OT: Jim Tressel named President of Youngstown State
Speeches about integrity, values, and honor are a staple of university presidents everywhere, and "lip service" doesn't begin to describe the situation at YSU now.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/05/09/0509-jim-tress…
However, SnowSucks is a big fan of Tressel and YSU's decision, so Sweatervest has that going for him.
Maybe I'm the only one who is actually surprised by this? I laughed when I heard he even applied. It really must be about fundraising, which is crazy. Can't he just be vp of development then???
Let me get back to you on that. Happy Easter ! !
The first major announcement by President Sweatervest: A new four-year major program in Tattoo Arts. Suggested minor: Sports Trophy Marketing.
My god. Look at the comments at the end of the articles that are reporting the story. Are all people in Ohio insane!?
Just yes.
and thought about who used to be some of the Presidents of major universities and colleges beginning in the 1800's they'd realize that it hasn't really been until the last 40 or 50 years that president of a university became a profession of sorts.
Good for Coach T, expanding his professional aptitude beyond football coach. I'm sure he could have blissfully retired.
Tressel takes the football job @ YSU... then becomes head football coach of OSU.
Tressel becomes President @ YSU...
When he becomes President of OSU, he can fix all the problems that caused the football program to get caught and punished, to allow Meyer to run an SEC system with total impunity.
Is that Ivy League?
What, no comments on YSU's choice for University Treasurer, Jack Abramoff?
Yeah, they fucked that one up bad— Bernie Madoff was the obvious choice.
I wondered the same but found this quote from an unnamed member of the Board of Trustees, "Yeah, we could've had Bernie but his reputation really took a hit these last few years. Besides, we gotta keep 'em guessing, right? Anyway, gotta run, meeting with Oscar Pistorius about a combo role - track coach and OCR liason."
Are you talking about the guy who rigged a raffle so a prized recruit could win? What was this guy's "one" mistake?
His "one" mistake was repeatedly breaking rules at multiple institutions. Oh, and lying about it.
So, his TWO mistakes were . . .
I wasnt using the word one like he has only ever done one thing wrong...I meant like it was the one he got caught doing that was the downfall of his coaching career. Like I said, I knew i would get downvoted into the abyss, but I will stand by every word I wrote. He is a good man.
Ok, so ..."the one he got caught doing was the downfall of his coaching career"...and that somehow makes it better? He did tons of things wrong. Let's ignore the repeated lying. Let's ignore the many uncharged violations. Let's ignore that he rigged a raffle (ok, that's hard...he rigged a fucking raffle to please a recruit). The guy has no morals and brags about his piety (and awesome holding themselves out as pious is pretty much a lock to be a piece of shit anyway). Fuck him.
To quote Samuel Jackson, "A sewer rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I'll never know cause I'd never eat that filthy mutherfucker."
A couple of decades back I worked for a company that had a tradition of holding a raffle at the main national trade convention each year (I won't name the company or the line of business, if you don't mind). LEAVE YOUR BUSINESS CARD AND YOU COULD WIN A HARLEY!!!
I got back to the hotel room we were using as our base to find several of the top executives at the company going through the pile of business cards to decide who the winner should be. One of our big clients? An account we were trying to win?
I'm not sure why I was surprised. There certainly wasn't any sense coming from anyone involved that they thought they were doing anything improper, or even unusual.
That's the first image that came to me when I read the SI piece. What's an outrage to the general public might very well be SOP.
Illegal? Not sure (but probably). Unethical? 100%
Of course, I doubt anyone at your company penned a book titled "Promises from God on Achieving Your Best". They were just doing a kinda sleazy thing at a convention. Lots of sleazy things happen at trade conventions (I learned that watching sitcoms). Tressel, however, if he's anywhere near the person he professes to be, shouldn't be lying to and stealing money from kids.
Here is the thing that OSU fans just don't get.
Tressel is at heart a decent man or at least really believes himself to be. He certainly cares for his players and I'd rather send my hypothetical son to play for him than to Penn State at anytime during the Paterno-Sandusky era.
And he's still a sanctimonious lying-ass liar. He's not even trying to play by the same rules as his peers. He may not be wrong about the arbitrary ridiculousness of some NCAA rules, but regardless they are the rules he signed up to uphold as a coach and it's not like he tripped over his own feet trying to observer them (which most of us would agree is understandable given the labyrinthine nature of NCAA bylaws). He willfully ignored them time and again and reaped the benefit of doing so.
I'm sure he may very well have still went 9-1 against us even if he'd been trying to operate within a country mile of the rules. But he didn't. That he was exhorted along the way by the unwashed masses of Ohio for being a paragon of Winning The Right Way (tm) is mere insult to injury. I've read encomia ad nauseam from Elven Warrior commenters and even M fans like our dearly departed Section 1 about what a great man he was in the community. Which, really, is super. It's also part of your unwritten job as a head coach of a major institution.
