Buckeyes Lead Big Ten in Recruiting Violations
Much to the delight of some of the fans of our rivals, The Lantern is reporting that Ohio State “leads Big Ten in recruit (sic) violations”. A casual read of the Black Shoe Diaries fanshots post on the topic reveals that the reaction is about what you expect. As you know, there’s no way Ohio State could possibly excel in football without widespread institutional cheating that we can prove in a Swift Boat Veterans for Truth-type chart of culpability. In the fairness of equal time, there’s also this spiritually similar chart for your consideration.
…and it all goes back to Cheaty McSweatervest. What did he know and when did he know it?
It’s unfortunate that this is blood in the water for some, because this has to be the most poorly conceived, written and edited (hopefully edited) article that The Lantern could possibly air, given the circumstances. After reading the article, no answer is given to the questions that immediately come up: Who are the offenders, what sports are we talking about and what are the violations? If you’re like me — and presumably you are, since football is the dominant sport — you would immediately think the author was talking about the football program, though no explicit mention is given. Worse yet, you have to investigate for further details. This is the perfect article for you if you have a conceptual lens that predisposes you to information that you want to hear. If you struggle with the problem of a confirmation bias, you will not struggle with this article.
This file, conveniently buried by The Lantern, has the exact violations that led Ohio State to being tops in the conference. Some of these violations may be against the letter of the law, but they are hardly material for immense satisfaction for people who are not fans of our program.
Football concerns us here, because I innocently assumed that football was what the author was implicitly discussing. After all, this is a football school. Of the Big Ten-leading 26 violations for the 2007-08 academic year, only four involved the football program.
- 407. This was by far the worst violation in the list, and it’s not even a recruiting violation. In short, family members of three student athletes were given transportation to Happy Valley for the Ohio State-Penn State game in 2007 by a person who was not an official representative of the athletic department. If I had to guess, this was likely an immediate family member of another student athlete. However, a parent of a student athlete is a booster for another student athlete, as Dwayne Jarrett discovered. Well-intentioned or not, the bus was provided as a special privilege (it was not available to the general public) and the family members on the receiving end of the transportation did not pay a normal rate. Ergo: a violation. The punishment handed down seems to support what I suspected: one of the student athletes parents’ had rights to the bus. Only two of the three student-athletes’ families had to repay $100 because one of them had rights to the means of transportation. Smell Factor: 3/10, tops.
- 414. An assistant coach attended the Division IV OHSAA state championship game and gave an impromptu interview with a Sportstime Ohio broadcaster. Apparently that’s a no-no. Well golly. Smell Factor: 0/10.
- 415. The Tressel brothers traveled to Saint Francis, Wisconsin to evaluate prospective student-athletes and inadvertently ran into 5 star offensive tackle Josh Oglesby. Before anyone goes around assuming that this was a strategic “inadvertent encounter” with one of the best offensive lineman prospects in the country, a clarification is necessary. Jim and Doc Tressel visited the high school coach, were in a room with him, and Oglesby appeared. Contact between coaches and high school juniors is significantly restricted. If there is any contact between a coach and a junior recruit as such, it’s a violation regardless of how curt and unexpected the contact actually was. Curiously, this April 2006 incident is listed as a 2007-2008 recruiting violation. Smell Factor: 1/10.
- 422. Doc Tressel had the same problem later in a visit to East St. Louis. While with East St. Louis’ head coach, Kraig Appleton made inadvertent contact with Doc. Again, if he’s a junior and there’s any such contact, it’s a violation regardless of the nature of the contact. Smell Factor: 1/10.
There’s nothing to get too excited about if you enjoy throwing stones against Ohio State’s football program. Those four violations constitute only 15 percent of the violations committed by the entire athletic department. Further, I’m not sweating the “leads the Big Ten in recruiting violations” thing too much. Ohio State has the largest athletic department in the conference. These things happen. If the probability of committing a violation is constant across all programs in the conference — that is, coaches in all programs for all sports are equally unaware of the finer points of the by-laws — Ohio State is naturally going to commit more violations because it’s athletic department is bigger than the rest.
Further, some of these violations can be quite humorous. Ohio State’s men’s basketball appears on the list for failing to get a recruit and family into their hotel room by bedtime (410). Women’s golf got flagged because a coach had contact with a recruit after the recruit’s head coach erroneously told the Ohio State rep that the recruit was not a junior (409). Men’s tennis got flagged because a recruit worked out with a former high school teammate who was on Ohio State’s tennis team (405). Baseball appears on the first page because the program gave too much money (over the $17 limit, I guess) to its players on an away-from-home contest. That type of money goes for food and what-not. Men’s swimming probably had the best violation when a decommit from the program was accidentally awarded a scholarship check by means of a clerical error (420). Men’s track even got a violation because its team did community outreach programs without signing a release form that I guess the NCAA demands that they do (424).
