Ohio State gets bowl ban, loss of scholarships
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The NCAA hit Ohio State with a one-year bowl ban and additional penalties Tuesday for violations that started with eight players taking a total of $14,000 in cash and tattoos in exchange for jerseys, rings and other Buckeyes memorabilia.
Former coach Jim Tressel was tipped to the violations in April 2010 but didn't tell anyone -- even after the athletes got caught last December but were allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl if they served suspensions to start the 2011 season. Among those in the group: starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor and leading rusher Daniel "Boom" Herron.
"Had we known what [Tressel] knew, we would not have played those young men in that bowl game," said an emotional Gene Smith, Ohio State's athletic director.
Forced out in May and now on the staff of the Indianapolis Colts, Tressel was called out by the NCAA for unethical conduct and will have a hard time coaching at the college level again.
"He's not going to appeal. He accepts the committee's decision. That's all there is to say," said Gene March, an attorney for Tressel.
The university had previously offered to vacate the 2010 season, return bowl money, go on two years of NCAA probation and use five fewer football scholarships over the next three years.
But the NCAA countered with the postseason ban, more limitations on scholarships and tacked on a year of probation.
Ohio State might have escaped the more severe penalties had its problems stopped with the original scandal. But the school and the NCAA discovered two additional problems. Three players were suspended just before the start of the season for accepting $200 from booster Bobby DiGeronimo. Then midway through the Buckeyes' 6-6 season, it was revealed that several players had been paid too much for too little work on summer jobs -- supplied by the same booster. He has been dissociated from the program.
"It is still my goal to hire excellent coaches, recruit great student-athletes who want to be a part of this program and to win on and off the field," Meyer said in a statement. "The NCAA penalties will serve as a reminder that the college experience does not include the behavior that led to these penalties."
