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Gene Smith's Response to me on ESPN

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I think the responce is the correct one. But I also think it is too soon to bring ESPN in-front of 10,000 drunk OSU fans. It is going to look like the food fight in Animal House. There is going to be more shit thrown at that stage than I or Gene Smith can imagine.

Bad idea.
There should be a middle ground. Put them in the Shoe where security can kick people out. But, to put the game day crew outside St Johns is suicidal for the University. IMO It will look really bad for us and make ESPN look justified.
 
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BuckeyeBill73 said:
So, crzykillernut, is that a cut/paste job, or a scan of the actual letter? The spelling police are wondering. :biggrin:
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I typed the letter in. The actual letter came in on fancy letterhead and the works, but since it wasn't a very long piece, I decided it would be easier to just type it in then scan/OCR it.

MililaniBuckeye said:
How so? What would you have him say to you, in an official letter? "Fuck ESPN"? He knows what the deal is. Being a high-level official, in any capacity (academic, political, military, industrial, etc.) involves a significant degree of restraint and facade. Being the AD at Ohio State hardly is any different.
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Of course not. But if noone is willing to step up and make a point, then ESPiN has free reign to continue on unabashedly 'free tongued' in their reporting with noone to hold them accountable to stay true to the facts. I most certainly don't expect Gene Smith to have any Bobby Knightisms to throw at ESPN, but atleast hoped he was willing to be firm and strong as Mr. Geiger was. I agree that it is best for this situation to pass over, but I suppose my main desire is to make sure that a situation like this does not occur with ESPiN again.
 
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crzykillernut said:
I typed the letter in. The actual letter came in on fancy letterhead and the works, but since it wasn't a very long piece, I decided it would be easier to just type it in then scan/OCR it.
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OK, thanks for the info. Our new AD is deemed not guilty by the spelling police.

By the way, your board name consists of 3 different words that could all be a synonym for psycho. Reminds me of a Paul Rodriguez comment about Woody Woodpecker. But those words relate to something else!
 
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I hear the arguments. It may be wise politically. It may make sense for the financial bottom line. It may expose the program to recruits.

But, accepting GameDay to the OSU-Texas game is tantamount to setting a price on our self-respect and the respect with which we hold our athletes, coaches and administrators.

This was no small thing. It was a disgusting, premeditated attack on something that I hold very precious.

I am not opposed to restored relations with ESPiN, provided that they show good faith by recanting the false allegations that they have made and not withdrawn. If ESPiN then wishes to show good faith, then it can do so by giving full attention to every allegation that is disproven in the NCAA investigations.

Until then, I will continue to boycott ESPiN and continue to urge Ohio State to send GameDay elsewhere.
 
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The Ohio State University has endured all manner of controversies over the years, and this too will pass. Getting into a pissing match w/ ESPN would not help one iota, nor would it be a wise move for a brandnew AD to come out swinging against the #1 sports media entity in the country. A wise person once said "don't pick a fght w/ a man who buys ink by the barrell". Translating this sentiment into satellite bandwidth, or whatever, and you have the situation OSU is in. Besides, if it looked like OSU was trying to intimidate ESPN into censoring/monitoring it's on air commentators, ESPN could-rightly so-portray itself as the victim in this situation. Banning Game Day unilaterally, or publically escalating tensions w/ ESPN is not going to improve football or basketball recruiting, increase university revenue, give OSU a better image w/ other media outlets, or create any positive repurcussions w/ indivduals/institutions that matter-not a few hot heads on the internet. Abraham Lincoln once "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." Tressel and Matta could care less about ESPN, and are more than content to remain silent and go about their business.
That said, I do think it might be in both OSU and ESPN's best interests to quitely discuss not having GameDay at the Texas game. OSU does not need to have the spectacle of drunk fans doing something stupid, and ESPN does not need to re-open the controversy of why thousands of people are pissed at them in a manner severe enough to make it an on air issue.
 
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I hate ESPN. I still preach it to everyone who might care enough about CFB coverage to hear my whining.

My gut says they should not be allowed back on campus until at least the next time, if even then.

However, this is not going to happen. Gene Smith isn't going to feed more ammo, especially not while OSU is keeping its nose clean while everyone else is having people get run ins with the law.

It will look very childish for us to continue our protests. People don't understand the nature of ESPiN's unfairness. Troy Smith prevented us from complaining. While we know the merits of the case against ESPiN are still there, they see Smith + Money = ESPN was right, or at least OSU can't complain about it.

We really need to push hard to get ESPiN to go elsewhere or to be somewhere protected. We do not need OSU's fans ruining almost a full year of keeping our noses clean only to give ESPiN more reason to promote the chaos of OSU.
 
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stxbuck said:
The Ohio State University has endured all manner of controversies over the years, and this too will pass. Getting into a pissing match w/ ESPN would not help one iota, nor would it be a wise move for a brandnew AD to come out swinging against the #1 sports media entity in the country. A wise person once said "don't pick a fght w/ a man who buys ink by the barrell". Translating this sentiment into satellite bandwidth, or whatever, and you have the situation OSU is in. Besides, if it looked like OSU was trying to intimidate ESPN into censoring/monitoring it's on air commentators, ESPN could-rightly so-portray itself as the victim in this situation. Banning Game Day, or publically escalating tensions w/ ESPN is not going to improve football or basketball recruiting, increase university revenue, give OSU a better image w/ other media outlets, or create any positive repurcussions w/ indivduals/institutions that matter-not a few hot heads on the internet. Abraham Lincoln once "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." Tressel and Matta could care less about ESPN, and are more than content to remain silent and go about their business.
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Stx, we would agree that the best strategy in war is to avoid one. Smith has an opportunity to clear the slate and the last thing he wants is the mess at Arizona State being brought back to haunt him.

