It waaaaay to early to jump on this.
Like I said with respect to the Oregon situation, Ohio State fans can't be happy that Charles Robinson is sniffing around.
But this passage intrigues me...(emphasis added)
According to a source, a concerned party reached out to Tressel last April, alerting the coach that memorabilia transactions had taken place between Rife and a handful of Buckeyes players, including Pryor. The selling of items violates NCAA eligibility rules. The source said Tressel was troubled by the information, and the coach indicated that he would investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
We have seen this tactic before...
With Tim Floyd.
A concerned party?
How about a name to back it up. At least with Floyd, Robinson and Cole trotted out Louis Johnson even though he had a motive and a book deal in the works. His story was NEVER corroborated!
Maybe Tressel knew and maybe he didn't but without a name to back up the accusations this is all just speculation.
How about some proof?
I am not giving Tressel a pass, if he knew he's a dead man walking and tOSU has a long road ahead of them if the NCAA officially gets involved. As a repeat offender this could turn out ugly....and that is with a coach directly involved....like Bruce Pearl. Even USC didn't have that stain placed upon them because the NCAA never levied a show order against Floyd or Carroll. Like it or not there was nothing there that they knew of anything that was going on.
This one is going to be interesting.