Dan Wetzel: Ohio State case worse than USC
by DC Trojan on Jun 8, 2011 7:26 PM PDT
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PrintIn the midst of all the revelations coming out about shenanigans at Ohio State, Dan Wetzel points out the following:
If there are deposited checks from a memorabilia dealer in Pryor’s account, then the school should have found them in December. There is simply no excuse for not uncovering them. This isn’t a hundred-dollar handshake in a back alley somewhere. It’s all there in black and white. All they had to do was look at the statements.
Instead, 11 days later, a time frame that included repeated lobbying to the NCAA reinstatement committee in an effort to maintain a full roster for the Sugar Bowl, the school concluded its investigation with no such discovery.
I apologize for leaning so heavily on quotes (see below), but there's not much point in my trying to restate the written equivalent of a foot to the ass.
Wetzel also points out that the discovery time-line during Terrelle Pryor's time as an active player doesn't help matters:
USC was drilled with a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships for not keeping tabs on star player Reggie Bush and his dealings with two separate sports marketing agencies. A key part of the case came down to the NCAA claiming that the school (through one assistant coach) either did know or should have known about the relationships. It also leaned on a concept that claimed "high-profile players demand high-profile compliance."
The initial news of Bush receiving impermissible benefits didn’t come out until three months after the Heisman winner had left school and turned pro.
The word on Pryor came while he was still a student-athlete. It was followed by the push to keep him eligible for the Sugar Bowl.
Indeed it was.
When it comes to the NCAA, the issue isn’t usually the initial violation (those happen everywhere). It’s how the school responds.
For Ohio State, it was another form of the cover-up Tressel started nine months prior. This is college sports’ highest-paid AD (Smith), highest-paid president (Gee) and arguably most-powerful person (Delany), millionaires one and all, making a mockery of the very NCAA statutes and procedures they create, enforce and claim to hold dear.
We've all learned not to assume any consistency from the NCAA - as stated in their Emerson's Hobgoblin Policy - but this is really rather poor. I've read some folks from Ohio State writing things like "well at least we're cooperating, unlike SC." If there's a new commonly understood definition of "cooperation" that means "slowly admitting after the fact to things documented by others," then I think Ohio State is cooperating exactly like SC's Athletic Department under Mike Garrett.
All of which is not to say "hahahahaha Ohio State," so much as to wish our Buckeye brethren the best of luck - because if the NCAA chooses to take the Wetzel view here, and the information certainly would support it, they are in for a very unpleasant time in 2017 or so.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Conquest Chronicles' writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Conquest Chronicles' writers or editors.
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It was obvious that the fix was in when...
…tOSU and Jim Delaney petitioned to have the Tattoo 5 reinstated for the Sugar Bowl. At this point, the Tressel coverup might not have been known to the tOSU compliance department. But the types of things found in the tattoo parlor where known, as this letter drom the Department of Justice dated 12/7/10 indicates:
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/docs-feds-letter-that-brought-down-buckeyes-29695
In short, tOSU was aware that their players were selling: gold pants, Big 10 Championship rings, Rose Bowl rings and watches, autographed football jerseys, helmets, cleaves, gloves, and footballs…some of it probably stolen from the tOSU athletic department! All this, and tOSU had the audacity to tell the NCAA that the players didn’t know this was wrong…that they had not been properly educated regarding the rules. I just can’t imagine any modern day athletic department, no mater how inept, not informing and reminding their players not to sell autographed memorabilia. I can only conclude that tOSU’s claim of ignorance was a flat out lie…straight from the tOSU compliance department to the NCAA.
And how did the NCAA respond to this incredulous claim? They lapped it up…and even made up a new rule to let the tOSU players play in the bowl game. And these players will now turn pro and avoid all punishment. If there was ever an institution that lacks control, it is the NCAA itself.
What you brought up is true
The Sugar Bowl lobbied heavily for the Tattoo 5. The rule that states that athletes are not allowed to sell memorabilia is on page 1 of the NCAA rule book. The NCAA let Ohio State off the hook because of the Bowl money that was at stake.
The NCAA looks ridiculous for how it handled the Tattoo 5 and the Sugar Bowl.
