Buckeye Blogger Network
Not really helpful
I need your input
Here’s the situation- I’ve got a friend who’s a die-hard Trojan fan that was giving me grief about the latest Tressel “news” (and you wonder why Ray was in the doghouse…). I know… savor the irony.
Anyway, after we moved past our mutual schadenfreude (I’m working the steps, trust me), we started talking about who we could “follow” that wouldn’t give us these types of headaches. Fear not, this was a hypothetical exercise… I’m still on task.
We looked at BCS champions from the past decade, and many of them have “issues”- USC, Ohio State, Auburn (do I need to say it?), Alabama (oversigning and agent issues from last year), LSU (allegations of working with “agents” with recruiting), Florida (multiple arrests), and we could only come up with Texas. But Texas has a minor scandal in their basketball past… so that made us double think that selection.
So- Here’s the question:
What major college athletic program could someone follow that met the following criterion?
Ok, so there’s the rules. Sure, some of these might be “more” significant than others, but I’ve got a feeling that those distinctions will be pretty subjective.
We have a ton of great readers here from a lot of different programs and with varying perspectives, so I’m interested in what you all decide. It will be interesting too to see one person nominate their school and have someone else offer a “Well, what about…” Be respectful, folks.
And, before the trolls come out, this is not an attempt to deflect responsibility from the current Ohio State situation: we firmly believe that accountability is a part of the process. I’m really interested to hear what our readers come up with.
I’ve got one program in mind, but I’ll wait until later today to see if anyone else might be thinking the same. Have at it!
May 26th, 2011 at 8:00 am
BYU?
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ErictBBC
May 26th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
I’m officially not allowed commenting on this one. Someone else will have to do it ;D
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MaliBuckeye
May 26th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Wait… no one said “Wisconsin”…
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Irricoir
May 27th, 2011 at 9:42 am
I like their honor code as along as its expectations fall evenly across the board. Their is slepticism that that actualy occurs.
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May 26th, 2011 at 8:07 am
Va Tech?
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ErictBBC
May 26th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Marcus Vick, ‘nough said. Don’t even need to touch his older brother’s sordid past.
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Irricoir
May 27th, 2011 at 9:40 am
Yeah Virginia Tech would get my vote too. There only issues have been the turd brothers. You can’t hold VT accountable for what Michael did after getting drafted. (Unless they covered up dog fighting in the dorm rooms? Fan the rumor. GO!) Marcus is the only negative detractor but from what i remember it was his thugish behavior on one play. I don’t know if he had repetitive problems while in attendance? Their Basketball team isn’t supperb but they have done fairly well recently.
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May 26th, 2011 at 9:42 am
Duke?
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ErictBBC
May 26th, 2011 at 10:14 am
My response to this would be the Duke Lacrosse situation a couple of years ago – but not because of anything the athletes did (they didn’t do anything).
Duke killed themselves as a viable program to root for when their professors fed the Lacrosse team to the dogs with no evidence to support their guilt.
Clearly “Innocent until proven Guilty” means a lot in Durham, NC.
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MaliBuckeye
May 26th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Agreed, although for Duke I’d have to argue that they haven’t been all that successful outside of men’s bball. Oh, and there were a ton of questions about their sociology program that all the basketball players are in.
That being said, a big welcome to Ohio State’s newest video coordinator!
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May 26th, 2011 at 11:57 am
Penn State.
#1. Is one of 10 programs to be ranked in every Learfield Sports Director’s Cup in every single poll (essentially the official point system you are talking about in #1)
#2. is now one of just 2 programs in the nation’s six major football-playing conferences, plus Notre Dame without a blemish of NCAA infractions http://tinyurl.com/4zhbaw8
#3. Lawlessness might get us, with the recent fights and the DUIs.
