Tag: college football scandals (Page 5 of 6)

Ray Small backs off comments, says reported twisted his words

May 29, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

After receiving a ton of backlash from Ohio State players and fans for his recent attention-seeking comments to The Lantern (OSU’s school newspaper), former Buckeye Ray Small is now backing off his words. In fact, he has even gone as far as to blame the reporter for twisting his words.

From ESPN.com:

“I’ve come back to retract my words, because there’s two sides to every story, and I want to tell the world my side of the story,” Small said in an interview Friday with Outside the Lines’ Tom Farrey.
The newspaper, The Lantern, said it stands by its story and everything Small said is on tape. On Friday, Small said he sold his own memorabilia, but he never said everyone was doing it.

Small goes on to say that the reason he sold the memorabilia was because he needed to pay his rent.

Small said he earned up to $2,000 from selling two of his Big Ten Championship rings while he was playing for the Buckeyes, acts that he knew at the time were in violation of NCAA rules.
He just didn’t care — or feel he had a choice. He needed the cash to make ends meet, he said.
“It was either break the rule or get evicted,” Small told Outside the Lines on Friday. “That was the best thing I could do. It was the smartest plan I came up with to pay my rent.”
Small, whose senior season with the Buckeyes was in 2009, said he sold the rings midway through his Buckeye career because his regular scholarship check for room and board didn’t cover his year-round costs of living in Columbus. He also felt compelled to unload them because he lacked the funds to afford a car he was driving at the time, a 2007 Chrysler 300 that carried a $600 monthly payment.
“Being young, I wasn’t good with my money,” he said. “I made a bad decision on a car and I had to pay it.”

No, you weren’t.

It sounds like Small was faced with simple money management and failed to grasp that you can’t exceed your budget. I’m not going to feel bad for him for having to sell his rings to pay the rent. The only reason he was faced with, “be evicted or pay the rent,” was because he made poor choices with his money. And then he compounded the issue by selling his rings and violating NCAA rules.

Quite frankly, I think the only reason why he’s backing off of his earlier comments (or at least part of them) is because his OSU buddies are ticked off and have responded with some unkind words for dear ol’ Ray.

“I am a Buckeye at heart,” he said.
“I never heard another player say he sold his ring,” Small said.
“Show me a coward and I will show you Ray Small,” center Mike Brewster tweeted. “He isn’t part of the sacred brotherhood anymore. Never on time, never accountable, never sacrificed for the team. Can you trust his word?”

It doesn’t appear we can, no. And actually, I don’t know anyone who can be trusted from the Ohio State football program these days.

College Football, External Sports

college football scandals Jim Tressel Ohio State Buckeyes Ray Small ray small scandal

More trouble for the Ohio State football program

May 27, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

Former Ohio State receiver Ray Small says that he sold rings for cash during his playing days as a Buckeye from 2006 to 2010 and also accepted car discounts during that time as well. Not only that, but Small also confirmed that other players accepted similar deals.

In an article on Friday, Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain Dealer discussed how Small’s admissions could be a big problem for Jim Tressel and the OSU football program.

Where Small’s words matter most is in the scope of the potential violations. When Ohio State announced the player violations and suspensions in December, OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith said: “We’re very fortunate we don’t have a systemic problem. It’s isolated to these young men in this particular instance.”
Bigger problems became known in March, when it was announced that Tressel had committed major NCAA violations by not revealing his previous knowledge about his players’ actions. The cases of the players have been closed, but more players selling merchandise than initially reported could create more serious violations for Ohio State and Tressel. Most troubling for Ohio State is Small’s claim that “everybody was doing it,” and those words in particular set off a firestorm of anger from former Buckeyes who resented and refuted any notion that accepting extra benefits was typical.
“What he said may have been true for him,” said former OSU cornerback Malcolm Jenkins, who played with Small, “but making it seem like it was a culture at Ohio State, that wasn’t the case. This wasn’t the norm.”

Brooks Melchior of SPORTSbyBROOKS.com has a very extensive look at how Small’s confession confirms that Gene Smith had lied to the media about Ohio State’s growing problem. You can read the piece here.

One of the many questions I have is what are Small’s motives for coming forth with this news? Does he want to help blow the lid off the story? Is he seeking attention? Is he sore at Tressel or Ohio State because of how his tenure played out as a Buckeye? Why come out unless you have a reason for doing so? And to the school paper no less.

Of course the bigger question is, and Doug Lesmerises touched on it in his article, is whether or not Ohio State has a major issue on its hands or if these are just several isolated incidents coming to surface. No matter how you slice it, none of this looks good on the program. But it’ll make a difference if the university can isolate the issue the best it can. If it can’t and the problem is widespread, then obviously OSU is in it deep.

College Football, External Sports

college football scandals Jim Tressel Ohio State Buckeyes Ray Small ray small scandal

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith still backing Jim Tressel

May 19, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

For those wondering if Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has been distancing himself from Jim Tressel because he may eventually fire the embattled football head coach, Smith has made it clear that that’s not the case.

From ESPN.com:

“Oh, definitely, no question,” Smith said. “I haven’t changed, I haven’t changed. But I’m not talking about the case beyond that.”
Smith noted last month in an interview with The Associated Press that Tressel should have apologized at the infamous March 8 news conference, where Tressel acknowledged he failed to notify Ohio State officials of emails he received about some of his players receiving improper benefits.
Smith has also talked about the high legal costs Ohio State is dealing with, calling the ongoing NCAA situation “a nightmare,” and confirmed Wednesday that Tressel is responsible for his own lawyers. Tressel, who makes around $3.5 million per season, has hired Gene Marsh to represent him before the NCAA’s committee on infractions on Aug. 12 in Indianapolis. Marsh, a member of the NCAA’s infractions committee for nine years and chairman for two, is an Ohio State graduate. He has said he never attended a Buckeyes football game during his years as a student.

