he probably won’t fall much further.
Monday, April 25, 2011
The Clock That Struck 13
I consider myself a trusting person. That's not exactly right: I think that, most times, when people do something wrong, it's either from mistake or ignorance of the rules or because they ended up in a situation they did not anticipate, rather than malice or immorality. I trust people, and I trust their fallibility to be of the sort that none among us can disclaim.
Eventually though, these attempts at rationalizing mistakes must fail. That point in the Jim Tressel Saga, for me, came at around 10:00 AM this morning when I read this:
I thought the reasons for Tressel's missteps were understandable, though inexcusable in the sense that there should be some punishment for both the coach and the school. People send coaching staffs crazy-sounding e-mails all the time, and I don't expect head football coaches to investigate every "tip" they get from an overfrothed fanbase (or overfrothed rivals). The confidentiality argument was also plausible, especially when dealing with a federal investigation that only tangentially involves current students. As for the punishment, the involved players and head coach would be suspended for five games to begin the 2011 season, enough to extinguish any realistic national championship hopes, along with Terrelle Pryor's chances of winning a Heisman Trophy. Extending as it did into the Big Ten season, the suspensions would also imperil Ohio State's chances of winning a conference championship.
All of those excuses are blown now. The tipster was not just some unknown e-mailer, but an attorney with long-held ties to the athletic department. Whatever confidentially concerns may have legitimately existed were ignored as Tressel sent e-mails to almost everyone except his putative superiors at Ohio State and in the compliance department.
As for the punishment? Even with the latest disclosures, I'm not one to get histrionic about college sports. Tressel didn't, say, tell his players to frame a murdered player as a drug dealer to keep recruiting and academic violations from being revealed. We're not dealing in the world of real outrage, the world where people are murdered, abused, and otherwise violated on a daily basis while children go hungry and without shelter. We're dealing in the world where a football coach sought to gain advantage over rival programs, and while that's immoral because we should all follow the rules and not cheat, it's not jeremiad-worthy. I'll save my outrage for other things.
Still, I'm now in 13 o'clock territory with Jim Tressel. Not only was he incorrect, but he was incorrect in such a way that I can no longer trust any of his explanations, past or present (and there has been a lot of things to explain during his tenure). Of course, I'm just a pantsless blogger. But I'd reckon that NCAA investigators feel the same way, just as the fatal moment in the Bruce Pearl investigation came when he told the obvious lie that he didn't recognize his own home in the photographs admitted as evidence. As always, it's rarely the crime that will finish you; it's the cover-up.
Eventually though, these attempts at rationalizing mistakes must fail. That point in the Jim Tressel Saga, for me, came at around 10:00 AM this morning when I read this:
Documents obtained by The Dispatch also show Tressel called an FBI agent within days of getting the first email warning the coach of the potential NCAA rules violation and a federal drug investigation.
But OSU records don't show a single call or email from Tressel to the Ohio State compliance office in which he could have reported his players' apparent violations of NCAA regulations.
Tressel did not send athletic director Gene Smith emails about the issue, either.
Tressel's phone logs from last April and his emails from April through January, obtained through a public-records request, shed new light and more detail on the coach's communication with others.
I thought the reasons for Tressel's missteps were understandable, though inexcusable in the sense that there should be some punishment for both the coach and the school. People send coaching staffs crazy-sounding e-mails all the time, and I don't expect head football coaches to investigate every "tip" they get from an overfrothed fanbase (or overfrothed rivals). The confidentiality argument was also plausible, especially when dealing with a federal investigation that only tangentially involves current students. As for the punishment, the involved players and head coach would be suspended for five games to begin the 2011 season, enough to extinguish any realistic national championship hopes, along with Terrelle Pryor's chances of winning a Heisman Trophy. Extending as it did into the Big Ten season, the suspensions would also imperil Ohio State's chances of winning a conference championship.
All of those excuses are blown now. The tipster was not just some unknown e-mailer, but an attorney with long-held ties to the athletic department. Whatever confidentially concerns may have legitimately existed were ignored as Tressel sent e-mails to almost everyone except his putative superiors at Ohio State and in the compliance department.
As for the punishment? Even with the latest disclosures, I'm not one to get histrionic about college sports. Tressel didn't, say, tell his players to frame a murdered player as a drug dealer to keep recruiting and academic violations from being revealed. We're not dealing in the world of real outrage, the world where people are murdered, abused, and otherwise violated on a daily basis while children go hungry and without shelter. We're dealing in the world where a football coach sought to gain advantage over rival programs, and while that's immoral because we should all follow the rules and not cheat, it's not jeremiad-worthy. I'll save my outrage for other things.