Let's not mince words. Tressel is now president of YSU because his was a very good coach for Ohio State who didn't see fit to play by the rules because they didn't apply to him. And if we're being truthful he will be a perfect fit for Youngstown, an area which still lionizes disgraced ex-Congressman James Traficant
"Great" and "man" are the key words. He is great because he cares about people and is trying to do the right thing. But he is also a man - subject to missteps, errors, and sins of the venial and cardinal variety. The only way people can revile him is if they take the few examples of his imperfection and do not put it alongside and in the context of the large amount of examples of the good he has done.
And I disagree about coaches having to be good stewards in their community because it is "Part of the job description." There are plenty of coaches who do jack shit for the communities they live in, and certainly not even close to the amount of good Tressel did for central Ohio.
The guy that was our legal counsel there is still a good friend; I might run this by him some time. I'm willing to bet nobody did then.
My guess for now, w/o his expert opinion, is that the line of legality is crossed if you make any reference to the drawing being random. "You could win" is literally true. "We're holding a random drawing" is a flat-out lie. Maybe that lie only becomes illegal if you accept something of value in exchange for the chance in the drawing? But of course if those business cards truly had no value, we wouldn't have gone to such lengths to get them.
He has done some questionable things in the past. Haven't we all? I know I have fucked up many a time, done things a lot worse than rig a raffle or lie about a stupid football team and cover up kids getting tattoos for free.
I suppose we will just agree to disagree. I have seen first hand living in columbus things that he has done for this city, and institutions here that he did not have to do outside of OSU but gave of himself anyway. He certainly accomplished a lot more good than bad in his time here, and I would wager in his lifetime.
I understand you have not experienced these things because you do not live in central Ohio, so you would not understand where I am coming from.
I'm interested to know why someone doing something good makes up for or cancels out the bad things they did. That makes no sense to me. My bad opinion of Tressel was solidified when I watched the ESPN 30 for 30 "Youngstown Boys." The fact that people charged with governing a university are willing to put him in charge of it boggles my mind.
Tressel rigged a meaningless raffle to land a recruit and lied to the NCAA about knowing about his players selling their OWN shit for money or exchanging them for tatoos. Who was hurt by his actions besides himself? Let's stop pretending that his breaking of the rules was a detriment to society. Especially after each passing day we are reminded of how ridiculous those rules are to begin with.
Pryor's "OWN shit" he was selling was stuff he'd either stolen from the university or been given by the university (or perhaps it was by an employee, without authorization). Equipment and uniforms belongs to the school, not the player.
Everybody else's "OWN shit" was stuff they'd been given by the university, gifts that would have been violations had OSU (and I think Georgia? there was another school involved with the requst) not appealed to have exceptions made, with the understanding that players could not sell the objects given.
Allowing players to monetize gifts from the school is exactly the same as the school paying players. You may be OK with schools paying players, in which case that's what you should say. Hiding behind ownership under these circumstances is hypocrisy.
I'm referring to Maurice Clarett and the kid at Youngstown State who allegedly took money from a booster. Anytime someone cheats, in my opinion, it hurts the sport.
When I was a kid, both my grandparents lived in Akron. I spent time there visiting them, and Akron has a special place in my heart. In fact, both my parents and an unlce went to Akron. So, I have always kinda, sorta liked the University of Akron. Therefore, I am very happy to see Mr. Tressel going elsewhere.
(BTW - September 14, 2013 was one of the most frightening days of my life.)
Jim Tressel, Mickey Monus, Ray Isaac, Leslie Cochran...Jim Tressel.
I don't see anybody on their Board now that can play the Monus role but I'm sure they can work something out.
Make one mistake, it can be forgotten...two mistakes, ok maybe something's amiss...as many "mistakes" as Tressel made (and repeatedly lied about, and then lied about lying about), you probably shouldn't be president of anything
Forget tattoo-gate. Way, way secondary here. The fact that he does not have a Ph.D. and was hired as PRESIDENT because he was a good FOOTBALL COACH says all you need to know. A public university doing this should embarrass the entire state.
Have you ever been to Ohio?
Well, I certainly wish Tress the Mess the best of luck. Hopefully, the YSU football coach won't fire him.
YSU is now the avatar of everything that is wrong with the University/Div 1 athletic complex. I now hate them even more that I hate the Minnesota Twins. Even Ohio State had the decency to fire him when they got caught (instead of hiring him to be the University President. Gordon Gee's joke is now looking like prophecy.) I now wish ill on anyone associated with this institution of higher corruption. If you enroll/work at YSU after knowing this, you deserve whatever happens to you. I want to see the University bankrupted, its buildings demolished brick by brick, and the ground plowed with sailt.
Youngstowno Delenda Est!