Where’s Double Standard? Ohio State Sanctions Lenient

The folly finally unfolded on the day the NCAA deliberated and reached its final verdict against the Ohio State infractions perpetuated to inflame another brouhaha, considering all that has swirled around the much-publicized scandal in college sports.

Most of the ghastly, rugged penalties puts the university in a complicated situation as the NCAA hit Ohio State with a one-year bowl ban and other sanctions on Tuesday for violating NCAA rules that included eight players accepting $14,000 in cash and tattoos in exchange for Buckeyes memorabilia. The severity of penalties was once imposed at USC and caused more havoc as the Trojans were placed on two-year probation, banned from earning any bowl-game appearances and stripped of all wins after former star Reggie Bush accepted improper benefits from prospective agents.

The harsher sanctions – including the Heisman Trust stripping Bush of the prestigious award he won in 2005 and leaving the trophy vacant — rattled Southern California harder than an earthquake. It’s inconceivable, after a lengthy investigation had found that eight players received cash payments and preferential treatment from the owner of a tattoo parlor in Columbus, Ohio, that the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions handed down lighter punishments and would be pigheaded in dropping the hammer justly on any university for wrongdoings.

The purpose of the committee is simply to react properly and inflict harsher, not lenient penalties for violation of the rules — even to forsake defiance and any mockery to academia. The NCAA figured the Buckeyes would not produce more revenue, signify the beauty of the Big Ten, a conference unworthy of its own television network, or increasingly see a growth in TV ratings from a far more prominent university and even go on successive bowl runs had it taken heavier disciplinary actions.

The Buckeyes weren’t hit with a Blackeye. Rename them the Blackeyes had the NCAA imposed the double standard after it harshly handed down sanctions at USC as fans reacted angrily and vented their disillusionment. Yet the NCAA people ruled that Ohio State, a well-known school particularly for its staunch football program, wasn’t as repulsive, severe or contemptible, the reality is the violations were worse than the incidents that materialized in Southern California. With the latest news in full force, it doesn’t make sense that Ohio State wasn’t spanked severely and won’t have to pay the consequences for its sins.

What the NCAA is teaching us is the lack of institutional control and fairness it exercises in handling a horrific situation, regarding a hideous scandal that elicits much humiliation for collegiate sports which is in tremendous disarray, not having its priorities straightened out. The recent outrage, put simply, is the epitome for one of the worst cases in college football and became an issue at Ohio State, following a systemic breakdown and cover up by former head coach Jim Tressel. It was, without a doubt, a far worst scandal than USC.

“We are surprised and disappointed with the NCAA’s decision,”Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said in his statement. “However, we have decided not to appeal the decision because we need to move forward as institution.”

Surprised, really? Surprised? In a sense, we should be a bit surprised at the fact Ohio State wasn’t punished hard enough. Move forward? Yes, moving forward is a good decision. The standard here is an insult to USC, if anything. It makes no sense whatsoever, but Ohio State got away with wrongdoings and was treated like it has never done anything quite shocking and horrifying. This is a shame, because the justifications for such harsh penalties are ridiculous, flat out ridiculous when the Ohio State violations are contrasted to the USC mess. It must be said, to sound politically correct, that USC was in a quandary but it was never that damn nefarious. It’s your right to feel sorry for the Trojans, and Ohio State, too.


But it’s your right to feel even more sorry for the Trojans when all Bush did was receive cash and gifts from a sordid agent, while Tressel covered up the truth in Columbus as eight of his players were receiving cash and tattoos in exchange for autographed jerseys, rings and other memorabilia. To be frank, it was a worst crime than Bush pocketing money and earning rent-free housing. The disparity of the two scandals is that USC, which was defiant and arrogant of the allegations, wasn't compliant during the investigation when Ohio State cooperated but Tressel lied in his conversations with the NCAA, covering up the dirtiness to try and protect the university’s name. You could easily argue, and maybe it’s a possibility, that Smith’s job is in jeopardy.

The university’s first priority is recovering from the NCAA sanctions, along with the self-imposed penalties. It certainly wasn’t right and, just as USC felt the pain, Ohio State can relate even if the punishment isn’t all so bad. The guess is the school will recover quickly from the sanctions and won’t be affected by it as the newly hired coach Urban Meyer will change the culture in Columbus, Ohio, by recruiting brilliantly, although the stripping of scholarships may have an effect on persuading many of the top-level recruits. The lost of three scholarships a year for the next three years will slow down the process in adding to the depth, but the Buckeyes may still win the Big Ten title and earn the right to play in a BCS bowl.

