(06-01-2011 10:59 AM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  Now for the important part. Is there any word of recruits leaving OSU yet that we might have a chance to pick up?

Doubt UC will benefit from any of this. Some of the other Big 10 schools probably will though.

(06-01-2011 01:07 PM)Marcus Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 10:59 AM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  Now for the important part. Is there any word of recruits leaving OSU yet that we might have a chance to pick up?

Doubt UC will benefit from any of this. Some of the other Big 10 schools probably will though.

Concur

Unfortunately a lot of recruits still think:

1. tO$U
2. B10
3. - ??? Somewhere further down on the list UC

This helps because the University of Cincinnati is the only other BCS school in Ohio. Big Ten schools, Notre Dame, and Ohio MAC school will take advantage of this too. (probably more than UC)

While UC isn't going to steal a bunch of Ohio State's recruits a few players in Ohio could pick UC. Even one or two recruits over a four year period could go a long way. If the Buckeyes are hit hard it gives the Bearcats a chance to beat them in 2012 or 2014 which would be almost be as important as our Big East Championship were for local and national perception.

The biggest flaw of the BK years was that the Cats didn't win the BCS bowl games or beat brand names. I understand that WVU, Pitt, and Oregon State had some pretty good teams but pundits always seem to give more credit when a brand name like Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, Florida State, Notre Dame, Texas and USC go down to the new guy.

(06-01-2011 02:36 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  This helps because the University of Cincinnati is the only other BCS school in Ohio. Big Ten schools, Notre Dame, and Ohio MAC school will take advantage of this too. (probably more than UC)

While UC isn't going to steal a bunch of Ohio State's recruits a few players in Ohio could pick UC. Even one or two recruits over a four year period could go a long way. If the Buckeyes are hit hard it gives the Bearcats a chance to beat them in 2012 or 2014 which would be almost be as important as our Big East Championship were for local and national perception.

The biggest flaw of the BK years was that the Cats didn't win the BCS bowl games or beat brand names. I understand that WVU, Pitt, and Oregon State had some pretty good teams but pundits always seem to give more credit when a brand name like Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, Florida State, Notre Dame, Texas and USC go down to the new guy.

We dont play OSU in 2014

(06-01-2011 02:55 PM)chicago bearcat Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 02:36 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  This helps because the University of Cincinnati is the only other BCS school in Ohio. Big Ten schools, Notre Dame, and Ohio MAC school will take advantage of this too. (probably more than UC)

While UC isn't going to steal a bunch of Ohio State's recruits a few players in Ohio could pick UC. Even one or two recruits over a four year period could go a long way. If the Buckeyes are hit hard it gives the Bearcats a chance to beat them in 2012 or 2014 which would be almost be as important as our Big East Championship were for local and national perception.

The biggest flaw of the BK years was that the Cats didn't win the BCS bowl games or beat brand names. I understand that WVU, Pitt, and Oregon State had some pretty good teams but pundits always seem to give more credit when a brand name like Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, Florida State, Notre Dame, Texas and USC go down to the new guy.

We dont play OSU in 2014

Yea we do.

(06-01-2011 03:27 PM)cinbinsportsfan Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 02:55 PM)chicago bearcat Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 02:36 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  This helps because the University of Cincinnati is the only other BCS school in Ohio. Big Ten schools, Notre Dame, and Ohio MAC school will take advantage of this too. (probably more than UC)

While UC isn't going to steal a bunch of Ohio State's recruits a few players in Ohio could pick UC. Even one or two recruits over a four year period could go a long way. If the Buckeyes are hit hard it gives the Bearcats a chance to beat them in 2012 or 2014 which would be almost be as important as our Big East Championship were for local and national perception.

The biggest flaw of the BK years was that the Cats didn't win the BCS bowl games or beat brand names. I understand that WVU, Pitt, and Oregon State had some pretty good teams but pundits always seem to give more credit when a brand name like Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, Florida State, Notre Dame, Texas and USC go down to the new guy.

We dont play OSU in 2014

Yea we do.

Ha brain fart. I guess I got confused since one of them was sposed to be a home game and was bought out to be road game. I had assumed it was completely gone from schedule.

Whenever it is, it better be the last time. They're clearly not in favor of giving us a fair shot at them, so why should we bother?