So, throw stones if you got ‘em, but you’re not throwing them at much.
awesome post, thank you so much for exposing this bullshit. the NCAA has got to be the most draconian and moronic athletic institution in America, i understand these “violations” have some reasoning behind them but good Lord.
and the lantern is terrible, and a reflection of what passes for journalism teaching at OSU. awful.
Nice legwork Vico. But in no way does this explain OSU’s own Area 51: McCracken Power Plant. My sources tell me that there are tunnels and conduits leading from it, to all athletic buildings, including the stadium. As the former “Power Plant No 3″, or “Area 3″ as some call it, it’s no coincidence that after rechristening it McCracken in 1960, the basketball team wins the National Championship, followed by the football team, a year later. Something is up with that!
Funny thing about McCracken, it’s in the middle of everything, but you never see people go in or out, and yet it’s always making noises, like they’re making stuff in there. Trucks drive up, disengorge their contents, and leave, but nothing ever comes out of McCracken. It should be filled up by now. You ever notice that the windows are all high up, and textured too, so that nobody can see what’s in there? Where does all the stuff go? Something evil is afoot!
I know of absolutely nobody (dead or alive) that has even taken a class in that building! It’s just not right!
I think this has NCAA implications.
Yeah, I have no qualms in saying that there’s doings-afoot in McCracken. If Ohio State is up to some kind Snidley Whiplash-type of “evile”, it is no doubt there.
On the NCAA, if we factor out the weird fetish they have of reaping the rewards of student-athlete labor, they are in a bit of a conundrum. Take Dwayne Jarrett’s case for example, since it was basically a roommate’s dad helping out with rent. Seems fair, seems like there should be an exception to make the laws more reasonable. But, as my dad said on the matter: All rigid rules are draconian, all reasonable rules are porous and easily exploited.
If not for the thrill they get from being so aloof from the needs of the student-athletes they make money off of, I’d feel for them.
Anywho, I think the bigger travesty from the men’s basketball violation was that not only did the recruit not get back to the hotel room by bedtime, but Thad Matta failed to tuck them in at night and read them a bedtime story. Forshame.
apparently the OSU campus wide “lost and found” is in McCracken. i went in there once. i don’t think anything is ever “found” there. only lost.
only lost.
Despite checking this blog multiple times every day, i have yet to post here, but I just have to say thank you for answering all the questions that the “reporter” failed to do, in addition to providing links so that we can look it up ourselves. Another excellent post by you guys to keep us coming back =)
FWIW, Nik, Thursday’s Lantern broke the violations down by sport and briefly described each one – maybe they didn’t do that in the first article because they thought that a “series” might get them in the running for the campus paper equivalent of a Pulitzer (/sarcasm).
I’ll second bupx3 (nice to see you over here bups! be sure to chime in on my roundtable here next month) on the general and regrettable shittiness of The Lantern. If you really want a laugh check out their Op-Eds.
The most disturbing thing about this is when you go over to read the BWI BB. It shows evidence (although only circumstantial) that PSU is doing a very poor job of educating those folks. A clearer case of fraud I have never seen. Does PSU actually charge tuition to produce that level of intelligence? If so, then the NCAA should give the entire school the death penalty for impersonating an institution for higher learning. (Straight-line if anyone wants to use it.)
Congratulations on the Gourmet Beer Bill Vico! All Alabamians must now proceed IMMEDIATELY to the following website:
http://www.arrogantbastard.com/
No more mandatory sissy, fizzy, piss-yellow beer drinking! Real-mens stuff … and yet they love their Southern Comfort … go figure?
I’ve met a few people who’ve told me that you have to drive to Atlanta if you want an Arrogant Bastard. Not anymore, though. This is by far the greatest intellectual advancement the state of Alabama has seen since I’ve been here.
I work part-time at Andy’s Carryout/Drive-Thru (2480 N. High), and we carry double-deuces of Arrogant Bastard. So y’all stop in whenever you’re in the neighborhood.
I’ve gotta say, though, that when it comes to Stone I prefer the Ruination IPA; but then again I’m a hop freak – if it doesn’t have close to 100 IBUs (or more, even), I’m not gonna love it.
My old man got me into Arrogant Bastard, mostly for the humor of it all. I like a beer that insults me openly as I drink it and pour over the contents. I haven’t had much from Stone Brewing, but enough to know that they are the best microbrewery back in my home state of California.
Speaking of bastards, Thierry & Guy Fat Bastard Merlot is pretty good.
Stone has their brew list at: http://www.stonebrew.com/beers/ Good Stuff! All of it!
Wikipedia has a write-up at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Brewing_Company worth a glance-over.
I’d like for them to attempt a Lambic beer. However, natural fermentation in California might only produce acid-rain, or some other unmentionable by-product. Lambic beer is very raw, almost always colored-over with fruity (sissy!) flavors, to make it more palatable. Dammit! I like a beer that fights back. Every swallow of true Lambic is like a mini death match. Your tonsils versus the world!