Bobby Petrino, George O'Leary, Jim Tressel, Mike Price: The Lies All Caught Up

It wasn't the crime that got Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino fired; it was the cover-up.

He should have known better.

Athletic director Jeff Long referred to it as engaging "in manipulative and deceiving behavior" in his press conference on Tuesday night.

I call it lying.

After all that we've gone through these last few years in college football, the one lesson that Petrino should have learned is not to lie. If he hadn't, he'd probably still be coaching at the University of Arkansas.

How does Petrino's story compare to some other messy college football divorces? Let's examine:

George O'Leary, Notre Dame

O'Leary moved from Georgia Tech to Notre Dame for the 2001 season, but it was a short stint in South Bend. Shortly after he was hired, Notre Dame discovered that O'Leary lied on his resume. O'Leary claimed that he earned three letters in football from the University of New Hampshire, when, in fact, he never played in one game. He also claimed that he earned a master's degree from New York University, when he actually only took a couple of post-graduate classes. 

Is it comparable to Petrino? It's worse. Not only is it lazy on O'Leary's part to keep inaccurate information on his resume; on the surface, it seems more calculated. Petrino's lie got him canned, but it was a spur-of-the-moment lie based on an unforeseen incident.

Jim Tressel, Ohio State

Tressel got caught up in a firestorm shortly before the Buckeyes played, ironically, Arkansas in the 2011 Sugar Bowl following the 2010 season. Several key Buckeye players were suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season after it was learned that the players had received tattoos for memorabilia from a local tattoo parlor.

Tressel was initially suspended for the first two games of the 2011 season, then upped his own suspension to five. It was later determined that Tressel knowingly played players that should have been ineligible, and he resigned as coach of the Buckeyes in May of 2011.

This is comparable to Petrino's situation. The crime itself wasn't all that bad, but Tressel lying, even by omission, to the NCAA is a big no-no.

Mike Price, Alabama

Price was hired by Alabama in December 2002 after Dennis Franchione left in favor of Texas A&M. Shortly after his first spring practice in Tuscaloosa, it was reported by Sports Illustrated that Price wound up at a strip club and later checked into a hotel with a stripper while at a golf tournament in Pensacola, Fla. Price sued Sports Illustrated for the story, but it was too little, too late. Price was fired in May of 2003, just five months after he arrived.

The incident was an embarrassment for Price and is comparable to Petrino's. The short time frame of Price's tenure in Tuscaloosa didn't impact the Tide too much. At the time, Alabama was headed into a the teeth of scholarship limitations brought on by the Albert Means case. 

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