Ohio State Football: Gene Smith Says He'll Take Blame, Then Takes None

Let's start with the bare essentials of the story out of Columbus Monday afternoon. Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith addressed the media to discuss and explain the latest developments in the NCAA investigation taking place in Columbus. The suspended players that we all know now were originally slated to return this weekend when Ohio State travels to Nebraska.

That will not happen, as wide receiver DeVier Posey, running back Dan "Boom" Herron, Marcus Hall and Etienne Sabino were all found to be guilty of receiving over-payments for hours worked from booster Bobby DiGeronimo. DiGeronimo has now been officially disassociated with the university.

Smith stated that this latest infraction news is piled in to the same case already ongoing by the NCAA and that this would not be considered as a separate offense, which he believes keeps Ohio State free from the label of lack of institutional control. Smith said on a number of occasions that he is ultimately to be held responsible for the actions of the program, but also played both sides of the field by suggesting that these violations were products of individual players making separate decisions "off the reservation."

Smith also hinted that the players are responsible for the decisions they make outside of the program and turned aside the notion that this latest news should support an argument that Ohio State indeed lacks institutional control.

A few questions came out of this press conference.

How many infractions need to occur before Smith, or anyone from Ohio State, will admit that there is an institutional problem?

More importantly, Gene Smith said that it is his job to be held accountable, but what exactly did he hold himself accountable for? The fact that his student-athletes serve hundreds of hours of community service?

There will be surely be plenty of said about this press conference today, and these are just initial impressions. Let us know what you thought about this press conference and what questions you may have from it and moving forward.

One thing to note: The line for this weekend's game between Ohio State and Nebraska spiked to 11 points on one book.

Kevin McGuire is the national college football writer for Examiner.com. Follow his college football discussion on Google+ and Twitter. Become a fan of him on Facebook.