Ohio State Football: ADs, Presidents Comments Show Buckeyes Have Lost It

When you think of good compliance, one of the last names you think of is Ohio State.

Well, not according to their president, Gordon Gee, “We are the poster child for compliance.”

And not according to their athletic director, Gene Smith, “These are failures of individuals, not a systemic failure of compliance.”

All of this following the announcement of a one-game suspension of running back Dan Herron, wide receiver DeVier Posey and lineman Marcus Hall for accepting more pay at their summer job than what they worked.

This is what they tried to feed us, and they did not do it as a joke.

The Ohio State University has officially lost their mind and their credibility.

But according to Smith, at least “it’s not 30 (players).” As if that is supposed to make everything OK. Also, according to this Sports Illustrated investigative report, this scandal involved up to 28 players.

Yes, the job of the compliance office is to report any misconduct by players or coaches, but they should also be heavily involved in the day-to-day of the athletic teams and root out any problems before they become unmanageable.

But even the first part of that isn’t true, because former coach Jim Tressel was told by the school that he did not report violations well. He was even told to monitor the cars that the players were driving but failed to do that. No punishments were levied until 2011—these warnings came from before 2006.

And remember that throughout all of this Ohio State was never given the notorious “lack of institutional control” penalty. To put that in perspective, Boise State got it for letting players sleep on the floors of other players’ apartments.

Apparently not getting a "lack of institutional control" charge is now the definition of having a good compliance office.

The very least the compliance office could have done is force Tressel to report violations and then go back and diligently check those findings.

Going forward, the Buckeyes may have one of the best compliance departments in the entire country simply because they cannot afford to look incompetent again, but to claim that they have been the “poster boy for compliance” is a downright lie.

There have been problems with the players, with the coaches and with the boosters. Outside of the president or athletic director being directly involved in a scandal, there is no level in the institution that hasn’t been permeated by lying and illicit benefits.

The NCAA really needs to come out with a statement against that because the organization already has a bad rap with many college sports fans. They will not want to look like they are endorsing this inane and ludicrous claim.