KMT

The Buckeyes suck! 3 year probation plus erasing their record for the last 4 tourneys that they were in. Don't you guys just love Jim O'Brien?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060310/...NlYwN5bmNhdA--

Martin Williams

As an Ohio Student, member of the band and huge fan, I am extremely upset over this decision

PerunaPete

Why are you upset? They, in essence, did nothing to your program except give it a slap on the wrist. So what if they rewrite the record book or take back a meager 800k that your athletic program can make back in a year. Cry me a river.
Considering the multiple violations that OSU has committed in football and in basketball within the last 5 years, they are lucky that they weren't really hammered. If it were any other school in a lesser conference, the NCAA could have thrown out the Death Penalty. Of course, that won't happen since OSU is a big school in a big time conference. Anyway, I see no reason to heap pity on this program. It's not like they're banning OSU from the postseason anyway.

rjzeller

OSU got a pretty good deal here. The retraction of all references to the prior final four and the payback sounds stiff, but like all things past, it really doesn't matter now.

What's important is they still get to play in the postseason, and the investigations are now ended and they can move on. There'll be some financial ramifications, which may damage some of their ability to fund other sports, but OSU basketball and football lives on.

So I partially agree with PerunaPete, though his comments were a bit over the top. Let's remember that the vast majority of these violations were reported by the University to the NCAA, and the university took immediate and harsh actions itself to address the problem. They launched their own investigation and penalized themselves for the violations -- including a self-imposed post-season ban last year, and the firing of their former coach. For the football teams, they dismissed a young man who was CLEARLY their best player in Clarrett. And they also suspended Troy Smith, who has proven himself invaluable to the team. I don't think anyone who watched the Texas game doubts that if Smith had played the prior bowl game and the first two games of the last season, OSU would have been beaten the Longhorns that game. THey cost themselves dearly by suspending him, and they knew that well in advance.

Nobody gets the death sentence because the coach discovers a kid is taking bribes and removes the kid from scholarship, or finds that another participated in an event that violated rules unknowingly and therefore suspends that kid for two extreemly crucial games.

And for basketball, the coach issued a loan to one student who never even attended the U, and helped setup free housing for another member of the team -- Boban Savovic. The coach and his assistance knew of these arrangements, no one else. WHen administration officials found out, they immediately addressed it. It was hardly a case of the university blatantly ignoring and covering up NCAA rules infractions. They removed the offending parties, imposed sanctions on themselves and launched an internal investigation, and immediately informed the NCAA and cooperated fully.

The theory that because they're so big they're immune, is a big rash when one considers how powerful SMU was when they received the "death penalty"...