Tressel = Elephant in the room

CHICAGO -- Jim Tressel should be fired. Ohio State deserves the death penalty. The gold pants are an NCAA violation.

These are things you won't hear at the Big Ten spring meetings.

Tressel is an upstanding citizen. Ohio State is a bastion of NCAA compliance. Gold pants for all.

These are the Big Ten meetings. Of course, the Big Ten is going to have Tressel and Ohio State's backs.

"I know Jim quite well and I knew him back in Youngstown [State, where Tressel coached before OSU]," Nebraska athletics director Tom Osborne said during a recent visit to Cedar Rapids. "My impressions of Jim are No. 1, he's a very sound football man. He's very good and knows what he's doing.

"He's a very principled man, which has got to be very painful to have your integrity called into question when, basically, that's the way you've lived your life. So, what all happened, why he did what he did, I don't know. But I do know I would trust the guy.

"I don't think he's someone who'd deliberately cheat or try to buy a player. He would never do that. I hope he does [survive the current turmoil], because I think the sport will be diminished without him."

Mostly, Big Ten athletics directors treated the Ohio State topic like radioactive waste.

"You need to talk to Ohio State about that," Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez said. "I'm not going there. I'm not going there."

Tressel kept a low profile here Tuesday. He gave a salute as he walked into early morning meetings but was a vapor after that. Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith declined comment in the mid-afternoon.

"We're not sitting in meetings talking about one particular institution's specific compliance problems," Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said. "As I look around the country, not talking about any institution in particular, it's no secret to say that in the last six months, college athletics, football and basketball, have taken some public relations hits." 

Tressel and Ohio State admitted in March to a breach of NCAA bylaw 10.1. Tressel failed to notify OSU's compliance office about possible rules violations before the 2010 season and did not admit to his knowledge even after the violations came to light.

The school has received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA. Tressel has hired attorney Gene Marsh, who served as chairman of the NCAA's committee on infractions from 2004-06, to represent him when he appears before the committee on infractions Aug. 12.

Here is a link to more details on Tressel's behavior when he was tipped off on possible NCAA violations from five OSU players, including quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

Pryor, wide receiver Devier Posey, running back Dan Herron, left offensive tackle Mike Adams and D-lineman Solomon Thomas are suspended for the first five games of '11 [Akron, Toledo, Miami, Colorado and Michigan State]. Tressel has been fined $250,000 and, after initially being suspended only two games, has imposed a five-game suspension on himself.

In a way, Ohio State is a "Scared Straight" tale for the rest of the conference.

"We want to make sure some of these public relations hits don't affect our profession negatively," Barta said. "At least on my campus, what I'm doing, is doubling back with all my coaches, making sure all the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted. It's something we do regularly, but when you're hearing national stories, you go back to your home base and, again this is what I'm doing on my campus, make sure you talk to all your coaches."

What should or shouldn't be the punishment is a matter of opinion right now. It's not one that will be freely given when all the Big Ten, from Brutus the Buckeye to Bucky the Badger, are meeting in the same Chicago hotel room.

"There tends to be, as you know, a sort of piling on mentality when you've been on top," Osborne said. "I think Mike Ditka said it best when he said, 'They build you up to chop you down.' He's been very successful, so if this was a program that was 1-10 last year, there wouldn't be anywhere near the heat or interest in the program. But being where they are and where he is, there's going to be a lot of interest."

This is Chicago. Ditka is never wrong here.