Maurice Clarett, remember him? Of course you know about Terrelle Pryor and his fellow teammates by now, right?
Now the question is whether or not we add Coach Jim Tressel to the list above for his own misconduct? The answer is actually a lot more complicated than originally thought.
There are two options as to what occurred inside Tressel’s head when he received the tip-off that his players were breaking rules, and which you believe will ultimate decide the answer the question above.
First off, if you believe Tressel is a morally steered person with a legacy that matches his true personality than you must believe that he was simply trying to do right by his players. He found out about what they were doing, and in order to protect them, concealed the information, despite the hit he could potentially face if it came out.
Or he could have potentially been trying to cover it up, keep his players active in order to go for another Big Ten title.
In this case, don’t you think a two game suspension is a bit lenient? The players got five, and while they were the ones initially breaking the rules, they’re young. It isn’t an excuse for what they did, but they don’t bear responsibility for an entire program as does Tressel. If I were the Big Ten commissioner or the head of the NCAA, there would have been some serious repercussions. He attempted to cover up their acts and then lied about knowing about it until further investigation revealed e-mails that informed him about it.
People are showing Tressel way to much sympathy in a time when his reputation should be taking a serious hit. Sure, the offense at hand is silly, selling memorabilia for tattoos, but its the principal, the fact that he lied to everyone.
My ruling- 6 game suspension (enough to go into in-conference play, but not enough to disrupt crunch time)
Jackman
its now a five game suspension and i believe it it isn’t enough still this man had knowledge of someone breaking NCAA rules and didn’t act on it. Now I am not sure I like the rule itself as much as the principle of the rule about the players selling their game stuff, i would think that if they really felt like they were apart of something special they wouldn’t sell their Big Ten Champion rings and Michigan win gold pants, which some former buckeyes, especially from the nineties, would kill to get their hands on. Now game worn jerseys from non-big games and selling autographs is just fine in my book they are the players property and not really that importent in the long run so they should be allowed to sell those to their hearts content. Now in Tressel’s case the only reason he isn’t gone is because he’s won more Big Ten championships for THE OHIO STATE than any other buckeye coach since Woody.