I think a lot of things can be negotiated at this level behind closed doors and I think it might be incredibly naive to think that Smith hasn't already established some ground rules with ESPiN. The fundamentals at Ohio State are peerless, academics rising, no one in trouble. And nothing at Ohio State begins to rival Tennessee, South Carolina, Iowa or USC. So, ESPiN has no ammunition.

There is absolutely no way that anyone would buy ESPiN as the victim in this situation. I'm not sure what "situation" tOSU is in? Looking at what is going on in basketball, not having a good relationship with ESPiN doesn't seem to be hurting us. And if Tressel makes a good run at a national championship in football, will it really matter if ESPiN loves us?

I am not in favor of a war with ESPiN. I also am not an internet hot-head. As a marketing professional, I think I have a very good idea of the relative negotiating position of ESPiN and OSU. ESPiN has pissed off the Big Ten and the NCAA. There is no case of OSU as an out-of-control program. Smith will be smart enough to understand his negotiating position.

The NCAA report will be exactly the time for ESPiN to clear tOSU. It is then that we will see what the future will look like.
 
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BuckeyeBill73 said:
OK, thanks for the info. Our new AD is deemed not guilty by the spelling police.

By the way, your board name consists of 3 different words that could all be a synonym for psycho. Reminds me of a Paul Rodriguez comment about Woody Woodpecker. But those words relate to something else!
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It's a shirt I'm have that my friends and I wear to the football games.

The front says 'What is a Buckeye?'
The back says "We're Crazy Killer Nuts!"
Underneath that it has a brutus who's hulked out and looking to tear some
Wolvertrash to shreads. Pretty sweet shirt, and I've always liked the saying.
 
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This is about "Did OSU cheat?"

Commonfolk do not care if one player did, but ESPiN went too far with it, blah blah blah. If in fact we did commit one of the crimes which we furiously denied, then their ears shut off and they award ESPiN the winner.

Therefore, while ESPiN is not innocent in this, we are clearly the ones who will come out worse if there is any sort of an OSU v. ESPiN feel to gameday at the shoe.

I still worry a ton if they set up anywhere that they cannot monitor who shows up. If a bunch of rabid OSU fans are trying to break through the lines but do not, that's fine with me, assuming they don't start vandalizing outside. Just imagine the scene if our team is turnover happy and Texas rolls us. Imagine what would happen to the gameday set afterwards.

I think we need to strongly urge Gene Smith to take the proper precautions for that day. All of columbus will be drunk by the end of that day of tailgating, and the game will not have even started. Most likely the crew will be set up for most of the day, as they often do where they cut to the gameday crew for short segments. That has trouble written all over it.
 
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Probably an appropriate response from GS. What else can he say? Especially considering that his response is already on the internet. It's wise to have a measured response.

The thing that bothers me is that OSU's image WILL be the topic of discussion if Game Day is on location for the Texas/OSU game. The story WILL be Troy Smith's return to the team. Will he play? Will he start? A rehash of what he did and how it validated all of ESPN's previous trash. On and on. Don't think that will be ESPN's main story line? Don't think every one of their talking heads will be playing up that story line? It will just be another opportunity for them to run us through the ringer again. It WILL happen, I have no doubt whatsoever after watching their coverage of the Alamo Bowl. The only way to prevent such an occurance is if the NCAA delivers it's verdict on the MoC accusations and clears OSU of ALL charges ... before the game. Even then it WILL be the topic of discussion. Looks to be a no win situation for us ... well, beating Texas would be nice. :)
 
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LloydSev said:
Like he said though... we have a contract with ESPN.. we don't know how this contract is worded, and may require tOSU and other BigTen teams to fully accept GameDay on campus whenever they wish to visit.
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I don't think so Lloyd, if you remember correctly Gieger told them to take a flying leap last year for the Michigan game.
 
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yes, but Geiger also was emotionally attached to this whole ordeal and probobaly could have cared less if they whined about it...

So I mean, while I agree it may be unlikely, it is possible..

It's also one thing to say go take a leap, but to keep them off campus is another thing we won't know if he did..
 
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I think there's a difference between denying GameDay for The Game last year right during the "storm of controversy" at the time, and denying them for the Texas game nine months after the Smith story broke. Keeping them away for the biggest non-conference game of the year will accomplish nothing.
 
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LloydSev said:
yes, but Geiger also was emotionally attached to this whole ordeal and probobaly could have cared less if they whined about it...

So I mean, while I agree it may be unlikely, it is possible..

It's also one thing to say go take a leap, but to keep them off campus is another thing we won't know if he did..
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I would suspect that it was explained, and they understood, that the tOSU campus probably wasn't the safest location in the world for them that Saturday. The question remains to be answered if that has changed for Sept 10.
 
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