The NCAA has told Ohio State that it won’t face the most
severe charges possible in the memorabilia-for-cash and tattoos scandal
that cost football coach Jim Tressel his job.
Investigators said
they found no evidence that Ohio State failed to properly monitor its
football program or any evidence of a lack of institutional control,
according to a letter sent to the university and released Friday.
NCAA investigators also said they have not found any new violations.
"Considering
the institution’s rules education and monitoring efforts, the
enforcement staff did not believe a failure to monitor charge was
appropriate in this case," the NCAA said in the letter sent Thursday.
The
notice clearing Ohio State of the most serious of institutional
breaches is a big break for the university, which will meet with the
NCAA’s committee on infractions on Aug. 12. That committee could accept
penalties Ohio State already placed on itself or could pile on
recruiting restrictions, bowl bans and other, stiffer sanctions.
The
NCAA letter first reported by The Columbus Dispatch said that Tressel
was the only university official who knew about the violations involving
his players. He didn’t report them to anyone else at the school.
Ohio
State spokesman Jim Lynch said the NCAA’s findings were consistent with
the university’s own investigation into what happened with the
allegations surrounding Tressel and the players.
Tressel stepped
down under pressure in May, months after the university discovered
emails showing he’d been warned by an attorney in April 2010 about his
players’ involvement with a Columbus tattoo parlor owner. The coach knew
players received cash and tattoos for autographs, championship rings
and equipment but did not tell anyone at Ohio State or the NCAA for
about nine months. NCAA rules — and Tressel’s contract — specified that
he had to disclose any and all information about possible violations.
The
university announced earlier this month it would vacate the 2010
season, including its Sugar Bowl victory over Arkansas and its share of
the Big Ten championship. It also self-imposed a two-year NCAA
probation, in addition to suspending six players for the first five
games and forcing Tressel out.
Ohio State also will overhaul its
compliance office by the end of the year, creating a centralized office
that will oversee athletics as well as other university departments, one
of its trustees announced Friday. The move will strengthen oversight of
all aspects of the university, said trustee Robert Schottenstein.
Shortly
after Tressel ended his 10-year run at Ohio State, which included the
2002 national championship, star quarterback Terrelle Pryor — one of the
suspended players — left the school, hoping to try his luck in an NFL
supplemental draft.
Tressel met with Ohio State and NCAA officials
on Feb. 8 to discuss the allegations. According to a transcript
released Friday, he said that he made a mistake by keeping the
information from his superiors.
He also said he knew that NCAA sanctions were "inevitable."
"It
was pretty simple. We were either gonna be horribly in trouble from a
criminal standpoint, or we’re gonna be minorly involved in drug, you
know, buying and stuff, or we’re gonna face the NCAA reality that we did
some things with our memorabilia we’re not allowed to do," he said. "I
was totally confident one of those was gonna happen."
The U.S.
attorney’s office notified Ohio State officials last December that it
discovered some Ohio State memorabilia during a raid. That led to the
investigation into five players who were suspended, but allowed to
participate in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4.
Tressel was asked if he
would have never come forward if the government had not sent the letter.
"Never is a long time. I don’t know," he replied.
"I had
confidence in the federal government that they were gonna do what they
were supposed to do," he said. "They didn’t need my help to do it, nor
did they need my interruption to do it."
The NCAA also said in its
letter released Friday that it investigated a Sports Illustrated report
that said nine more players sold memorabilia to the tattoo parlor
owner, but confirmed that only one had any dealings with the man.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.