Kansas 77, Richmond 57
Domination.

North Carolina 81, Marquette 63
More domination.

Kentucky 62, Ohio State 60
This game was nip-and-tuck the whole way, but the Buckeyes found themselves down three with under 30 seconds to play. Jon Diebler hit a long three to tie the game, but Brandon Knight responded with an 18-foot jumper to give Kentucky a two-point lead. William Buford got a decent look at the buzzer, but it fell short. Kentucky’s defense was the difference in the game — Ohio State shot just 33% from the field, mainly thanks to Buford’s nightmarish 2-for-16 outing. Bracket busted.

VCU 72, Florida State 71 (OT)
Good for the Rams — they made the Elite 8. Now they get to play Kansas.

I have to say, I’m shocked this morning. I’m shocked that so many people are shocked that the head coach of a major college football program would stoop so low as to lie or cheat in order to gain an advantage on the field.

As I wrote yesterday, the media loves to get on their high horse when it comes to scandals like Jim Tressel’s at Ohio State. For those unaware, the Buckeye head coach knew about “Tattoogate” eight months before the NCAA disciplined his players and on Tuesday, Ohio State suspended Tressel two games and fined him $250,000 for not coming forward about what he knew. (He received e-mails from an attorney in April 2010, which indicated that his players were receiving improper benefits.)

In other words, he cheated. He knew his players were violating rules and he did nothing about it. He kept quiet so that his season wouldn’t implode and he convinced the NCAA to allow Terrelle Pryor and the other suspended players to participate in the Sugar Bowl so he could finally get the SEC monkey off his back. (Thanks to Pryor, the Buckeyes beat Arkansas in a 31-26 thriller.)

But back to my point: Is any of this surprising? Because it’s “The Vest” we’re surprised that a college football coach in this day and age is capable of something like this? Everyone lies and cheats to get ahead in college football. Whether it’s Lane Kiffin, Bobby Petrino, Nick Saban, Rich Rodriguez or yes, even Tressel, we’ve reached a point where nothing should surprise anymore. I’m not saying that what Tressel did was right because it’s not. But you mean he withheld information that some of his star players were violating NCAA rules because he wanted to win in 2010? No way! There’s no way a college football head coach would do that!

The only thing that matters in college football is winning and if you don’t like that statement then don’t watch because it’s true. And speaking of the media getting on its high horse, I couldn’t help but scoff when I read the conclusion of Mark Schlabach’s article on Tressel this morning:

For the record, Michigan’s football team hasn’t beaten Ohio State in 2,663 days.

But the Wolverines won on Tuesday.

At least they had fired their cheating coach.

No, they fired a losing coach. That’s the difference.

Welcome to the present day world of college football. You’ll feel right at home if you lie, cheat and steal to get ahead because it’s almost become expected. Just make sure you win, baby.

Will Jim Tressel be fired if the allegations are true that he knew his players violated NCAA rules last year by selling memorabilia to the owner of a tattoo shop? Ha! You’re adorable.

Winning coaches don’t get fired in college football. This situation would present the perfect opportunity for a program to get rid of a lame duck coach, but not someone like Tressel who has compiled a 106-22 record in 10 seasons at Ohio State. Not someone who has led his program to six straight BCS bowls and two national championship appearances.

Don’t get me wrong: the allegations against Tressel are serious. Yahoo! Sports is reporting that he knew about the Buckeyes’ gear-for-tattoo scheme last April, which means he knew what his players were doing a good eight months before the school was made aware of the situation. If that’s the case, then he had a responsibility to the program to make the university aware of what was going on.

But this is college football, where coaches lie, cheat and steal in effort to get ahead. If he’s guilty, I’m not suggesting that Tressel wasn’t wrong not to tell OSU officials as soon as he found out. But how many BCS coaches would have in that situation? How many coaches would submarine their chances to play in a national title game because a handful of their star players were caught trading autographs for “I Heart Mom” tattoos? (My guess would be less than half.)

Whenever a story like this comes out, fans and the media want to get on their high horse or preach from their soapbox. But I’ve got news for you: the college football underworld is about as seedy as they come. I’m sure damn near every BCS team is breaking the rules in some way and while it doesn’t make it right, it is reality. Sorry.

Assuming the allegations are true, I’d be shocked if Tressel were to lose his job over this. If he were coming off back-to-back 7-5 years and two-straight appearances in the Alamo Bowl, then it would be a different story. But unless he allegedly locked a player in a closet a la Mike Leach at Texas Tech, I don’t envision Tressel standing in the unemployment line anytime soon.