Still, I'm now in 13 o'clock territory with Jim Tressel. Not only was he incorrect, but he was incorrect in such a way that I can no longer trust any of his explanations, past or present (and there has been a lot of things to explain during his tenure). Of course, I'm just a pantsless blogger. But I'd reckon that NCAA investigators feel the same way, just as the fatal moment in the Bruce Pearl investigation came when he told the obvious lie that he didn't recognize his own home in the photographs admitted as evidence. As always, it's rarely the crime that will finish you; it's the cover-up.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Season Obituaries: Ohio State
There have been curiously few recriminations following Ohio State’s defeat as the number one overall seed this year, especially when compared to Kansas’s loss to Northern Iowa one round earlier last season. Maybe that’s because Kentucky was such a good team—Kenpom, for example, says the Wildcats were much closer to a two-seed than the four-seed they were given. Maybe that’s because Ohio State was so dominant during the Big Ten season, and a conference championship heals most wounds. Maybe it’s because Ohio State isn’t all that far removed from their national runner-up 2006 season and so the sense of disappointment is not quite so severe.
Those are all plausible explanations, I think one works better: Ohio State’s dominance isn’t going to end any time soon. There was no urgency to this particular season like there was for Purdue fans. The Buckeyes lost the Big Ten Player of the Year and nevertheless went from sharing the Big Ten title to winning it outright, with a better conference record and an undefeated nonconference record. Ohio State will lose great players again before next season begins, and yet the Buckeyes will almost certainly be ranked in the top 5 before the season. Sure, the tournament results were the same this season as last: a disappointing exit to a lower seed in the Sweet Sixteen round. But so what? If you keep getting chances as one of the best teams in the nation, you’ll find your way through the tournament eventually.
I discussed in my Purdue obituary how the Big Ten basketball programs are not the kind that can hope for championship-level success every year. If there’s an exception, it is Ohio State. No one would have predicted this even six years ago. Michigan State won a national championship in 2000; Indiana was a perpetual powerhouse off a (somewhat fluky) championship game appearance in 2002); Illinois was laying waste to the conference in 2005. Amongst the teams that were down, Michigan had a better recent basketball history (national championship in 1989, plus the whole Fab 5 team), and Purdue was a perennially solid program for two decades before the temporary post-Keady letdown. Bo Ryan had already turned Wisconsin around by 2005 and seemed poised to take the next step. Even Iowa under Steve Alford was a plausible contender for next great Big Ten team. Ohio State was just a middling team on probation, with a successful-but-unproven mid-major coach, maybe no less likely than Iowa or Purdue to take the step towards national dominance, but certainly no more likely.
Fans can be fickle, but most Ohio State fans aren’t so fickle that they don’t appreciate the rarity of this kind of sudden extended success. They can also be confident that this success isn’t about to end, just as Duke fans don’t panic when they lose in the Sweet Sixteen round. There’s always next season, and not just in the existential sense; next season is another legitimate opportunity to win a national championship. Windows of opportunity are for other, lesser teams.
Ohio State is now an upper class program, and the upper class don’t have problems like you or me. Upper class individuals might be disappointed, even hurt, by a recession, but they (should) know that their wealth insulates them from the harms that others must endure. Upper class basketball programs suffer disappointing seasons that nonetheless outperform the vast majority of other teams, and fans of those programs know they’ll be back in the championship hunt the following year. The 2010–11 basketball season was nothing but paper losses; the wealth is still there.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Linkfest! 3-31-2011
Is it Illinois's turn to play coach chicken? The campus rally for Bruce Weber might draw fewer students than the one for Matt Painter in West Lafayette.
Corn Nation breaks down the Nebraska basketball season that was.
Speaking of the Cornhuskers, Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune talks to Nebraska AD Tom Osborne.
Brian Cook says Michigan's freshmen might not take as big a step forward in their sophomore year as the average freshmen. Still, "our freshmen were too good" is a nice problem to have.
Dr. Saturday takes a brief look at soon-to-be Ohio State gameday head coach Luke Fickell.
The Daily Gopher skips all the way forward to the 2013 football season. That might not be a bad idea for Gophers fans.
Corn Nation breaks down the Nebraska basketball season that was.
Speaking of the Cornhuskers, Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune talks to Nebraska AD Tom Osborne.
Brian Cook says Michigan's freshmen might not take as big a step forward in their sophomore year as the average freshmen. Still, "our freshmen were too good" is a nice problem to have.
Dr. Saturday takes a brief look at soon-to-be Ohio State gameday head coach Luke Fickell.
The Daily Gopher skips all the way forward to the 2013 football season. That might not be a bad idea for Gophers fans.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Linkfest! 3-30-2011
Robert at A Lion Eye makes the trek to Champaign for the first spring practice and posts some thoughts.
Lake the Posts breaks down the Northwestern basketball season that was. I'll have my own thoughts(?) on the subject in a few weeks.
Ramzy at Eleven Warriors goes through the second stage of grief after a disappointing end to the Ohio State basketball season.
Meanwhile, Travis at Hammer and Rails has skipped straight through to state three over the Matt Painter Saga.
Penn State loses defensive end Pete Massaro for the season. Tough break for a unit destroyed by injuries last season.
Lake the Posts breaks down the Northwestern basketball season that was. I'll have my own thoughts(?) on the subject in a few weeks.
Ramzy at Eleven Warriors goes through the second stage of grief after a disappointing end to the Ohio State basketball season.
Meanwhile, Travis at Hammer and Rails has skipped straight through to state three over the Matt Painter Saga.
Penn State loses defensive end Pete Massaro for the season. Tough break for a unit destroyed by injuries last season.
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