In Columbus, a mournful mood

Forde By Pat Forde
ESPN.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On a muggy day in the heartland, the mood of a massive football fan base was both fatalistic and funereal.

Often using the past tense, Ohio State fans celebrated the good civic deeds and great football accomplishments of Jim Tressel, while lamenting a resignation they saw as inevitable.

"A lot of people are sad," said Brittany White, who works in the Ohio State memorabilia store College Traditions, within sight of The Horseshoe. "Just kind of a sad day in Columbus."

White said that in the hours after the iconic coach's resignation went public on Memorial Day, Buckeyes fans started showing up at College Traditions to buy Tressel gear. There is plenty still on the shelves to purchase, from his signature sweater vest ($55) to vest-style baby Onesies ($15.99). Copies of his books were sold Monday, as were wall hangings in his likeness.

A few blocks away, stacks of the Tuesday edition of The Lantern, the Ohio State student paper, were sitting in the lobby of Eddie George's Grille 27, the restaurant owned by the former Buckeyes running back who won the 1995 Heisman Trophy. The front page headline: "End of an era."

An end that had to come, bartender Luke Ashmore reluctantly acknowledged.

"Every day I woke up, it was getting worse," he said. "It was getting draining. It was a little disheartening."

At Mirror Lake in the center of campus, Alie Olson of West Jefferson, Ohio, said: "It's for the best that he resigned, but it's sad. He was a legend."

There was, however, a difference between sadness and sympathy. Most people interviewed for this story said Tressel earned what he got for lying to the NCAA.

"He's got to be held accountable," said junior engineering student Michael Barnes. "I want the program to be cleaned up. If it takes a couple years to get hit hard, that's what we'll take."


AP Photo/Jay LaPrete
Once his most prized recruit, Terrelle Pryor was involved in the events that led to Jim Tressel's exit from Ohio State.

Although some students question some of the rules, they don't blame the NCAA for enforcing them. Although they question some of the coverage, they don't blame the media for investigating.

They do, however, energetically blame quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

One item not selling this week at College Traditions: authentic No. 2 jerseys ($150) in both red and white. That's the number Pryor wears.

On previous fall Saturdays, there were thousands of fans wearing them in the stands at Ohio Stadium. Don't expect that to be the case this fall.

"I'm ready for Pryor to move on," OSU senior Zach Olson said.

"I don't think people think too highly of him," said White. "A lot of people wouldn't be too disappointed if he never put on an Ohio State uniform again."

The problem, of course, is that Pryor allegedly has sold parts of that uniform and other trinkets in exchange for tattoos -- violations of NCAA rules that Tressel covered up, leading to his forced resignation. Other Buckeyes committed the same violations as Pryor and will receive the same five-game suspension this fall, but none has engendered the anger reserved for the guy most Ohio State fans celebrated as a savior when he arrived in 2008.

While it felt like a funeral for Tressel here Tuesday, it also felt like a burial for Pryor.

"He does come across as kind of arrogant," Barnes said. "Maybe [other students] get that he doesn't care. There's more people involved than just him, but he does have this cocky attitude."

Some who work at campus-area restaurants and bars and asked that their names not be used told tales of Pryor flaunting what they perceived as a privileged lifestyle. They say they saw him coming out of high-end restaurants, driving multiple cars, trying to commandeer VIP areas of bars.

(Pryor's use of automobiles is the focus of a new NCAA investigation, according to a Monday story from the Columbus Dispatch.)

But Pryor wasn't the only one, according to students. Several said they'd heard about the tattoo scam, and several mentioned the late-model cars they've seen football players drive.

"I'm driving a 2000 Isuzu Rodeo," laughed senior Jeff Whaley. "And I work. You see the nice watch, nice earrings. You see the cars and wonder."

In reality, the students do more than just wonder. They know. So do the older fans who pay the big money for tickets and buy those jerseys.

They know, but they don't want to know. This is the same everywhere. They want to believe there is a perfectly good reason the star player is driving an expensive car, or why his family has moved to town, or why he has $250 earphones around his neck.

Confronting college sports fans with the circumstantial evidence of what goes on at a lot of high-level programs robs them of the illusion that allows them to enjoy the games. They want to believe their favorite team is clean. And if it's not, please don't flaunt it to the point we can't avoid it.

