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 Mike HlasHi, I'm Gazette/TheGazette.com sports columnist Mike Hlas. This is the Hlog. We will meet here, discuss things, and then go [...] |
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Ohio State football mess — where does it rate among Big Ten scandals of the last 20 years?
This thing with Ohio State and tattoos and lying and Tressel and denying — it’s not good. I mean, it got OSU football coach Jim Tressel to “resign.”
So when the head coach of such a powerful football program — the six-time defending champion of the mighty Big Ten — goes bye-bye, that’s big stuff. But the league has had a few other doozies over the last two decades. I would dare say the OSU story to date doesn’t measure up to these, other than the head coach lying and denying.
Michigan men’s basketball: Ed Martin. Gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to players, and the program suffered dearly after all was investigated. It cost coach Steve Fisher his job, and cost the program a lot more. Click here for a refresher on this.
Minnesota men’s basketball: Academic fraud. It cost coach Clem Haskins his job. Click here for a refresher on this.
Northwestern men’s basketball and football. Point shaving and perjury. Click here for a refresher on this.
To me, the violations in those other three all seemed more egregious than what Tressel & players did (that we know so far). But with the media spotlight being much brighter today than 15 years ago, and the fact that its OSU, I’d say this story ranks 2nd to Michigan basketball on the ‘Big Deal’ meter.
I am shocked, SHOCKED, that Terrelle Pryor drove a Nissan 350Z.
He should have held out for something German…
The Northwestern one is the one that baffled me. Doesn’t a degree from there automatically get you a job making $100,000/year? Of course your NBA and NFL prospects are slim and none so maybe I understand. Seriously though, the stuff like point shaving and throwing games bothers me way more than someone taking money. It should be assumed that at most elite schools if not all that some sort of favoritism exists which may or may not involve money.