So maybe former USC coach Peter Carroll, who often said the punishment was too harsh and he would not return, fled because of the mess and accepted the Seattle Seahawks coaching job. So maybe ex-USC athletic director Mike Garrett had a point when he was critical of the NCAA and said at an alumni gathering after the penalties were imposed that the NCAA was jealous of the Trojans. It’s almost ironic that Smith remains the Buckeyes AD despite the stain at Ohio State, while Pat Haden was hired to purge all traces of ruination and clean house. When the sanctions were announced, he repeated that the university had not agreed with the rulings

“We had our two shots,” Haden said. “We were disappointed with the results, but we have gotten beyond that and are moving forward.”

If the school really want to seek revenge or fight for rights, USC could sue the NCAA and maybe have the sanctions reversed, but it would cost the university about $5 million.

It almost feels as if collegiate sports are politics, prompting largely a debate around the nation, as the folks locally are questioning and ripping the NCAA for inequality and slapping the Buckeyes on the wrist. This is a school under scrutiny, but apparently not as much as USC dealt with the shame of a bloated, formidable scandal. As it turns out, the Trojans weren’t made the men of Troy but the poster boys. Wrong as it is, Alex Holmes – a former Trojan and teammate with Bush – blasted the NCAA irate about the sanctions involving Ohio State via Twitter Tuesday morning.

“I just don’t get it,” Holmes said after reading that the Buckeyes will be docked nine scholarships and only banned for one postseason. “I don’t understand the NCAA’s logic.”

Yeah, I don’t think no one does.

Beyond all, he was unhappy and confused mainly that USC was docked 30 scholarships over the next three years for one player’s bad actions, while Ohio State was stripped of nine scholarships over a similar span for breaking rules with Tressel having full knowledge of the misdeeds. You can bet the NCAA justice system won’t revisit harshness, after the Trojans were treated unfairly and the Buckeyes were treated like the gods.

Seems unfair, right?

The justice system is deceiving in its own way and has never been a respectable or an impartial scheme but dreary over the years. Because there are no written orders all through an investigation, it leaves out important details that could be helpful if no eyewitnesses talk to provide information for a better understanding on the allegations.

But if you want a school to pay the price, punish every collegiate program fairly. It’s called the double standard.

Liar Liar! Sorry, Don’t Buy the Urban Meyer Hiring

If there’s a man who is hired to take on a new coaching gig, amidst an economic downturn that can’t be trusted as times become more fragile and scarier, Urban Meyer is clearly the man.

Life at Ohio State will never be fabulous or euphoric until Meyer stuns folks with his notorious I-Quit episodes that’d reveal another stunning development. There is something suspiciously odd about the Meyer hiring, a sense of bad vibes spreading throughout the university, enough to give off a foul smell at the Horseshoe.

He always has a flimsy excuse for everything and everyone, simply using health issues as an escape hatch to end the stressful moments when the going gets tough. By now, he’s run out of reasons not to be trusted but have the credentials to seemingly stand as a great football leader, in which his availability attracted schools that were seeking a first-class coach for filling their coaching vacancies. The problem today is, he’s not the perfect coach for the job, primarily selling one of the finest athletic programs in the nation.

The search is over, and it just happens so that Meyer accepts a challenging role, a heavy task for a man who doesn’t handle an array of stress too well. Only months after the university was rocked by a memorabilia-for-tattoo scandal that led to Jim Tressel’s abrupt departure, Meyer is brought in to revitalize Ohio State. He is hired to guide a storied program that demand good standards to quite fittingly portray a purpose, and Meyer is also back to turn Ohio State into a national powerhouse, vowing he intends to accelerate the process of superiority by eradicating poison.

For now at least, he is authentic about his recent hiring, ready to come out of his early retirement to become the head coach at Ohio State. And it was a wonderful if very outlandish comeback for someone who has a nose longer than Pinocchio and obligated to tell a lie and step down, considering his frivolity and deceptiveness in the past, not upfront with any athletic department. It’s only a matter of time before he calls it quits again, but in the meantime, he feels “fantastic” after 11 months away from coaching.

How long will that last, I wonder?

On a count of 1..2…3 “Tell me lies. Tell me sweet little lies.” Sing it all together now… Tell me lies. Tell me sweet little lies.


So, when is he expected to pull another switcheroo, expected to turn his back on a university that trusts in him until he shockingly decides to leave and stun the world? When is he planning to abandon the institution? What is the timetable for his next announcement of early retirement?

