COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State will not have to pay for
Jim Tressel’s legal team as the Buckeyes’ coach defends himself against
NCAA charges that the knew his players received improper benefits but
didn’t report it.
Athletic director Gene Smith, attending Big Ten
meetings in Chicago with Tressel on Wednesday, confirmed to the AP in a
text message that the coach is responsible for his own lawyers.
Tressel,
in his 11th year at Ohio State where he makes around $3.5 million per
season, has hired Gene Marsh to represent him before the NCAA’s
committee on infractions on Aug. 12 in Indianapolis.
The NCAA has
charged that Tressel "failed to (comport) himself in accordance with …
honesty and integrity." Tressel violated NCAA bylaws — and his own
contract’s stipulations — which require that he immediately report all
knowledge of any NCAA violations to his superiors, the NCAA or the
university’s compliance department.
Marsh, a member of the NCAA’s
infractions committee for nine years and chairman for two, is an Ohio
State graduate. He has said he never attended a Buckeyes football game
during his years as a student.
Tressel traded 12 emails with a
former Ohio State walk-on player, now a lawyer, starting in April 2010.
Tressel was told that Buckeyes players were trading autographs, uniforms
and championship rings for money and tattoos from local tattoo-parlor
owner Edward Rife. Rife was the subject of a federal drug trafficking
case.
Yet Tressel did not tell Smith, Ohio State President Gordon
Gee or anyone else at the university what he had learned. He did,
however, forward the first email to Ted Sarniak, who is star quarterback
Terrelle Pryor’s "mentor" back in his hometown of Jeannette, Pa.
The
Buckeyes were ranked No. 1 at one point during the 2010 season and
finished with a 12-1 mark. In early December, the U.S. Attorney’s office
notified Ohio State that it had raided Rife’s home and had come upon
dozens of Ohio State items, some autographed. A subsequent investigation
revealed that six prominent players — including Pryor — had benefited
from the relationship with Rife. The U.S. Attorney’s office pegged the
value at $12,000 to $15,000.
Tressel, Smith and Ohio State issued a
five-game suspension to Pryor and four other players and a one-game
suspension to sixth. Throughout Ohio State’s investigation of the
players’ case in December, Tressel never revealed that he knew anything
about it.
He had also signed an NCAA compliance form in September swearing that he did not know of any violations.
With
Ohio State and the Big Ten asking for leniency, the NCAA permitted the
players to play in the Sugar Bowl where the Buckeyes defeated Arkansas,
31-26.
Shortly after the team returned from New Orleans, Ohio
State officials began building an appeal for the players. It was while
going through staff emails that they discovered Tressel had known he was
using potentially ineligible players throughout the 2010 season.
In
early March, Ohio State self-reported Tressel’s violations and handed
Tressel a two-game suspension (later raised to five games) along with a
$250,000 fine. He was also compelled to make a public apology and attend
an NCAA compliance seminar. Smith later told The Associated Press that
he had had to meet with Tressel before the coach finally issued the
apology. Smith also said that the $250,000 fine would not cover the cost
of the investigation of the coaches’ violations.
Tressel is attending the NCAA compliance seminar in Tampa, Fla., in June.
His
five-game suspension permits him to practice every day with the team
throughout the spring, during August workouts and the entire season. The
only time he cannot be with the team is during games. Smith has
confirmed that the five-game suspension actually amounts to only a
15-hour suspension — the time during which the Buckeyes are playing
games.
Chuck Smrt, a former member of the NCAA’s enforcement staff, will handle Ohio State’s side of the case in
August.
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Rusty Miller can be reached at http://twitter.com/rustymillerap
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
