SI.com’s Tressel Piece A Must Read For College Sports Fans

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If you haven’t read Sports Illustrated’s cover story on now-deposed Ohio State coach Jim Tressel… you need to.  The piece by George Dohrmann and David Epstein is an unflinching look at the often nasty underbelly of college athletics.

Now that headlines about OSU and Tressel are piling up, it’s likely that the majority of America’s sports fans will simply say, “What a bunch of dirty cheaters” and then move right along.  But those who think a bit longer on the subject will consider Ohio State’s situation — and contemplate the rule-bends and look-the-other-ways documented in the SI piece — and wonder: “Does that kind of thing go on at my favorite school, too?”

The probable answer: Yes.

Anyone who’s spent time on a big-time college campus knows that some athletes drive very nice cars they have no business owning or driving.  They know that there are a few restaurants and bars on campus where athletes tend to congregate and that often those sites give the players “VIP treatment.”  Get to know an athlete and you’ll likely learn that players know who and where to turn if they should need a hundred bucks here or there. 

In other words, this kind of thing goes on everywhere.

Fans across the country point fingers at the SEC… and thanks to the league’s recent high-profile troubles, it’s hard to fend off the barbs.  But just as it’s inaccurate to suggest that only the SEC cheats, it’s just as improper to point a quick finger at Ohio State and declare them America’s top villain.

Cheating goes on, folks.  Everywhere.  Don’t believe me?  Then ask yourself how all of your favorite school’s top football and basketball players can afford to cover their bodies in tattoo “sleeves” that would normally cost them thousands of dollars.

Ohio State has been caught.  And Ohio State will be rightfully punished.  That’s how the system works and I’m all for a deterrent system based on smashing the guy who does get caught.

But the SEC, the Big Ten, and all the other conferences making up the NCAA have bigger issues than Tressel and OSU right now.  Some boosters will always look for advantage.  Some young men will always be willing to take an extra benefit here or there.  And some/many coaches will always be willing to look the other way.

Ohio State is just the latest symptom of a much bigger cancer that’s growing — right along with television contracts and coaches’ salaries — on the face of college athletics.