"If you're going to break the rules, you've got to be smart about it," Olson said. "Not that I'm condoning it, but it's not like it's only an Ohio State problem. It's a college football problem."

Most students I talked to believe the rules the Buckeyes broke are nonsensical. They don't like a system that prevents college players from profiting off their own efforts and accomplishments.

"It's a bogus rule, a dumb rule," said Tayla Arrington, a freshman from Columbus. "They're working to make the Ohio State name and keep up their studies, yet they're not getting anything in return."

Beyond the philosophical debate of what a college football player should be allowed to sell or receive, there seems to be a glum acceptance of the new reality. Jim Tressel is gone. Terrelle Pryor might be. Probation and sanctions are likely.

A glorious 10-year run could well give way to hard times. And few schools seem to need that football glory more than Ohio State.

"They say the university is bigger than the football program," said White, the College Traditions worker.

I asked if she believed that.

She paused.

"I don't know."

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/st...id=6611869

Jim Tressel saga: Catalyst for reform?

By Tim Keown
ESPN.com

Jim Tressel resigned Monday morning, and my mind immediately went to a strange place: a high school parking lot in Jeannette, Pa. It was the fall of 2007, Terrelle Pryor's senior year at Jeannette High, and the scene one afternoon at dismissal time fit perfectly with the overall theme of big-time college athletics and the near-impossibility of policing them under the current system.


Charles LeClaire/Getty Images
Even before signing day, there was a flurry of interested parties around Terrelle Pryor.

Pryor is a pivotal player in the clumsy, slapstick drama that ended with Tressel's resignation. It's a pretty safe leap to link the beginning of the end for Tressel to the days leading up to Pryor's decision to attend Ohio State.

And the many people who played a role in that decision.

There were guys hanging around even then. They weren't trading signed gear for tattoos, but when you're the No. 1 high school player in the country, you attract a wide array of people. Some have pure motives; others don't. It's sometimes hard to tell the difference. Among those drawn to Pryor was Tony DeNunzio, then 78 years old, a local restaurant owner who openly told me he provided Pryor and his teammates with meals at his establishment.

But what separated DeNunzio from the average old-guy glad-hander came the fall day the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published its high school football preview and put Pryor on the front in a photo illustration that depicted him wearing a football uniform on one half of his body and a basketball uniform on the other. (Remember, Pryor was once a top-100 prep hoopster, too.)

And on that same afternoon, the afternoon I remembered when Tressel resigned, DeNunzio went to gas stations and grocery stores in Jeannette and bought every single copy of that newspaper. And then DeNunzio, remarkably energetic for 78, drove his Cadillac to Jeannette High school and passed out every one of those copies to the students leaving school.

DeNunzio and I were sitting in his restaurant as he detailed this scene -- I was in Jeannette reporting a story on Pryor for ESPN The Magazine -- and he must have sensed my astonishment. He had already told me stories of picking up Pryor and his friends to drive them to and from the mall. (Waiting in the car while they shopped, even.) But the successful businessman-turned-PR paperboy story took the story of a grandfatherly mentor to a different, disturbing level.


Charles LeClaire/Getty Images
As a high school player, Terrelle Pryor was an all-around athlete who left little doubt in people's minds that he had big things ahead of him.

And then, without being asked, DeNunzio told me not to get the wrong impression. "I'm not Terrelle's agent," he said, even though nothing of the sort had been remotely suggested.

How does anybody -- the NCAA, Ohio State, even Pryor himself -- control stuff like this? Forget control; how does anybody even monitor stuff like this? There's an old man sitting in his Cadillac outside the mall while a bunch of 18-year-olds hang out. He'll sit there until they're done, and then he'll drive them home. If you're a kid without a ride or someone to provide it, it's worth hanging out with the old man to get what you want.

And if you're the old man with a few bucks and some civic pride, it's only natural for you to want to be a part of the biggest thing your depressed town has seen in your lifetime. You might be a big deal in a small place, but you're smart enough to identify and attach yourself to someone who's destined to be a big deal in a big place.

