UI Athletics Director Gary Barta: 'It's a sad day' regarding Ohio State, Jim Tressel resignation

IOWA CITY - Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said Thursday “it's a sad day” regarding the ongoing NCAA investigation into the Ohio State football program that culminated this week with the resignation of coach Jim Tressel.

“It's a sad day for, obviously, the reflection on Ohio State, the Big Ten and college athletics in general,” Barta said. “I don't have inside information. I don't know the details, so I'm not comfortable at all trying to speculate on what really did or didn't happen. It's just a sad day for the Big Ten and for, obviously, Ohio State and for college athletics.”

Tressel resigned Monday after 10 years as coach. He is accused of lying to NCAA investigators and covering up discretions by five football players. Ohio State is scheduled to appear before the NCAA infractions committee on Aug. 12 to answer charges that football players sold or exchanged memorabilia for tattoos and extra benefits.

Tressel, 58, compiled a 106-22 record in his duration as coach. He has led the Buckeyes to at least a share of six straight Big Ten championships - seven overall - and eight BCS bowl berths in 10 seasons. He guided the Buckeyes to the 2002 national title and BCS title game appearances in 2006 and 2007. Ohio State was 12-1 last year.

Iowa lost by three points to Ohio State in each of the last two seasons. The 2009 game was a de facto Big Ten championship game between Ohio State and Iowa.

Barta said he trusts his staff to avoid such wrongdoing, but the development at Ohio State provides caution to all college administrators.

“I think any time something goes wrong, whether it's on your campus or nationally, it gives you pause to say, ‘Boy, Let's just make sure that everything we're doing is tight, that we have good protocol, good procedures,” Barta said. “So we'll do that, probably no more or less based on this last week but always making sure that we're trying to cover every aspect and every detail.”