5 players suspended for 5 games in 2011 regular season (Appeal has been denied)

[k2onprimetime]

Oh of course, how could I forget?
YouTube - Dan Orlovsky gets safetied in Minnesota

Only a Polish Quarterback

 

[Meyer]

Everyone is playing...Seniors voted it so.

Let's go y'all. Go Bucks.

Play hard and make shit happen

:osu:

 

[ScriptOhio]

was it ever announced when the players sold the items?

Not really other then some vague reference to before november 2009 which was when they were educated that it was wrong.

Just a general comment on the penalties. The NCAA penalty for selling your championship ring, etc. and not self reporting it when you learn it was wrong is a 5 game suspension (i.e. 4 games for the deed and one additional game for not reporting it and/or cooperating). This is out of proportion. If a player knows he's going to get a 4 game suspension what's an additional; game suspension. I can see him willing to take a chance and not reporting it. The penalties should be something like a 2 game suspension for the deed and an additional 3 game suspension for not reporting it and/or cooperating. That would provide a real incentive to self report the violation and avoid the much longer suspension.


2007-09 Buckeye Disputes ‘I Didn’t Know’ Defense




On the same day Ohio State and the NCAA claimed OSU player ignorance of the rules, the Buckeye football player with the most tattoos on the team between 2007-09, Thaddeus Gibson, said that Ohio State football players during the time in question were repeatedly (explicitly) informed of the NCAA rule in question.
From a report assembled by Zack Meisel and James Oldham of the OHIO STATE LANTERN last Thursday and published early Friday:

The OSU players in questions are using a common answer, the same answer that Newton used in the midst of his scandal. Basically, they didn’t know they were in the wrong.
While it’s possible that the players are telling the truth, former Buckeye defensive starter and current San Francisco 49er Thaddeus Gibson said that they were told not to sell personal items fairly often. Gibson played for OSU from 2007-09.
“Oh yeah, they (OSU athletic director Gene Smith and the coaches) talked about it a lot,” Gibson said Thursday in a phone interview with The Lantern.
This would appear to contradict what Gene Smith said Thursday, unless those warnings didn’t start occurring until November 2009.
​

Entire article: http://network.yardbarker.com/all_s...buckeye_disputes_i_didnt_know_defense/3854836

 

[Steve19]

My following comment is directed at the article and not at Capo: Andy Staples needs to remember that all this money being "made off the backs of players" is going right back into the university so that the other 37 scholarship sports that OSU fields can exist. I'm tired of fucking nitwits implying that somehow a select few individuals at the university are somehow benefitting, riding around in gold-plated Escalades.

In the same spirit you express and the later post about walking in the same direction, I agree wholeheartedly.

While I agree with 21 that many players don't choose Ohio State because of the academics, I'm sure also that he would agree that Ohio State is a top internationally-respected research university and that many players attend Ohio State precisely because they can get a degree from a world-ranked program in their discipline.

I'd love to see Ohio State really dominate in this bowl game.

 

[ysubuck]

Play them all and win the darn game.

Worrying about "doing the right thing" is a waste of time because there are so many gray areas in this situation that you aren't going to be doing the right thing no matter what you do.

The media sits in a spot and waits to see what you do before commenting. Mark May can't possibly be a bigger asshole than he already is, right? They will watch the game and if the 5 play they will chirp about 'Ohio State sacrificing their integrity for a win.' Sit the 5 for the game and they will chirp about 'the Ohio State and NCAA machine chewing up and spitting out athletes for trying to help their families.'

Here's hoping that these guys play the game of their lives and then make a decision on going pro. Would love to have them back, but I completely understand if they leave.

Either way, Ohio State will go on and (in my eyes) they will have their integrity in tact. No cover ups, no delays, no 'I don't recall' moments. They found out about a situation, investigated it and reported it.

 

[craigblitz]

Happy to hear the Sr's got to speak up and decide what is best for the team. Put a lot of faith in them, but Tress having these young men for 4-5 years I am sure have helped them deal with this situation.

Having said that the decision just does not settle right with me, but as a fan I have to trust the team and the coaches that this is the best decision considering all the points that we know about and the million other things we do not hear about that takes place in house.

This brings up another question I have.... If these were SR's who got in trouble for this would they have been allowed to play in the bowl game, essentially allowing no penalty?

 

[WolverineMike]

well of course the seniors are going to speak up and want them to play. the guys getting suspended are the best on the team and the seniors don't want to lose the final game of their collegiate career. seems like a no brainer there.

 

[Cincinnatibuck]

These same 5 guys played all season (after the events occurred), I don't feel any less about the wins we have or the one we will have in bowl game with them playing.