Pryor's coach at the time, Ray Reitz, expressed his frustration with the swirl of interest Pryor was attracting from high-profile locals. He mentioned DeNunzio and another successful businessman who decided to expand his role when the best high school football player in the country appeared in his small town. It turns out that Ted Sarniak, a local glass-factory owner, ended up being central to the Tressel investigation.

When Tressel received emails from a Columbus attorney warning him that Pryor and others were selling memorabilia and doing gear trades for tattoos, he didn't forward them to the NCAA or Ohio State officials. He forwarded them to Sarniak, who suddenly became described as Pryor's "mentor" in every media report.


AP Photo/Terry Gilliam
Terrelle Pryor played in 39 games for Jim Tressel at Ohio State.

Kind of the same way DeNunzio described himself to me.

Kind of the same way Tressel liked to describe his relationship to his players.

It's a big see-no-evil all the way around. For many years, Tressel managed to profess his closeness to his players while somehow remaining ignorant of nearly every non-football aspect of their lives. He wrote books about integrity while displaying very little. He looked for back-alley solutions, like handing off to Sarniak, instead of taking on problems eye-to-eye. He made a big show of saying he allowed Pryor and the other three memorabilia-tainted players to compete in the Sugar Bowl only after they promised to serve their five-game suspensions next year and not bolt for the NFL.

Now? He's gone, and they're left to sit out the first five games or -- as Pryor might -- look into an opt-out method of getting paid for real.

And the system that promotes this type of corruption continues. If there's ever been a time to take a serious look at all the well-meaning but traditionally ignored proposals for reform, now might be it. Maybe a public airing of some of the more reasonable suggestions? This could be a seminal moment to decide whether college sports at the highest level continues on its duplicitous course or admits the obvious and becomes a full-fledged minor league system for the NBA and NFL.

Because somewhere, there's a kid who's going to be wanted by every school in the country and a hundred coaches ready to chase him. And not far behind the player, for reasons that may or may not be altruistic, there's a man out there thinking about doing something you and I might find more than a little sad.

Like passing out newspapers in a high school parking lot.

ESPN The Magazine senior writer Tim Keown co-wrote Josh Hamilton's autobiography, "Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back," which is available on Amazon.com. Sound off to Tim here.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentar...id=6610547

Originally Published: June 1, 2011
Blaming the student messenger at OSU
Zack Meisel is paying a stiff price for a story that helped bring Jim Tressel down

By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN.com

Jim Tressel's 10-year, disingenuous reign at Ohio State was undone by lots of people.

By the FBI. By a Columbus, Ohio, tattoo parlor owner. By an OSU senior majoring in economics and journalism. By the so-called "Senator" himself, whose clumsy, panicked and defiant cover-up contradicted the myth of Tressel as someone who -- how did the 2010 Ohio State football media guide put it? -- "emphasizes organization, planning and accountability as not just important in football, but as skills for life."

Wait, an OSU double major?

That would be Zack Meisel, a 21-year-old Buckeyes senior who in less than two weeks will pick up his diploma at the same Ohio Stadium where Tressel defeated Michigan last November -- unless, of course, one emailer follows through on his threat to track down Meisel on campus and beat him up.

"I've learned more about journalism and the way the media works in the last 72 hours than I did probably in my first 21 years of living," says Meisel. "It's been a whirlwind."

Meisel is the editor-in-chief of The Lantern, Ohio State's student newspaper. Thursday's edition was only 12 pages, but it featured an interview with former Buckeyes wide receiver Ray Small that instantly made national news and further confirmed that Tressel and Ohio State had lost control of the football program.


AP Photo/Terry Gilliam
Jim Tressel is no longer a part of the Ohio State team, and some of his supporters are blaming the student newspaper for his departure.

Small told Meisel and staff writer James Oldham that while playing for OSU, he sold a pair of Big Ten championship rings and assorted Buckeyes memorabilia for cash, received special players-only discounts on cars and that "everyone was doing it." This is what the NCAA calls an "improper benefit."

Small later accused Meisel and Oldham of twisting his words, but too late -- The Lantern had the audio tapes of the interview and made them available online. Small didn't have a denial to stand on.

Four days after the Small story appeared, Tressel's OSU coaching career disappeared. But not before an emailer wrote Meisel and predicted that The Lantern editor and Oldham were the most likely candidates to be found dead in the nearby Olentangy River.