Update: ESPN.com is reporting that Tressel will receive a two-game ban and will be fined. When asked if he ever considered firing Tressel, Ohio State president Gordon Gee said: “No, are you kidding? Let me be very clear. I’m just hoping the coach doesn’t dismiss me.”

This game was closer than the final score would indicate, but it was never very close…if that makes sense. The Buckeyes built a lead behind some unbelievable three-point shooting — 14-of-15…yes, you read that right — and every time the Badgers were able to cut the lead to 11 or 12 points, Jon Diebler (7-of-8 from 3PT), William Buford (3-for-3) or David Lighty (2-for-2) would hit a three and push the lead back to 14 or 15 points. The Buckeyes’ three-point shooting was so amazing that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they made a deal with the devil before tip-off.

Diebler, who hit 10-of-12 three-pointers against Penn State on Tuesday, has now hit 17 of his last 20 threes (85%) over the last two games. That’s just incredible.

The Buckeyes won the Big Ten regular season title when Purdue lost to Iowa on Saturday and will be the #1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, which starts on Thursday. Wisconsin enters the tourney as the #3 seed.

E’Twaun Moore hit 13-of-18 shots (including 7-of-10 from long range) to lead the Purdue Boilermakers in a 76-63 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Purdue pulled away at the end, so the game was closer than the final score would indicate. JaJuan Johnson (13 points) was the only other Boilermaker in double digits. Ohio State got 25 points and six boards from freshman phenom Jared Sullinger, but the Buckeyes shot just 38% from the field and turned the ball over 18 times. That’s not going to get it done when playing on the road against Purdue.

Moore is currently considered a second round prospect by Draft Express, while NBADraft.net doesn’t even have him going in the first two rounds. He’s averaging more than 18 points and is shooting better than 40% from 3PT range, so offensively he can score in a variety of ways. He’s a good defender, and although he lacks the physical tools that will wow NBA scouts, he’s a smart player and knows where he’s supposed to be on the court. That’s half the battle defensively.

Almost a year ago we decided to try to quantify the stature of college football programs so that we could rank them against one another. (Click here for the 2010 Rankings.) Then our football guru, Anthony Stalter, wrote a little bit about each program and the direction that it’s headed.

Here’s how the total points are determined — 20 points for a national championship, 10 for a BCS title game loss, seven for a BCS bowl win, five for a BCS bowl loss, five for a BCS conference championship, three for a mid-major conference championship, two for a BCS conference runner-up and one for a major bowl appearance (i.e. a bowl that has a recent payout of more than $2 million, so for 2011 that would be Capital One, Outback, Chick-fil-A, Cotton, Gator, Insight, Holiday, Champs Sports and Alamo.) You’ll see the total points in parenthesis after the team’s name.

We put some thought into the point values for each accomplishment, paying special attention to how the point values are relative to one another. For example, we figured that one national championship would equate to four BCS conference championships, or three BCS bowl wins. We only looked at the last five years, as college football has increasingly become a fluid and fickle sport, and that’s about how far back a recruit will go when deciding amongst a list of schools.

Lastly, since a program is so dependent on the guy in charge, we added or subtracted points if the program saw an upgrade or downgrade at the head coach position in the last five years. A max of 10 points would be granted (or docked) based on the level of upgrade or downgrade. Again, we tried to quantify the hire relative to the program’s other accomplishments. For example, hiring Nick Saban is probably worth two BCS bowl appearances, or 10 points. (Sure, he might lead Alabama to more, but he also might bolt for another job in a year or two.)

So, without further ado, here are the rankings. Every year we’ll go through and update the numbers based on what the program did that year (while throwing out the oldest year of data), so don’t fret if your team isn’t quite where you want them right now. Everyone has a chance to move up.

1. Ohio State (58)

Previous Rank: #2 (+1)
Some college football fans will take issue with the Buckeyes being No. 1 because of their “soft schedule.” But this is a team that has dominated its conference five of the past six years and has finished no worse than second in each of the past six seasons. They’ve also appeared in two title games (though they lost both) and nine straight BCS bowl games, winning the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl in the past two years. They’ve got an interesting season coming up though. Five of their players including quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Dan Herron and receiver DeVier Posey will miss the first five games next year after being suspended. Can the Buckeyes stay unscathed until those players return?

2. Florida (51)

Previous Rank: #1 (-1)
If it weren’t for Urban Meyer leaving the program (and their lousy 2010 season), the Gators would probably still be ranked No. 1. They have three conference championships and two national championships in two years, but the lose of Meyer hurts big-time in these rankings. But don’t fret Florida fans, if Will Muschamp gets the program back on the right track then the Gators won’t be at No. 2 for long.