I’m not sure if this is considered “newsworthy” but look around – there’s not much going on these days in football (thank you, NFL).

My question is, did Tressel just get the dreaded vote of confidence? The, “Hey big guy, we’re still behind you 100%,” right before the axe falls? I may be naive, but I still don’t think he’ll get fired over “Tattoogate.” I reserve the right to change my opinion if Ohio State suffers even more embarrassment over these next couple of months (like, you know, if players were caught buying cars for $0 or something), but I tend to believe Smith when he says he still supports Tressel.

We’ll find out soon enough.

College Football, External Sports

college football scandals gene smith Jim Tressel jim tressel scandal Ohio State Buckeyes

Carroll: NCAA should be more proactive than reactive when it comes to problems

May 11, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

Pete Carroll might make his home in the NFL now, but he’ll always have ties to the NCAA (some good, some bad).

That’s why when he was recently asked about the way the NCAA monitors and enforces its rules, Carroll was more than willing to share his opinion on the topic.

From the Seattle Times:

Carroll said he believes the NCAA starts with the objective of finding wrongdoing, something that is reactive rather than trying to protect the game from outside influences to prevent problems. He pointed out that schools are being punished for actions of people who aren’t even affiliated with the university.
“If you notice, it’s people from outside the community of the actual working body of the university,” Carroll said. “In our situation at USC, it was absolutely that. What are we doing about that? How are we dealing with that?”
Instead, the focus is on after-the-fact punishment.
“You can only spank them so many times,” Carroll said. “I don’t think that has anything to do with making things right.”
As for paying college players? “No,” he said. “I’ve never thought that. That’s not the issue. They have a great life.”

When you think about it, college players are already being paid to play. They get free room and board, free tuition, free tutoring and free books. Granted, they also have the pressure of playing a collegiate sport, but let’s not act like these kids aren’t getting something in exchange for their services.

And as far as what Carroll is saying about the NCAA being reactive – he’s right. The NCAA should be spending most of its time trying to prevent these agents, tattoo owners and car dealers from luring players in with free goods and services instead of constantly having to crack the whip. The best way to avoid diseases is prevention.

Of course, that’s easier said than done and I don’t have any solutions here. There’s only so much coaches can do before they have to trust that these players will get it through their thick skulls not to accept improper benefits. The same goes for the NCAA, which can only do so much in order to steer athletes in the right direction.

Still, as Carroll points out, it wouldn’t hurt for the NCAA to get more proactive than reactive. Instead of waiting for these athletes to mess up and then flexing its muscles, how about the NCAA gets more involved in order to prevent these bad influences from penetrating its programs? What’s that old saying: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem?

College Football, External Sports, NFL

college football scandals Pete Carroll

More trouble for Ohio State? School looking into players’ car deals.

May 10, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Ohio State has launched an investigation into used-car purchases made by athletes and their families from two different dealerships in the past five-to-six years.

Ohio State University’s chief enforcer of NCAA rules said yesterday that he will investigate used-car purchases made by dozens of OSU athletes at two Columbus car dealers to see if any sale violated collegiate rules.
The investigation was initiated after The Dispatch found in public records that at least eight Ohio State athletes and 11 athletes’ relatives bought used cars from Jack Maxton Chevrolet or Auto Direct during the past five years. The investigation will involve outside experts and examine at least 50 sales, focusing on whether the athletes received improper benefits.

The school is specifically looking into an issue involving a salesman named Aaron Kniffin, who worked at both dealerships and is responsible for many of the transactions. At this point, Ohio State doesn’t know if the players received improper benefits, but is concerned (and rightfully so) that so many of its athletes and their families purchased cars from the same salesman.

In its report, the Columbus Dispatch specifically mentioned linebacker Thaddeus Gibson, who apparently purchased a car for a whopping $0.

The purchases reviewed by The Dispatch were made when Kniffin worked at Maxton between 2004 and 2009 and then at Auto Direct between 2009 and 2010.
Public records show that in 2009, a 2-year-old Chrysler 300 with less than 20,000 miles was titled to then-sophomore linebacker Thaddeus Gibson. Documents show the purchase price as $0.
Mauk could not explain it. “I don’t give cars for free,” he said. Gibson said he was unaware the title on his car showed zero as the sales price. “I paid for the car, and I’m still paying for it,” he said, declining to answer further questions.

Kiffin claims that the sales prices were “much more than that” and is disputing the prices in the public records. But he no longer works for the dealerships in question, making the situation even more intriguing.

I don’t want to overact because this report is probably just the tip of the iceberg, but I think it’s safe to say that Jim Tressel has a big freaking problem on his hands. Not only were his players swapping memorabilia for free tattoos, but it also appears some of them were driving around in cars that they didn’t pay for. Now, is it conceivable that he didn’t know about the car situation? Of course. But he knew about the tattoos so was he also tipped off about the cars? If he was and he didn’t tell the school, then I don’t think Ohio State has a choice but to terminate his contract. I’ve long held the belief that the tattoo situation wouldn’t get him fired but he would have caused the school too much embarrassment if he also knew about the cars.

Suddenly, Michigan’s issues in Ann Arbor don’t look so bad.

College Football, External Sports

college football scandals Jim Tressel Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State tattoos

Tag: college football scandals (Page 5 of 6)

Ray Small backs off comments, says reported twisted his words

More trouble for the Ohio State football program

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith still backing Jim Tressel

Carroll: NCAA should be more proactive than reactive when it comes to problems

More trouble for Ohio State? School looking into players’ car deals.

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