Jim Tressel Arrogant or Just Plain Stupid? Bad Decisions From a Good Coach

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer)—Ohio State has a great program and a great coach, but that didn't stop either from being just another school to give the NCAA and college football another black eye for rules violations.

The choices that were made by Tressel no longer give him any room for innocence in the violations that were going on at Ohio State. Now the only question is, was he that darn arrogant or just plain stupid?

Since we know his record as a coach, we can almost dismiss stupid and go straight to arrogant.

If it's true, as allegations from Yahoo!'s investigation shows, that Tressel knew of the merchandise sales and Pryor driving around in free cars provided by an Ohio State booster who owns a car sale business, then he must have thought he could either hide all the information from ever seeing the light of day or make it all go away by exerting his own presence as the head coach.

If he does in fact believe that he could have done either of those things, then maybe stupid isn't out of reach either.

Tressel should know that most times the NCAA comes down on those who try to hide the facts 10 times harder than if they had just come clean in the beginning, self-reported and taken their punishment.

The NCAA may want to know why Pryor was stopped three times by police in a car he didn't own, one that was owned by a booster, and no questions were ever asked by Tressel. If he was stopped three times by police and always in a car he didn't own, how many other times was he driving one and didn't get caught?

That and the alleged fact that he knew about the merchandise sales and did nothing for months could bring down the dreaded "lack of institutional control" ruling on Ohio State that could virtually kill the program for years.

Personally, I vote for arrogant AND stupid in this case, and it's a decision that could and should cost Tressel his job.

One thing is for sure, it's just another embarrassment, not only to Ohio State, but to all of college football.