Di-Vesting an Asset

The nearly 6 month long soap opera that is Jim Tressel and the Ohio State University Football program continued today with it's biggest plot twist yet---The head coach himself announced his resignation on Monday, sending shock waves throughout the college football nation. Tressel's decision to step down amid an investigation into the program that seemed to worsen with each passing news cycle came on the heels of the dreaded "vote of confidence" from Athletic Director Gene Smith. In the end, the program and university proved to be bigger than the wildly popular coach, a thought that as recently as 6 months ago would have been borderline blasphemous in Columbus, Ohio.

Before the story broke during Sugar Bowl preparations last December, Jim Tressel was untouchable in every sense of the word. He won the overwhelming majority of his football games, including regularly beating Michigan, and had been to 8 BCS games in 9 years, with one of those being a National Championship in 2002. Perhaps more importantly, he was the model citizen, openly promoting a respectful and disciplined lifestyle based on his closely held Christian beliefs. He urged his players to do live accordingly, even writing a book detailing how to do that. He was big on charity and public service, and the people of Columbus loved him for it, as they should. He could have run for governor and won......in a landslide.

Now six months later, the parallels to politics are striking. There is the story, with deception and manipulation and questionable characters on the periphery. There is the initial denial and expression of disappointment, plausible deniability, if you will. There is the media investigation that uncovered further inconsistencies by those involved, including the head coach, and then there is the final, inevitable resignation amid rumours of harsh punishments and indictments by the governing body, the NCAA. Even the resignation smacked of politics, with it's Memorial Day timing, not unlike the "putting out the trash" Friday protocol popular in Washington. It was just one last effort to stay ahead of the story.

In the end, the same rules apply to Jim Tressel as they do to any other powerful figure caught in a scandal---The Truth Always Comes Out. You see, I believe that Jim Tressel is a good man. I believe that all of those respectful and charitable acts he has done throughout his career have been genuine and sincere. I believe he is a phenomenal teacher of men and that he will almost certainly use this to make a difference in the lives of young people, just as he always had. I believe he made a horrendous error in judgment, and that error precipitated a chain of events that led us to today. I also believe that you cannot lie and mislead people without consequence. The cover-up is always worse than the crime.

I've heard all the reasons and excuses---"They were the players' things to sell", "He was just protecting them", "Somebody else HAD to know...." I've heard them all. The bottom line is this: All that matters is Jim Tressel was complicit in a violation of NCAA rules on some level. The "Why" is irrelevant.