The Buckeyes have hired a replacement, an elusive coach who couldn’t tell the truth. Much enigma surrounds Ohio State, and it would be sensible to think that Meyer is spewing lies in Columbus, a wishy-washy personality that has had a frequent pattern of untruthfulness. This is a common trait seen often from Meyer, telling lies and promising a school that he’d desire to take charge and transform a team into a national power, but we can never conceive the mind of a coach if he talks in riddles. It’s impossible for anyone to believe the truth from a person who is laughably a trickster and a liar, not an honest or credible living soul.

“I made this clear to Jeremy Foley (Florida Athletic Director), if I am able to go coach, I want to coach at one place, the University of Florida. It would be a travesty, it would be ridiculous to all of a sudden come back and get the feeling back, get the health back, feel good again and then all of a sudden go throw some other colors on my shirt and go coach? I don’t want to do that. I have too much love for this University and these players and for what we’ve built.”

I have too much love for this University? Are you kidding me? The only love he has is for a six-year contract worth $4 million a year, along with another $2.4 million total in retention payments, according to the school, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football. He’s not just an immoral quitter, but also a traitor after resigning at the University of Florida, not once but twice, and then leaving for supposedly the sake of his health.

The funniest thing is that Meyer feels this is the best job in America and that the fans are the best in America. Please, don’t tell me you buy into his untruthful words, just because he was willing to accept the Ohio State coaching job, one with many headaches and much stress. In the coming days, we’ll hear that he’s mentally fatigued and burnt out from coaching, particularly when times turn rough, if you already know Meyer. Of course, if he doesn’t build a product at Ohio State and abolish the mediocrity as disappointing as it has been in Columbus, he’ll prefer to relieve himself of his duties and step down from the challenge.

But what is perplexing about this, by Meyer deciding to take over at Ohio State, is that he came back just 10 months after he said he was leaving Florida to spend more time with his family and care for his obscure health issues. It’s almost a cliché that he was a man of family values, one in which he vowed to devote his time to family obligations with his wife, Shelley, and his three kids. This is not what we wanted right now, a so-called family man who is ailing with illnesses -- taking on another coaching gig and then suddenly renege in the end unable to handle the stress and headaches if the program struggles from futility.

So there was Meyer, in his black suit and red tie, announced as the new head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football program at a press conference Monday afternoon, as cameramen snapped photos and reporters pontificated the hiring. It’s hard to understand the variations of his mind, whether he’s committed to the profession of coaching, and whether he has the sense of pride or self-respect for a football program. The spinning wheel is forever circling inside Meyer’s mind and, this time, the wheel stopped in Ohio State’s direction. Before his arrival, he turned around Utah with his hard-driven style and spread-option that cultivated the Utes.

Long ago, he was part of the Utes ripening into national contention, capturing a BCS victory in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and developing quarterback Alex Smith, who became a No. 1 draft pick of the NFL Draft. As one of the most decorated coaches in college sports — despite his flip-flopping – Meyer spent six years at Florida, winning two BCS titles. The specifics of his retirement gave him time to spend with his family and attend his daughter’s volleyball games. During his days spent at Florida, he couldn’t balance the schedule and the coaching task at the university, which may have led to his departure.

But then again, it’s so vague that we really don’t know what to believe. Just when we thought he was tired of coaching, although we should have known that his un-retiring ideas were likely, he’s not working as an ESPN analyst but as a college football coach. We wanted to believe he was a devoted 47-year-old husband and father of three, but he is more than just a family man of college football coaches. He is, however, a liar and hard to believe.

You can’t trust him, if your life depended on it. But in every way, that is, he accepted a demanding assignment, now the coach on one of the nation’s most storied programs, one that has won seven national championships and seven Rose Bowls while producing seven Heisman Trophy winners. It’s on him to turn around a premier program bothered by the well-publicized infractions, but he won’t be the curer if he lies and calls another emotional press conference, reducing to tears during the announcement.

At his news conference Monday afternoon, he said, “Health-wise, I feel great. Our objective is to make the state of Ohio proud.”

He said that at Florida. We shouldn’t know what to believe.

As he grew up in Ashtabula — a town about 200 miles from Columbus — rooting for the Buckeyes and attending college at Cincinnati and beginning his coaching career at Ohio State as a graduate assistant under Earle Bruce, he said that he would have only accepted this job. It’s a rarity that coaches leave positions for family and then take on another coaching job months later, but on the bright side of things, he’s at home.

“It’s a great opportunity to come back to my home state,” he said.