"I did read through most of them, if not all of them," says Meisel. "There were definitely more than 100. Some were, 'Thanks for trying to take down our program.' For all the fans who reacted negatively, half wanted me to move to Michigan, half wanted me to move to Nashville with Kirk Herbstreit. I wish there would have been a consensus."

ESPN's Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback, moved from Columbus to Tennessee earlier this year because he was weary of the criticism he and his family received from a vocal minority of OSU supporters. But Meisel is staying put. He'll walk across the stage during the June 12 graduation ceremony and then spend the summer covering the Cleveland Indians as an associate reporter for MLB.com.

Meisel and Oldham (who graduates in August) took no special pleasure in helping seal Tressel's fate. Meisel is from a Cleveland suburb and Oldham is from the Columbus area. They rooted for OSU football success as much as the next person.

In fact, Meisel conducted about a 30-minute interview with Tressel in mid-February. It was a chance for Tressel to reflect on his 10-year career at Ohio State, which began in 2001 with the newly hired coach telling a Buckeyes basketball crowd, "I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field."

Meisel's story appeared on Feb. 17. Sweater-vest hell didn't break loose until several weeks later.

"At that point," says Meisel, "I didn't know he was covering up the entire scandal."


AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Former OSU wide reciever Ray Small's interview with The Lantern was one of the last straws for school administrators weighing Tressel's fate.

We know it now. And a Sports Illustrated story published Monday details even more alleged widespread incidents of NCAA violations by Ohio State players during Tressel's … cough … watch.

Meisel received a call from his faculty adviser Monday morning telling him to check his email. When he did, there was a copy of the Columbus Dispatch story detailing the news of Tressel's resignation. There was also a copy of OSU president Gordon Gee's email to the Ohio State faculty members.

The resignation wasn't much of a surprise to Meisel. He had already written a "Tressel Resigns" story in anticipation of the inevitable announcement. When the Dispatch broke the news, Meisel finished his own story and filed it to The Lantern. I talked to him Monday, when he answered the phone at the newspaper's office.

"It's definitely sadness," Meisel says when asked to describe the mood on campus. "I think everyone here knows the type of person he is. The guy's so involved in community service. No matter what he did, there's going to be an aura of sadness. But there's going to be a sigh of relief. I think this is at least one shoe dropping. It's a little bit of solace for the fans."

So Meisel will leave Columbus with a double major in economics and journalism, with half of a hellacious scoop and with an Ohio State degree he'll cherish. He has the MLB.com gig in the summer, but then he goes hunting for full-time employment.

"What would be your dream job?" I ask.

"Nothing to do with economics," he says.

Meisel was walking across campus recently when something unexpected happened. A fellow student recognized him and actually congratulated him for The Lantern's work on the Small story.

Hey, beats floating face-down on the Olentangy.

Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn.com. Hear Gene's podcasts and ESPN Radio appearances by clicking here. And don't forget to follow him on Twitter @GenoEspn.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/s...ortCat=ncf

Terrelle Pryor's license suspended

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The NCAA is interested in Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor's cars. The state of Ohio says he shouldn't be driving one.

Pryor was seen driving a sports car to a team meeting on Monday hours after coach Jim Tressel's forced resignation, even though his Ohio driving privileges have been suspended.

Pryor's driving privileges have been suspended for 90 days because he failed to produce proof of insurance when he was pulled over for a stop-sign violation on Feb. 19 in Columbus. Pryor received repeated requests to appear in traffic court to show that he had valid insurance before he eventually paid a $141 fine and court costs on April 2. But Ohio authorities say he has never produced proof of insurance.

Pryor is being investigated by the NCAA for the cars he has driven over his three years as a Buckeye, The Columbus Dispatch has reported. The newspaper also said NCAA investigators are looking into more than 50 vehicle transactions involving Ohio State athletes, their families and friends and two Columbus dealerships.

Said Lindsey Bohrer, a communications officer for the Ohio Department of Public Safety: "Our records do not indicate that (Pryor) has driving privileges in Ohio."

Pryor was photographed driving a used Nissan 350Z valued between $16,000 and $27,000 to and from the team meeting on Monday night. He drove the same car to a workout on Wednesday.

