Cleaning Up The Game: Ohio State, Tennessee Still Dirty

by Joe Phelps


Now that I have your attention Vols and Buckeye fans, hear me out before you send me hate mail and threaten to eat my children, blow up my dog, and hoping that a nuclear bomb detonates in Gainesville during a Michigan/Florida game with me in attendance.

On every sports messageboard all over the net, we reverently clamor about how dirty the games is. We piously condemn every program that gets caught violating even the most minuscule of NCAA rules. We laugh and point at those that get caught, taunting the down trodden and beleaguered fan base of the guilty with impunity.

We all claim we want change. We applauded when Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Pete Carrol, and a few other coaches got the ball rolling on cleaning up recruiting in college football. We were hopeful that the NFL listened. We stand on our soapboxes and preach the good fight. To do what is right even if no one is looking or when no one would really care. That's the definition of candor.

We do it all, until it is OUR team that gets caught.

It's been a turbulent winter and early spring for Ohio State and Tennessee fans. Vols basketball coach Bruce Pearl was caught lying to the NCAA while investigating recruiting violations at Tennessee. Jim Tressel, Ohio State head football coach, lied not once, but twice to the university and the NCAA.

Both are liars. Both Universities are in the same sinking boat. One has at least started bailing out the water, the other is about to drown.

Bruce Pearl was fired on Monday. Pearl made the Tennessee men's basketball team almost as relevant as the women's team in Knoxville. He was 1 point away last year from Tennessee making it to their first ever Final Four appearance. The man who beat rival Florida and Billy Donovan on a regular basis, the man who posted a 145-61 record in Knoxville (including 3 SEC East titles, 1 regular season SEC title, 2 Sweet Sixteens and 1 Elite Eight appearances in just 6 years) was terminated for lying to the NCAA about a party at his home, and supposedly for "unnamed violations from September 14th AND March of 2011."

When the initial violation was found out, Tennessee docked Pearl's pay $1.5 million and banned him from recruiting off campus for a year. The SEC suspended Pearl for the first eight conference games. Rightly so. The SEC was sending a message, one that the Vols failed to get. Tennessee's reaction was to void Pearl's contract and "re-evaluate" him at the end of the season.

He should have been fired on September 10th, the day he held the press conference to tell the world he lied to NCAA investigators. Tennessee had the chance to "do the right thing" and they failed.

We can speculate why Pearl wasn't canned in September, all it would be is sheer conjecture. Whether or not Pearl would be retained at the end of the season was irrelevant. What is relevant is greed.

It was greed that kept embattled Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton from doing his part in cleaning up the world of college athletics. Hamilton could have sent a serious message to the NCAA, other universities, fans, but more importantly, he could have sent a message to the student athletes that attend the University of Tennessee. Firing Pearl would have shown that no matter who you are or what you have done for your program, you still must abide by the rules. No one coach or player is bigger than the University or the program. (That's a message that Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee really needed to hear, but more on that in a moment.)

Pearl should have been fired and an interim coach named. Instead, Hamilton retained Pearl, maybe in hopes that the Vols would win an SEC title, make a very deep push into the NCAA tournament, and possibly cut down the nets. It could have been to retain recruits and some of the early signees for 2012. It possibly could be all of the above in hopes that winning it all or making a really good showing could make everyone forget about Pearl's transgressions and make it almost painless to have him return with a renegotiated contract.

I ask you, if Pearl was going to be fired regardless of the outcome of the season, why wouldn't you fire him? It would be a lot harder to fire an SEC Champion Coach and/or a National Championship Coach (which would have been the first ever at Tennessee).

Now, with Pearl fired (and Mike Hamilton should be out the door too, considering how he handled this situation in addition to the Phillip Fulmer situation, the hiring of Lane Kiffin and how he handled Kiffin's violations, not to mention that a coaching search for Pearl's replacement could have been in full swing already), Tennessee has made a step in the right direction. and when the NCAA is finished with the Vols program, Pearl's termination will be a lot easier to deal with as a Tennessee fan.

Ohio State needs to act now.

The whole situation has turned into a three ring circus, we just can't figure out who the ringmaster is. There was no problem in identifying the clown in Sweater Vest-Gate. That part is being played by E. Gordon Gee.

"I'm hoping that coach doesn't dismiss me"- E. Gordon Gee

If you are wondering why Buckeye fans seem to be taking it on the chin on a daily basis lately, the above statement is exactly the reason why. Gee's seven words summed up everything that is wrong with college sports. Gee basically stated that at the Ohio State University, winning is everything. That not only is the coach bigger than the program, he's bigger and more important than the president of school. That is the wrong message to be sending.

There's no need to rehash the minutiae of Jim Tressel's transgressions. He lied, as did Pearl. The initial punishment handed out by the Buckeye's Administration was laughable at best. They suspended Tressel for two meaningless games, while the players sat for five. That was fluff. The light punishment for such a blatant violation of not only NCAA rules, but Tressel's contract as well, now looks more like damage control to parade in front of the NCAA. How could it look any worse?

Here's how: just a few days ago, Tressel requested that AD Gene Smith extend his punishment to five games, so he can sit with his players as a sign of solidarity so they can learn from their mistakes and begin the healing process together. Instantly, Buckeye fans rallied around Tressel. They commended him for "doing the right thing."

The "right thing" would have been to tell the truth, out the players, and send the message that integrity will be upheld at THE Ohio State University. The "right thing" to do for E. Gordon Gee would have been to keep his mouth shut.

The "right thing" to do would have been for AD Gene Smith to fire Jim Tressel in December.

We all know that the NCAA is not finished with Ohio State, and Jim Tressel could be suspended for a year according to some sources. So, he may very well be fired before all of this is over, but the chance to send the right message has long since passed.

The message from Tennessee: "If you're a coach, you can lie, as long as you win. If you don't, we'll still pay you $948,728 and you'll find work somewhere else."

The message from Ohio State: "The coach is bigger than the program AND the school. He lied, and we are only punishing him because we hope the NCAA doesn't send us back to the stone age with penalties."

Seems fair. I guess we could ask Dez Bryant if he thinks it is fair.

If we as fans of college sports want things cleaned up in our sport, we have to act now. We have to be ok with Tressel and Bruce getting fired. Guys like Butch Davis, who can't seem to get a handle on his athletes, needs to be relieved of his coaching duties. If we want real change, we have to stop ignoring the 40 plus arrests of players under Urban Meyer's watch in Gainesville. We have to stop being ok with Lane Kiffin's 6 secondary violations.

The players get punished all the time. It's high time we hold the coaches to the same standard.