It has been a few days now since the Columbus Dispatch informed the world Ohio State will be investigating dozens of car sales to see if any of its athletes received improper benefits in them, and reaction from across the Ohio State sphere has rolled in.
Today, we're going to take you on a tour through the Scarlett and Gray blog community to see where their heads are and bring you the latest Buckeye scandal in their own words. This should make Luke of Eleven Warriors a happy man.
Regardless of day of the week, life continues to not, at face value, seem so awesome for the Buckeye Universe. But those cynical outsiders comparing Jim Tressel to Pakistani Intelligence Directors (hurr, really?) and the like wasting hundreds of words by the handful to touch on a subject only near and dear to their hearts in the petty, troll-y contempt they have for either the coach's? Yeah, they don't exactly speak for the pulse of the Ohio State fan in general nor our honestly somewhat surprising resolve. Losing two national title games to the most intolerable, banal, insecure collective case of my-friend's-dad-can-beat-up-your-Dad'itis in modern sport? Survived and well past. Just imagine how tail-between-their-legs numerous other fan bases would be had they had enough outcomes go their way to the point they found their way back losing to a team from the very same league as the one from the year before that next January by multiple scores? At least underachieving immediately after the title berth a la some kind of NFC Super Bowl runner up would provide a cloak of apathy to rally around when the probable ensuing second straight under-10 win season unfolded in year three. Two consecutive title game losses for most would reasonably be War of the Worlds-1938.
Also over at Eleven Warriors, contributor Alex reminds readers not to use "it happens everywhere" as an excuse, even though, according to him, it does.
Before you start with the "this happens everywhere", please stop. I don't mean to be rude to your opinion or insight, and you are right that stuff like this does happen at all big time college programs, but we're the ones who got caught this time. Not only did we get caught, but we may have been caught at the most inopportune time. Yes, technically the accused should be innocent until proven guilty and some reports claim that OSU's compliance department approved the said purchases (if so, this could be even worse), but the writing is on the wall here people and this writer certainly isn't buying that ALL of those car deals were legitimate and done at fair value.
Commenter biggy84 is crying yellow journalism over at Along the Olentangy.
They are investigating because the Dispatch is making these claims. The truth is that regardless if these transactions were legal or not, the article gives the impression of wrongdoing. I believe the Dispatch should have allowed for further investigation before putting out this crap to try and sell a few copies. Sensational "journalism" at it’s finest. The goal seems to be parlaying a "hot" story into relevance and a self-claim of importance due to watching 60 Minutes and wanting to be like Mike Wallace.
Featured Columnist Wes O'Donnell of the Bleacher Report opens his piece on the matter like this...
As if it wasn't bad enough already, THE Ohio State football program continues to hit the news wires for all the wrong reasons.
...then notes this situation will not be good for Jim Tressel.
Pryor, Tressel and the entire Buckeye program could even, will be bigger trouble that could force more serious ramifications pretty quickly.
Reports indicated Pryor was possibly interested in leaving for the NFL Supplemental draft (an even that may not take place due to the lockout).
This is the type of thing that can haunt Tressel forever.
The next time you hear about THE Ohio State football program it is not going to be good.
Kirk from Waiting For Next Year repeats some familiar refrains from earlier in this post. First, he talks about the "it happens everywhere" defense.
What I do know is that it goes on everywhere. That’s not me trying to play the blame game; that’s me spelling out the facts and saying that if Ohio State is going to get punished even further for these purchases, then we need to go investigate every single other car dealership within 25 miles of a major college university. Otherwise, you’re just water-boarding a university that can’t take much more of it at the moment.
He then directs an ethical beef toward the Dispatch.
What I feel crosses the line is these investigative reports where they are trying to unearth things on their own which haven’t been brought to light by Ohio State themselves or the NCAA. Where is the line between reporting the news and creating the news? I don’t know the answer to that one either. I just don’t know if it casts the best light on them either.
Finally, back at the Bleacher Report, Chad Underwood is disappointed and questions the purity of college athletics.
I'd originally wanted to make this article funny and entertaining. But as it started flowing, I realized that there really wasn't anything comical to write, because like many of my friends, I felt distraught that the one sports figure in Ohio left that we all believed in let us down. Which proved to Buckeye Nation–like so many fans of teams and programs before us–that nothing in the sports world is sacred.
Many cling to the idea that college sports is about providing kids who are good at sports an education, but in reality, my friend Beastman said it best: "I think we need to give up on the idea of college sports as pure."
So there you have it, folks. Buckeye fans in their own words.