#4. There’s denying the importance of the student athlete at Penn State. “Success with Honor” consistently surpassing the four-year average APR scores across the board. http://tinyurl.com/4376lpk
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MaliBuckeye
May 26th, 2011 at 12:14 pm
That’s not a bad set of arguments, Charlie… I like the Director’s Cup reference, although there’s no question that PSU is still primarily a football power (no disrespect to the women’s/men’s volleyball teams).
Yeah, the lawlessness piece might be a bit hard to handle in the long term. It’s what bumps Nebraska from this list, in my opinion.
The Director’s Cup thing is actually a clue to my vote… I’ll jump in later.
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Irricoir
May 27th, 2011 at 9:34 am
Didn’t you say championship caliber?
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NorCal Buckeye
May 27th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Zing!
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May 26th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Regarding #4, Ohio State is second in the Big Ten in terms of average APR in football over the past five years behind only Northwestern. Just throwing it out there.
So is there no denying the importance of the student athlete at Ohio State? I highly doubt that is the national perception.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2011/05/25/osu-receives-high-grades.html?sid=101
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May 26th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
I’m somewhat surprised no one has mentioned Stanford yet.
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MaliBuckeye
May 26th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Ding Ding Ding! That’s my answer… although they’re a bit up and down in football. We’ll see if anything changes now that they have a new coach.
They dominate the Director’s Cup, and seem to do a good job staying out of the news. Good baseball, decent basketball, great academics.
And I hear their alumni have no problems scoring with the ladies…
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May 26th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
It pains me to say this, but what about Notre Dame?
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Jim
May 26th, 2011 at 6:22 pm
They just had the whole “kid running a camera dying after falling off the scissor lift at football practice in ridiculously high wind that he had no business being out in” that they basically paid the family off to prevent it from going to court. It wasn’t necessarily student-athlete related, but it was certainly a black eye for the program.
They also had the incident with Cincinatti OT Matt James falling to his death on spring break shortly after enrolling at ND, a tragic situation that isn’t directly related to the football program either, but also a circumstance that detracts from calling them “clean”.
Both of these incidents occurred within the past two years, and I am sure there are more if you did deeper. Also, didn’t Holtz put them on probation or come damn close to it, which is part of the reason he left his beloved ND?
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MaliBuckeye
May 26th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
As well as the “girl who committed suicide after saying she was sexually assaulted by a ND football player who wasn’t punished by the University” thing. There’s that.
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Jim
May 26th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Yeah, I vaguely knew about that, but wasn’t sure enough of the details to go into it.
Funny thing when the media selectively ignores certain stories while making others seem like the biggest sports scandal in the history of sports.
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ErictBBC
May 26th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Making a poor decision on the weather and causing a young student to die in tragic fashion is pretty bad IMHO.
Sure, they’re ok in other ways, have a great basketball program and a (hopefully rising) football program. But that is a huge stain on that athletic department.
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May 27th, 2011 at 8:20 am
Stanford would have been my answer also, although Texas is a pretty good choice.
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May 27th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Stanford yes. Penn State no — I’ve heard JoePa is a bit of a phony who gets a lot free passes from the media.
Speaking of which, I love another 1-sided amateuristic piece by ESPN about Ray Small yesterday….with NO mention of all of the teammates that lashed out at Small and called him a liar, not any supporting him. Of course ESPN wouldn’t mention that part of the story — it doesnt fit their hack agenda.
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MaliBuckeye
May 27th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Check out Jonathan Wells’ take on it in today’s podcast, and stay tuned for a Buckeye Saints’ perspective.
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Jim
May 27th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
JoePa a phony!? are you saying that his jokes about not knowing anything about technology aren’t just as funny now as the first time he talked about it. I for one laugh hysterically when he talks about it in every single press conference he has done for the past decade. I am shocked you don’t feel the same.
Also, the running joke with JoePa is that his “punishment” for players is to make them clean the stadium after a game. The discipline is strong in him, which is why players only attack each other with machetes once in awhile instead of all the time.
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April 9th, 2013 at 10:42 pm
Looking back about two year- Notre Dame and Penn State.
Man, what were we thinking??
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