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Freshman sensation Jared Sullinger says (via Twitter, of course) that he was spit on, in the face, by Wisconsin fans before and after the game.

To be spit on is just nasty. On top of that in my Face. Before and after the game. Smh. I just kept walking. More fuel to the fire.

For those of us unfamiliar with texting/tweeting acronyms, “SMH” stands for “shake my head.”

As a former Wisconsinite, I’m a little surprised by this news, but Sullinger has no reason to lie about being spit on. Whoever did this should be ashamed of themselves. Cheer all you want. Root for your team all you want. Boo all you want. Heckle all you want. But don’t spit on anyone.

The Badgers visit Columbus on March 6.

Things were looking awfully grim for the Badgers when they were trailing by 15 points with 13:16 to play in the second half. But over the next three-and-a-half minutes, Wisconsin went on a 15-0 run to tie the game at 47-47 with 9:49 to play. The run featured three three-pointers, two by Jordan Taylor and one by Josh Gasser (which was assisted by Taylor).

Mike Bruesewitz (a.k.a. “Carrot Top,” per Dick Vitale) was big off the bench, scoring 10 points (two threes, a putback and two free throws) over the final 11 minutes of the game. His biggest shot came with 0:31 remaining and the Badgers nursing a two-point lead. He caught the ball at the top of the key, shot faked, then drained the open three to give Wisconsin a five-point lead.

Wisconsin’s shooting down the stretch was incredible. They went 7-for-11 from three-point range and 8-of-11 from the free throw line in the final 12 minutes.

Taylor posted 27 points and seven assists, and went 5-of-8 from long range. Jon Leuer and Bruesewitz each added 12 points for Wisconsin. William Buford led the Buckeyes with 21 points, while Jared Sullinger added 19 points and 12 rebounds.

OSU head coach Thad Motta is now 0-6 at the Kohl Center in his career. With the win, the Badgers stay undefeated at home. Coincidentally, it was also Wisconsin that knocked off the top-ranked Ohio State football team late last year.

Do I smell a rivalry brewing? Wisconsin is certainly in a better position than Michigan in both basketball and football to battle Ohio State for supremacy in the Big Ten/Eleven/Twelve.

Standout Ohio State defensive end and highly touted NFL draft prospect Cameron Heyward spent time earlier this week working with scientists from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) at a sports science lab constructed in the Super Bowl XLV Media Center in Dallas. Gatorade is kicking off an offseason program to help elevate the performance of top incoming NFL rookies like Heyward through sports nutrition science.

The Scores Report was fortunate enough to catch up with Heyward to discuss a variety of topics, including what he learned from Gatorade about his nutritional needs at GSSI and whether or not he’ll perform at this year’s scouting combine after having recent shoulder surgery. We also asked him about his thoughts on the Ohio State players that were suspended five games next season, what pro athlete he models his game after and his thoughts about playing in either a 3-4 or 4-3 at the next level. Of course, we couldn’t let him go without getting his prediction on this year’s Super Bowl.

Cameron Heyward: Hello?

The Scores Report: Hey Cam, how are you?

CH: Pretty good – you?

TSR: Good, good! You enjoying yourself down in Dallas?

CH: Oh yeah, definitely.

TSR: Give me the scoop on what you’re doing with Gatorade and how things are going at the GSSI.

CH: Gatorade has a great program going right now. I’m in the GSSI lab and they put me through a series of tests. I went through an injury recently and while I’m still working through it, this is definitely helping me through it, too. We’re working on things that measure my speed with power, as well as my reaction time to see how I deal with power over a long period of time. They measured my body fat too – all these different things to help you find another edge to help prepare your body, as well as to educate yourself on what you need to do to be in tiptop shape.

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There was speculation that the five Ohio State players that were suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season would forego their senior years and declare for the NFL draft.

But according to their head coach, none of them are ready to leave the Buckeyes.

ESPN.com reports that Terrelle Pryor, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams and Solomon Thomas were all “unanimous” in saying they would stay for the 2011 season. All would be eligible for the NFL draft if they decided to leave, but as of now the group is saying they’re staying put.

“I’m excited to say that all of the guys who were involved, knowing perhaps they had some options like playing in this game and then leaving and maybe another option would be to take themselves out of this game hoping the appeal for the future would be softened, none of them want to do that,” Tressel said.

“They are going into this opportunity with their eyes open knowing they have significant sanctions for their senior year. They know they have to live with those.”

This is obviously great news for Tressel and OSU, although the Buckeyes still have to make due without those five players for their first five games next season. But assuming they’ll start the year against a few cupcakes, the Buckeyes could still be undefeated by the time Pryor and Co. return.