I can’t tell whether he’s lying.

Guess it’s needless to say that he is 104-23, including his 22 record in two seasons at Utah in 2003 and 2004 in 10 seasons as a head coach. He is, without question, one of the best coaches in football, but he is just misleading and enigmatic. It will take savvy recruiting and rebuilding if Meyer is aiming to add national titles. As for the stunning retiring and lies every so many months, citing health issues and that he is devoted to spend more time with his family, this is a hiring that remains in limbo, a hiring that can’t be trusted and a hiring of wariness. Meanwhile, Meyer, who has lost an abundance of credibility and prestige for his bad decorum, is the wrong man to try to repair a program’s image.

To state the obvious, Meyer is a LIAR!! And here it is, he is a two-faced liar, accepting a job where much is expected of him. If he underachieves, there’s no doubt that he’ll be one of the most scrutinized coaches of collegiate athletics. It’s good to assume, I suppose, that life is just as tough in the Big Ten Conference. Meyer, on the other hand, moved from a tougher conference to a lighter one, but still it doesn’t become any easier for him, particularly if he doesn’t manage the effects of stress. At anytime now, he could step down and leave the university emotionally again after misleading the athletic program the entire time. At this time, he feels he can balance a healthy life and a tense job that comes with much pressure.

“I had a health scare a couple of years ago that made me sit back, reflect,” Meyer said. “I didn’t feel right. But I feel fantastic now.”

Let’s see how long he’ll feel fantastic. I’m not convinced, and neither should you.

“If not for the coaching position at Ohio State, I would not have coached this year,” said Meyer, a native of Ohio.

Sorry, not buying into this inanity, after he clearly stated that he wouldn’t coach anywhere else but Florida. He broke his promises, deceived an entire university, lied to their faces, and now everyone in Gainesville should be hoodwinked and betrayed by Meyer’s BS words. This season alone interim coach Luke Fickell, who took over when Jim Tressel stepped down for breaking NCAA rules of infamous violations, carried the Buckeyes to a 6-6 season and helped them qualify for a bowl game. There is nobody that we’ve heard of more incredulous than Meyer.

He lies so much, that he can’t even tell a straight one. The guy running the program right now, which is Fickell, who will stay as an assistant to Meyer, is more trustworthy than his new boss. It wasn’t necessary for Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith to hire Meyer when there were other candidates available. However, he had a conversation with Meyer about the coaching job by phone on Nov. 20 and then they met face-to-face three days later.

Not too long ago, he responded to reports saying that he had “not been offered any job nor is there a deal in place.”

It was too good to be true. Whatever happened to the time he went to the hospital after a game for heart problems? Not to say it was, but that may have been a lie, too

What is true about Meyer is that he’s a liar. And to this day, he hasn’t learned to tell the truth openly and publicly.

In Bad Travesty, Ohio State, NCAA Not Harsh Enough on Jim Tressel

It's not enough for Ohio State to be America's laughingstock. As in any scandal, one of the paramount football programs in the nation was blinded and the mystery engendered a hideous disturbance, a national disturbance rather in Columbus, dealing with criticism for contemptible infractions that weren't harsh enough in punishing the man in the middle of the widespread travesty to stain Ohio State's reputation.

Most of all, with a phony facial expression in a press conference Tuesday to address that several of his players had received impermissible benefits months before allegations came to light, Jim Tressel admittedly was aware of the incident and had been informed last April. In the immediate aftermath of the revelations in regards of accusations, he absurdly lied and deceived the university for months, refusing to come clean.

I'm still not certain whether to feel sympathy for Tressel or slap him silly after he wrongly stood as a hoax and kept a secret, assuming the scummy plights would hereafter vanish and erase the public anticlimax that surfaced in the early winter when the NCAA suspended five Ohio State players, including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, for the first five games of the 2011 season for auctioning memorabilia for tattoos. It is well established that Tressel, in his lack of knowledge with his lame excuses, mistakenly believes we are stupid, trying to clean his image before it tarnishes.

Come to think of it, he already has sabotaged his legacy and image to some degree. He needed to be honest and precise in the beginning, but instead he made matters worse. It's almost laughable in a way that the Buckeyes are suddenly known as the Blackeyes, aka Tressel's culprits. What's next?? The Buckeyes will be broadcasted on America's Most Wanted, simply when the program was recognized as one of the most dignified universities in the nation, hijacking the airwaves on the Big Ten Network, a conference that really isn't worthy of its own television network??

