Around the AFC North (6/14): Pryor and Ochocinco, Division Trash Talk

While the compliance office at OSU deserves its share of blame, you can’t expect them to babysit these guys 24/7.

Young kids will make mistakes. Especially with a team of 80-120 of young men in college with all of the fanfare of playing on a major football team.

I find this awesome.

ESPN literally has footage of Alabama football players climbing out of custom painted SUV and trucks with massive rims.

Only, it’s part of a “inside view” of Alabama. Someone want to explain to me how Julio Jones, from a single parent home (whose sole provider worked at a fast food joint) is able to afford what looks to be a 30k+ dollar vehicle? (By the way, I’m not knocking a single mother working her ass off, I just think there is a massive difference in income vs. automobile).

Ohio State is getting everything it deserves, but if the NCAA looks into any school, they will find these kids getting all sorts of free stuff. It just depends on if the NCAA wants to enforce the rules. The NCAA is, and will always be, a complete joke.

yep, but it was in the best interest of Tressel to see if he could cover it up and keep Pryor to win a NC. I don’t think he is a bad guy, I just think he has strayed too far into the realm of big egos and is doing things he knows are against the rules to get the results he wants. Its hard to win in the NCAA without taking on a Pryor or two

I don’t know about any of the diligence stuff, but I have a hard time believing, that with all of the fallout from the situation that the NCAA doesn’t apply a firm, hand at the very least for appearances.

there is no “car stuff”. not at this point. there are plenty of bullshit allegations, but the gibson stuff was shown to be false and nothing has been proven w/ pryor.

i don’t know what it means for players to be “knowingly ineligible”. everyone knew they’d broken the rules. it was well established that they’d sold memorabilia for cash and other benefits — a clear eligibility violation — prior to the ncaa’s ruling on the sugar bowl.

i’m not arguing that tOSU isn’t in for some rough sledding, but there weren’t lies and misinformation specifically associated w/ the sugar bowl decision.

Uh, no. The players were caught for their tattoo dealings before the bowl and ruled ineligible for the first five games of this upcoming 2011 season. They were ruled eligible for the bowl by the NCAA. Tressel thought about sitting them anyway, but allowed them to play when they made their promise to return. The promise had nothing to do with the NCAA or their eligibility and everything to do with a DNP coaches decision.

As of this moment, there is no confirmed “car stuff.” Thaddeus Gibson paid a legitimate price for his car, and it is looking likely that the dealership fudged the “sale price” to cheat the IRS. Nothing about Pryor’s car(s) has been confirmed or supported by anything other than “gee, that car looks too good for a college student.” Even if a dealership had given Buckeyes discounts because of their status, that would not have been known with “normal diligence” if the athletes and dealers were smart about it (i.e. not registering 12 cars with the university or getting tickets in cars that are way more valuable than the ones they had registered). If something suspicious were to be reported, then the compliance office would investigate.

The other unconfirmed rumor was that Pryor made tens of thousands by signing memorabilia for a sleaseball that OSU had previously told to stay away from their programs. This just came out and they should be investigating now, and unless something further comes out it should be limited to Pryor and not a lack of institutional control/program-wide/coverup scenario.

ditto. Gotta look at this as an opportunity to turn a mid round pick into a 1 or 2 in a couple of years.