But here’s the kicker…. they don’t care how they look, they don’t care what anyone thinks of their logic. They are not held accountable by anyone, and they will continue to thumb their noses at anyone who doesn’t like their decisions.
I don’t expect Ohio State’s punishment to be worse than USC’s. In fact I will be shocked if it is. I have no faith in the NCAA to be consistent or fair after the USC ruling. I’m not rooting for Ohio State to get slammed. Its not going to make me feel better.
I also am not rooting for tOSU to get slammed
At the same time, if tOSU gets less punishment than another school would have received for identical violations, then that is a competitive advantage bestowed upon tOSU by the NCAA. Similarly, if a school like USC gets harsher sanctions than another school would have received, that’s a competitive disadvantage. The NCAA should be in the business of creating a level playing field for all its member schools, rather than selectively handing out competitive advangtages and disadvantages based upon which schools its power core likes and doesn’t like. But we know it doesn’t operate that way. So far, all indications are that tOSU will get lesser penalties than USC.
I agree
But it seems like the NCAA put themselves in a position where they can’t really do anything short of the death penalty for OSU if the Buckeyes are held to the USC standard. Any non-biased, informed person will agree that the sanctions were way overboard for the Bush case. The NCAA has egg on their face and they know it. They just don’t give a rip. I agree with everything that you have said. It just seems like 2 wrongs don’t make a right. USC was wronged, and nothing will change that. The NCAA has already dropped the ball on enforcing the new “USC Standard” for compliance. They would have never let Pryor play the Sugar Bowl if they had any intention of punishing the Buckeyes as harshly as they did to us. I don’t have any faith in them to be consistent or fair.
When did tOSU disassociate themselves from
the memorabilia dealer? You have to think the buckeye compliance department knew before then. This case seems rotten right down the line, deep into the program. As Haden and Scott said, they will be watching.
Any Consistency from the NCAA
I’m not sure the NCAA as we know it even survives this. Not that OSU necessarily will either. I see the OSU scandal as the granddaddy creating a horrible setting against which the Auburn stuff will break, with minor reports coming out from Oregon and perhaps a few other places. I don’t think it will be possible for them to make any kind of meaningful ruling in that context. Of course, I expected their ruling on USC to provide others with more of an example of how to do it, and was wrong. So maybe I’m wrong this time.
"NCAA/BCS is about cash money, and Boise can't afford the buy in" - president of "the" Ohio State University.
I believe that on the illegal cell phone recordings
that McNair incriminated himself. The NCAA listened to those tapes, but they can’t admit to considering them in the ruling. They also can’t release the tapes publicly. This is just my opinion, but I believe that there is a lot more to the McNair story than we were informed of, and that is why the NCAA slammed us, and McNair so hard. When you read the NCAA report, the testimony regarding McNair was leading and not subject to any cross-examination. It was basically a he said she said situation. The NCAA didn’t find McNair credible, and they used that as the basis for their entire case against USC. There just has to be more out there.
The Ohio State situation looks to be different because of the booster involvement, and the head coach issue. The university is falling on its sword immediately pretty much because they have to do so, but its not like they have an outside party, with no connection to the school, with an axe to grind. So far a lot of problems have become public, but if there is anything else out there, the people involved in it have the university’s interests at heart, and will likely keep their mouths shut. USC didn’t have that with the two agents.
I didn't think...
…that there was any tape of McNair. I assumed that, at the most, there was discussion of McNair having knowledge of the situation on those tapes.
Seems like the only way it could be a recording of McNair would be if it was a recording of one or more of the calls on the night Bush was out with the recruit. If there was an additional call, especially a recorded one, it would be pretty ballsy for both McNair and USC to make so much noise about the number and length of those calls in their appeal. There’s just no way USC or McNair would have argued so strenuously against McNair’s knowledge if there was even a possibility that there was a tape of McNair floating around, even if they know that the tape was inadmissable.
+1
I have contemplated Frak’s theory, but I just can’t buy it. Wouldn’t such a tape, if it existed, be admissible in discovery in his lawsuit? I just don’t see McNair suing if he knows there is a smoking gun somewhere.