 

[exhawg]

Hopefully this works out like the bowl game for Gamble in his last year at OSU. He was good but not great all season and then turned it on in the Bowl game to showcase for the NFL. Out of these 5 guys I think Posey is the only NFL ready player, but he's still a 2nd round pick with the WR depth in this years draft. TP would probably be a late first early second round pick based on his athleticism, but I don't think anyone is going to draft him high to play QB right now. He really needs another year of seasoning to work on his passing game. On the other hand he might be the WR the Browns are looking for. I don't think Boom has a choice other than to come back I doubt he gets drafted right now so he really needed a huge senior year to give him a chance.

 

[cincibuck]

I hear that, and feel that way part of the time.

The other part, I feel like "Wrong is wrong", and if it's worthy of suspension it should start immediately. This is also the part of me that's ridiculously cynical bout the NCAA's motivations and interest in student athletes rather than protecting the "brand" and marketing connections.

I'm a coin toss, and since my opinion doesn't matter a hill of beans in the larger scope of things, I'll watch and cheer for whatever players are on the field for the Buckeyes on the 4th. And in September.

The cynic within me senses that the NCAA doesn't want the suspension to begin right away for short and long term reasons. Without the five, especially TP and Posey, the game loses much of its appeal. Loss of revenue upsets the New Orleans C of C, the BCS bosses, the sponsors and the TV network that shelled out major bucks well ahead of time for the game rights.

In the long term, this undermines the product the NCAA is trying to sell -- a series of games between the best programs in college football, a showcase for future NFL stars, a consistent product that will produce games that can grab huge regional audiences, if not national audiences, and generate future contracts that will help pay the salaries of NCAA officials.

I firmly believe that the loss of the SC TV market is why the NCAA took so long to investigate and punish USC. That TV money is a major part of why they have said nothing about the rape case and the tower collapse at ND. Why, with the Big 10 and the midwestern TV market hanging in the balance, they will be re-thinking how many games the players will sit.

Finally, like many others on this board, I felt like Auburn had no business in the SEC CG and especially the BCS CG. To be consistent I would have to believe that the Bucks deserve the same level of punishment I was so eager to pour out on Auburn. But for the NCAA to step in and produce an NC game between Oregon and TCU would have been to cut their own revenue stream -- short and long term.

 

[BB73]

This brings up another question I have.... If these were SR's who got in trouble for this would they have been allowed to play in the bowl game, essentially allowing no penalty?

Seniors would have been suspended for the bowl game. The explanation the NCAA gave for the reinstatement included a blurb that said the reinstatement prior to the bowl game could only happen for those with eligibillity remaining after the bowl game.

 

[SmoovP]

You and I aren't in perfect military lock-step on this, but we're both walking in the same direction...

I don't know that there is a truly fair way to do it and maintain any semblance of 'amateurism' in college athletics.

To say that the programs are making enormous sums of money off of the players is true in a sense, the do make enormous sums of money from a big-time football program.

But what the school gets isn't 'profit' in a traditional sense that people are lining their pockets by getting paid dividends or selling stock. All the money is plowed back into the institution. Building get built, libraries get stocked, academic and needs scholarships are awarded, the research gets funded, etc., etc.

One of the things that gets overlooked in all the 'pay the players' discussion is that the players who do make it to the NFL make an enormous amount of money.

When saying that the school is making money from the players and should cut them in for some of the cash, then that logic can easily be flipped on it's head - to say that the former players that do make enormous sums of money in the NFL would have a responsibility to pay the school for their success.

That kind of logic gets circular and self-referential in a big hurry.

So yes, the school makes money on what they get out of the athletes, but the athletes make money on what they receive from the school too.

The vast majority of the student-athletes won't go pro. The education they receive, and the contacts they make, have an enormous dollar value over their lifetimes - often above and beyond what an education alone will get you because of those contacts and because of that 'former Buckeye' on your CV.

Supporters of the program LOVE to hire former players.

A D1 scholarship to a big-time school like OSU has a value that can't really be calculated.

I am firmly in the camp that players should not be paid.

 

[matcar]

Everyone is playing...Seniors voted it so.

Was the vote unanimous?

 

[shetuck]

well of course the seniors are going to speak up and want them to play. the guys getting suspended are the best on the team and the seniors don't want to lose the final game of their collegiate career. seems like a no brainer there.

Not a no brainer - i.e. it's not a given that the seniors would want to win their final game at any price. Regardless of whether the seniors' / team leaders' choice was a foregone conclusion or not, what's important is that they have the final say about whether the suspended players will / should have the privilege of donning the scarlet and grey for the bowl game. The suspended players put their own welfare before the team's (right or wrong way back when) and it's up to the team to allow them to suit up.

It's pretty simple / straightforward... in my own IMO! :)

 

[shetuck]

Was the vote unanimous?

Let it go... it doesn't matter. What matters is that the team has spoken.