NCAA hearing to decide Buckeyes’ sanctions

By Doug Lesmerises

Cleveland Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS

Reform will be in the air as Ohio State’s seven-person athletic department contingent enters an Indianapolis hotel conference this morning for the school’s hearing before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. During a two-day summit this week, also in Indianapolis, more than 60 NCAA leaders talked about changing the face of college athletics, with ‘integrity’ one of their primary focuses.

It sounds like it might not be a great time for Ohio State and former coach Jim Tressel to be ready to face their punishments.

But when the door closes around 8:30 a.m. and the hearing begins, what’s in the air shouldn’t matter. The 10-member committee will decide Ohio State’s sanctions based on the evidence the NCAA enforcement staff provided and the words of the OSU administrators.

“You focus on the record and the people in front of you,” a former committee member said. “You do not have in mind outside agendas or talk about summits or even media reports. You build a box around your head and keep that stuff out.”

“You don’t go into a hearing weekend thinking, ‘Oh, we’re going to get them this time,’” said former committee member Andrea Myers, the retired athletic director at Indiana State. “I didn’t ever intentionally think about any outside things or what was going on nationally. I can’t tell you nothing ever affected me, but if it did, it wasn’t by choice.”

Ohio State, led by President Gordon Gee, athletic director Gene Smith and current football coach Luke Fickell, will attempt to convince the committee that the penalties the school self-imposed in July should be enough — two years of probation and the vacating of the 2010 Big Ten title season. Tressel will admit to his unethical conduct violations, for not divulging his knowledge of players selling memorabilia and autographs, and attempt to avoid a show-cause penalty that would make it more difficult for him to take another coaching job in the near future, if he so desires.

After a hearing, the committee, made up of conference commissioners, university faculty members and independent attorneys, typically meets through the weekend as a group, going over the case and making final assessments. So by Monday, Ohio State’s fate should be decided.

But it won’t be known for about six weeks, as a committee member is assigned to write the report, which other members then examine and edit before it is released.

Certainly, Ohio State could face additional penalties when that final decision is announced. But given the nature of the allegations, and the precedent of previous cases, a bowl ban is unlikely though a reduction of some scholarships is possible.

What this hearing should not do is serve as the NCAA’s moment to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. The NCAA summit, which included 50 university presidents, talked about implementing uniform, and more serious penalties for certain charges. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Ohio State has a popular, wealthy football program that committed serious violations, but don’t expect Ohio State to be used as an example to let the rest of the NCAA know that the system in changing.