And, after perusing this book, I now fully understand how corrupt NCAA enforcement is. So, not, I don’t believe there is a tape implicating McNair.
http://www.amazon.com/Undue-Process-NCAAs-Injustice-All/dp/0915611341
A Quick Note for the Quitters
No comment from this thread will be deleted. You will have to own them when we get it turned around and beat Southern Cal. You will never ride the bandwagon when we come back. Not on BN. GO BRUINS.
by Nestor on Sep 4, 2010 9:24 PM CDT
My understanding
is that if a tape exists, it could be used to contradict statements that McNair might make regarding the tape. You can’t use the inadmissibility of a piece of evidence to protect you if you’re lying about its content.
If he’s on the tape, it gets a little dicier, but I don’t think that’s the case. If he’s not on the tape, there doesn’t seem to be much of a risk that it would play a role in the lawsuit.
Not admissable i believe
any phone conversation recorded without both parties consent is illegal wiretapping and not admissible in California…. I believe.
At the appeal hearing for McNair the NCAA brought out more photographs of the agents and McNair to rebut his testimony. Even though the rules of the appeal process explicitly state that new evidence can’t be considered in the appeal, the NCAA broke their own rules again and did it.
NCAA has been corrupt for decades, don't see a mechanism for change
http://www.amazon.com/Undue-Process-NCAAs-Injustice-All/dp/0915611341
A Quick Note for the Quitters
No comment from this thread will be deleted. You will have to own them when we get it turned around and beat Southern Cal. You will never ride the bandwagon when we come back. Not on BN. GO BRUINS.
by Nestor on Sep 4, 2010 9:24 PM CDT
Agree
Wetzel may believe that the tOSU case is worse, but to the eyes of the NCAA there is an extremely important distinction between the two cases…one case involves USC and the other involves tOSU. And this is of primary importance to the NCAA. Gene Smith is a card-carrying member of the good ’ol boys club. No doubt, he has many favors he can call in, and he has done so.
Look at how the NCAA has handled it so far. When Maurice Clarret cried foul, they helped tOSU sweep it under the carpet. When the Tattoo 5 story broke, no legitimate investigation was performed by the NCAA or tOSU. When the Tressel story broke, did the NCAA even consider there might be some involvement of the comliance department? Did they even question it when tOSU compliance said they cleared all three of TP’s loaner cars, including one he drove home to Pensylvania for the weekend? No! Instead they served up exactly what Gene Smith ordered…a fast tract apoinment with the COI in August. There’s a reason why Gene Smith wanted this matter wrapped up ASAP (I’l bet you can gues what it is). And the NCAA was more than happy to help out. Meanwhile, schols like USC, UNC, Tennesee, and even Boise State are subjected to legitimate NCAA investigations.
It doesn’t matter how many times the NCAA bends over backwards for tOSU and gets burned. Gene Smith is one of their own. Memebership has its privilaeges.
The loaner car
Is the boosters new loop hole to let kids drive a free new vehicle. Just bring in your crappy car, and we will take our sweet old time “waiting for the parts to come in” while you drive around the dealership owner’s car to Pennsylvania and back.
….and USC was supposed to notice a 1996 Impala.
Laff
Plus One on that frak---------I guess we at USC were not as clever as the OSU and probably other schools.
Why can’t the ncaa please inform us out west of how to deal with these things, you know I see a bunch of SS—Impala’s around costa mesa and santa ana so are those dudes rich.
Who--What--Slim Shady----the ncaa is after all the BS they are lying out----and just remember they will rewrite history every seven years after the fact.
by so.cal.native1952 on Jun 13, 2011 12:07 PM PDT up reply actions
wellwhaddayahknow....
I’ve long been wondering where the likes of Yahoo Sports have been on all of the shenanigans going on back east. Well whatayaknow… FINALLY… someone at YS has chimed in on what is clearly a decapitating chain of events unfolding on or around THE Ohio State University. The real killer for that program is an apparent paper trail regarding Terrelle Pryor and, it seems, further evidence that a systematically repeated series of infractions have occurred over an extended period of time. If USC gets dams near “the death penalty” based on an ex-con saying a USC coach knew all about Reggie Bush… despite that coach’s vigorous denial and current lawsuit vehemently contesting that charge… then the standard of “should have known” as applied to (several) high profile athletes at OSU ‘should’ crash that program completely. Unless of course any or all come up with the infallible excuse of “I didn’t know” or there are no ex-cons to interview.
trojanWar
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