His driving suspension took effect on May 20 and runs through Aug. 18. To regain his driving privileges after that, he will need to pay a $150 reinstatement fee, get insurance and carry a special card for high-risk drivers signifying that the driver is covered by insurance.

Before Pryor could renew his license in any state, he would first need to take care of the non-compliance issue in Ohio. His license would be flagged through two systems which monitor problem drivers throughout the country.

Even though his driver's license is from Pennsylvania, where Pryor is from, the two neighboring states are among 44 members of a "nonresident violator compact" which recognizes citations across state lines. So if he were to be pulled over in most places in the country outside of Ohio, the suspension would still be in effect.

According to Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles records, Pryor was ticketed in November 2008 for driving 99 in a 65-mph zone and in March 2010 for driving 94 mph in a 65-mph zone.

His driver's license isn't the only suspension facing Pryor.

The NCAA has suspended Pryor, who will be a senior this fall, for the first five games of the 2011 season for receiving cash and tattoos from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner. Four other Buckeyes are also suspended for the first five games for trading autographed jerseys along with Big Ten championship rings and other memorabilia that the U.S. attorney's office said had a value of $12,000 to $15,000. Another player is suspended for the first game of season.

Tressel was forced to resign on Monday for knowing about the players' NCAA violations but failing to tell his superiors or the university's compliance department. He covered up his knowledge for more than nine months -- several weeks after the players' complicity was discovered -- before officials working on an appeal of the players' sanctions learned that he had remained silent.

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said the situation at Ohio State has also affected his program. He said he sent people he "leans on" to two Madison, Wis., tattoo parlors to make sure the same thing wasn't going on.

"If one of my kids gets a parking ticket, I know it the next day," he said. "We have forms that any vehicle they have, whether it be a car, whether it be a moped, they have to write it down. It's an NCAA compliance issue. That's never been in place anywhere else until I came here. I think there's so many checks and balances to ensure, hopefully, that things can't happen. Now, a kid could do it and we don't know about it. But you see a car sitting in the parking lot, a kid getting out of it, you know what's going on."

Ohio State officials released on Wednesday the NCAA compliance forms provided to athletes when they go to buy a car. The two-page "insert" delineates what are impermissible benefits (vehicles sold at low or no cost or with special financing to an athlete, family member or friend) in addition to who can co-sign on the loan. Athletes are not permitted to promote any commercial entity, including car dealerships.

"The university requires every student-athlete to provide us with detailed information about any vehicle they are driving or have purchased, including make and model, price, and if there are any co-signers," Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch said. "We have also worked with local businesses, including car dealerships, to ensure they understand the regulations, and, in the case of the car dealers, work with us to provide advance notice of vehicle sales involving student-athletes."

Despite all the NCAA turmoil, the Buckeyes still received a verbal commitment in football on Wednesday. Tyvis Powell, a defensive back from Bedford, Ohio, said he would be a part of the 2012 recruiting class.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6616791

I used to get upset when Dantonio refused to recruit again tO$U. Now I understand he must have known from experience what was going on there, and that he couldn't win a recruiting battle against such a corrupt organization.

I believe this would be considered piling on.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Fort Myers Miracle of the Florida State League are having a "Rest the Vest" Night on Monday, giving Ohio State fans a place to unload their sweater vests in the wake of Jim Tressel's resignation.

Known for wearing sweater vests, Tressel was forced to step down as football coach Monday after it was revealed his players traded autographed memorabilia and championship rings for cash and discounted tattoos. The NCAA also is looking into car deals involving Ohio State athletes.

The Miracle are encouraging fans to place their sweater vests in a "retirement bin" for a chance to test drive a sports car.

Those showing a tattoo before the game against the Jupiter Hammerheads will receive "a piece of Miracle memorabilia to keep or sell."

(06-01-2011 07:14 PM)ctipton Wrote:  Originally Published: June 1, 2011
Blaming the student messenger at OSU
Zack Meisel is paying a stiff price for a story that helped bring Jim Tressel down

Wow, gotta give this guy credit. Not a big deal what he did in the end, but it was mighty unpopular.

Found this on a Jay Bilas twitter:
http://t.co/S3F2yjx

Sounds like the fish is rotting from the head down at tO$U.