So now he's living a lie to escape from the stunning damage, perpetrated to change the way people regard Tressel, once revered for leading the Buckeyes to seven Big Ten titles and the 2002 BCS national championship. But surely the achievements seem as if the Buckeyes were tainted an asterisk, when nearly it feels so convenient to lampoon Ohio State for nearly every incident with Tressel's top star players each season, a frequent pattern that brainwash non-believers to disparage a nationally respected program. When it all came out, when he arrived to a press conference embarrassed and saddened, he said he was "scared" of putting an endless federal drug trafficking case accompanied to the tattoo parlor.

Lame excuse. Sorry, I'm not buying it.

"It was obviously tremendously concerning," Tressel said. "Quite honestly, I was scared."

Maybe had he spoke on the allegations much sooner, he would have enhanced his credibility by telling the truth instead of lying. Rather amazingly, he wanted his to seriously believe that he was an immaculate coach who follows the rules without rebellion or breaking NCAA rules, but he never apologized for evidently violating the rules and not following the protocol.

In a sense that he demands superiority that enables an overbearing and careless demeanor, he truly believes he can escape the harsh reality of sanctions with selfishness as if he's above the NCAA rulers. Eight months later, he's accused of letting down his university, his bosses and NCAA investigators for never telling them that he was aware of two players accepting improper benefits from the owner of a tattoo parlor in Columbus, Ohio.

The latest scandal might have tarnished the program, purging traces of indelible moments over the years at Ohio State, a school that has celebrated with much joy in the past as the symbol of Big Ten football, but currently, it's a program in trouble when the truth finally was revealed. In a strange way, of course, none of this bothers Tressel and, if anything, he says he has always been his own critic.

"I don't think less of myself at this moment," Tressel said.

Consider it a case of disingenuousness, a word heard commonly in college sports these days. From what it seems, we can never assume that a university is clean in the age of sleazes and when players or coaches make poor judgment, seeking improper benefits to enrich the program or even their own lives in general. At risk of sounding like a fraud, on the fringe of a harsher sanction if the NCAA decides to drop the hammer on Ohio State in the upcoming weeks, Tressel simply thought he could remove from the heinous crimes.

Bombarded by questions in the conference, a publicity scene where Tressel was uneasy and too tense to stand before reporters, he never discussed the e-mails and he never told the bleak athletic director Gene Smith or the school's compliance office about e-mails he retrieved from an attorney in April 2010, which were evidence that Buckeyes players had been accepting improper benefits. And for the purposes of this argument, when the issue is whether he was penalized harshly or softly, Tressel mostly was given a slap on the wrist after Ohio State suspended him for the first two games and fined him $250,000.

That's it?? That was soft, not harsh enough.

It appears Tressel is allowed to return from his infamous suspension much too soon, where he'll be back for conference play when competition is steep and the emotions rise publicly within a conference for teams that are in contention against elite programs from a rather overrated conference. It's precisely not fair for him to only miss cupcake games against Akron and Toledo, two home games the Buckeyes will rout, no doubt.

For many years, Ohio State has represented excellent athleticism, but it's not the first time Tressel has been accused or caught for lying, though the latest scandal for the Buckeyes is the worse. It was lies that bruised Tressel's identity, an blemished personality ever since he used an ignorant excuse in defense for Maurice Clarett in 2002 when the explosive running back was suspended for falsifying a police report and took improper benefits and reportedly misled investigators and ever since his former star quarterback Troy Smith received money from a booster.

In fairness, as bad as the scandal seems, he deserved a harsher punishment when Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl lied to NCAA investigators and was suspended for many of the conference games by SEC commissioner Mike Slive. In contrast, football coach Rick Neuheisel was fired by Washington for lying to NCAA investigators, but even though he's verified as a lightning rod in college football, Tressel avoids a significant punishment.

The NCAA has given skeptics and doubters plenty of reason to grasp a sense that they show favoritism towards Ohio State, which is exactly what exemplifies a corroded formula, a mockery to academics and college athletics. It's true, although he's responsible for much of the deceptiveness and bad publicity that has toppled the name brand program, he won't be held liable for lying or expanding the horror.

In his strange way, Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee has no intentions in firing Tressel, in full support of his head coach despite his horrendous mistakes. No matter what has transpired, even if Tressel deceived his bosses and the school, Smith also is supportive in the end of a fragile farce that stained the Buckeyes.

"Wherever we end up at the end of the day, Jim Tressel is our football coach," Smith said. "All the speculation about him being terminated is pure speculation. This case, in my view, does not warrant it."

Quite honestly, how can you trust in a fraud?