Ohio State Football NCAA Investigation: Tressel Era Should End Because He Lied

It was a time when Ohio State's football fortunes seemed made for the future. April of 2010. A team surely to be ranked No. 1 during the season and a part of the national championship picture would be fielded in September. And Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel had yet another chance to get a second national championship.

Then, an attorney sent an email to Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel turning the entire season upside down. The email informed him that there was a problem because a tattoo parlor owner had paid one or more players for Ohio State memorabilia. This was a clear violation of NCAA rules.

All of a sudden, Tressel faced the potential of having his team take a huge tumble down the rankings, his recruiting suffering, and the prospect that the team would be banned from postseason play at the end of the 2010 season.

Under Jim Tressel's contract, in accordance with NCAA rules, Tressel was obligated immediately to report the potential of one or more NCAA violations were occurring.

Instead of doing so, Tressel made what became a torrent of calls to people outside the university and some of his players.

And then waited.

Tressel waited long enough for at least some additional malfeasance by one Ohio State player in May of 2010.

He waited long enough for the season to begin.

He waited long enough to lie to the NCAA and OSU through a signed certification that he was unaware of any potential violations of NCAA rules.

He waited long enough to lie again when OSU authorities finally received notice of the potential rules violation in December 2010 from another source.

He waited so long that Yahoo was able to break the story in March of 2011 about Tressel's almost yearlong knowledge of the improper benefits all the way back to April of 2010. Almost a full year after first receiving notice of the problem, Tressel was forced to admit his knowledge went that far back.

Despite these facts, OSU stood behind Tressel and his sanctions, saying that there was nothing new that would result in greater sanctions against either him or the players.

There is good reason for universities to support their coaches. However, the reasons to support Tressel are greater than perhaps any other coach in football today.

Tressel's record at Ohio State is an outstanding 106-22 at Ohio State since he arrived. He won the 2002 national championship. His team went 12-1 last season, including a 31-26 win over Arkansas in this year's Sugar Bowl.

Although this record is almost unapproachable by any other coach, ominous signs have begun to emerge that suggest Jim Tressel's days as head football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes are numbered.

The NCAA provided a Notice of Allegations on April 21, 2011, against Tressel and certain OSU football players. The Notice was made public a few days later.

This Notice details Tressel's violations.

The Notice says that he was informed in April of 2010 that several athletes on his team had received improper benefits from one or more persons. Their actions included the sale of rings and other OSU awards for money. The NCAA alleged that one players received improper benefits through May of 2010 (para. 1.g.).

The Notice also states that, despite being aware of the potential violations, Tressel not only failed to disclose them to anyone in the OSU administration or the NCAA, he also falsely attested to the NCAA and OSU that he had no knowledge of any violation on at least two occasions.

According to paragraph 2 of the NCAA Notice:

"Additionally, Tressel withheld the information from April 2010 until the institution discovered the emails in January 2011, including throughout the 2010 football season when he permitted football student-athletes to compete while ineligible and during the institution's investigation of the violations in December 2010. Further, in September 2010, Tressel falsely attested that he reported to the institution any knowledge of NCAA violations when he signed the institution's certification of compliance form."

OSU claimed that the allegations in the NCAA's letter were essentially the same as those that had been previously disclosed to the public by OSU. And OSU has not discussed termination. Instead, Tressel was fined $250,000 and suspended by OSU and Tressel himself for the first five games of the 2011 season.

Is this enough?

In their March of 2011 report, Yahoo also stated that the following language is in Tressel's contract with OSU.

The wording appears under the termination clause, and stipulates that Tressel must "report promptly to the director in writing any violations known to Coach of governing athletic rules or Ohio State rules and regulations."

The most recent comments by those involved suggest that the sanctions may not be enough by a long shot.

Contrary to OSU's almost immediate release regarding their receipt of the Notice, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney claimed on Thursday that he and OSU officials would have handled things differently had he known the full story before the Sugar Bowl. Exactly what would have been done is unclear.

However, there is growing sentiment that Tressel deserves more severe penalties. The history of those who have lied about violations during their college coaching careers points toward the ultimate sanction against Tressel. Termination.

Two famous graduates have now stated that Tressel should pay a price for his failure to disclose clear NCAA violations. One says the current situation makes it very difficult to move forward with Tressel.

According to USA Today, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit has made perhaps the strongest statement of any current or former Ohio State football player since the investigation became public months ago.

"The bottom line is he broke the rules by the NCAA and it's very difficult after you do that to go into the future homes of recruits and try to recruit and try to say, 'Hey, we're going to try to do things the right way,' when you have this in your background," Herbstreit said. "I think it will be very difficult moving forward with Jim Tressel."

Chris Speilman, another ESPN analyst, stated: "I don't think you can have a coach who knowingly put ineligible players on the field and you're not going to take those games from them last year."

Tressel is the second high profile coach who has lied to the NCAA in the very recent past.

Tennessee head basketball coach Bruce Pearl lied about having improper contacts with recruits at his home. After similar statements of support, Pearl was finally fired. After coaching the Vols for the entire 2010-11 season and in the NCAA Tournament.

According to OSU's hometown newspaper The Columbus Dispatch, coaches are routinely fired when violating the same ethics bylaw as Tressel violated:

Since 2006, the NCAA has sanctioned 28 schools for violating the ethics bylaw that Tressel did. Of the 13 head coaches involved, only one kept her job. The others either resigned or were fired by their schools.

Will Tressel suffer the same fate? Only time will tell.

However, there is little question but that this is the course the NCAA must take in addressing issues where coaches knowingly lie about the existence of potential violations.

The entire NCAA system relies on honesty from its coaches and universities. Self-reporting is an essential part of the enforcement fabric that holds the system together. And if and as self-reporting fails, so does the system itself.

OSU also has an extremely important set of issues at stake.

If they allow this type of conduct, their integrity fails. Mere monetary and games sanctions should not be sufficient if integrity is to be saved.

And while there could be extenuating circumstances that can play a role in determining punishment, there is absolutely no excuse for a coach not to inform his institution immediately upon learning of potential NCAA violations.

To say otherwise is to put the entire institution in the very delicate position of putting the coach's own decision above the institution's determination.

Some say the jury is still out on what steps should be taken at this time.

Yet, whatever the motivation, Tressel simply cannot override the need for an immediate confidential report to the bodies who need to know. Failure to do this actually resulted in more violations, the ultimate problem in any such setting.

Saying that a coach can make those decisions himself precludes decision-making by the entity with the most to lose, and makes an unacceptable exception for conduct at the heart of any institution of higher learning.

If Ohio State University wants to keep their integrity intact, they will fire Jim Tressel.

If they do not do so, the NCAA should require them to do so.