Yesterday, Jim Tressel resigned from his position as head coach at (the) Ohio State University. To me, it was inevitable that he would resign. Why wouldn't he? He seemed like he had at least some of a brain and knew that was the best thing he could do for himself and the school. The damage is done, the faster he leaves, the faster they can move on.
For this story, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of speaking from my high horse, I asked some of my friends with varying interests in sports to get a better picture on how people feel about this situation, winning, and cheating in general. I also took a look at ESPN's Sportsnation to get a national picture about this.
My first question, on a scale of 1-10, how important is winning? 50% of those asked said 10, and not one person said anything less than an 8. Why have a rooting interest in a team if you don't want them to win? "I think in a bcs school coaches kinda have to turn their head if they want to keep a job becuase in the schools eye winning is everything." - Mike
The second question, on a scale of 1-10 how important is the football program being clean? Only 30% of those asked gave this a 9 or above. One responder said that they "expect them to be dirty" and that if they were cheating like the other schools, they weren't trying hard enough.
The third question was if you could get away with it, would you break the rules? It was 50/50 on this subject. The irony was that some of the applicants that said they would cheat also wanted a very clean program image.
The final question was between the Boosters, Players, and Coaches, where should most of the blame go? The Boosters were a favorite bad guy with this question, with all responders but one putting at least a majority of the blame on them. Only one person put most of the blame on the players. "How can you expect (coaches) to babysit 105 kids 24/7/365? All they can do is preach the rules and consequences and hope it sticks with the kids."
Thoughts from ESPN.com:
For this story, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of speaking from my high horse, I asked some of my friends with varying interests in sports to get a better picture on how people feel about this situation, winning, and cheating in general. I also took a look at ESPN's Sportsnation to get a national picture about this.
My first question, on a scale of 1-10, how important is winning? 50% of those asked said 10, and not one person said anything less than an 8. Why have a rooting interest in a team if you don't want them to win? "I think in a bcs school coaches kinda have to turn their head if they want to keep a job becuase in the schools eye winning is everything." - Mike
The second question, on a scale of 1-10 how important is the football program being clean? Only 30% of those asked gave this a 9 or above. One responder said that they "expect them to be dirty" and that if they were cheating like the other schools, they weren't trying hard enough.
The third question was if you could get away with it, would you break the rules? It was 50/50 on this subject. The irony was that some of the applicants that said they would cheat also wanted a very clean program image.
The final question was between the Boosters, Players, and Coaches, where should most of the blame go? The Boosters were a favorite bad guy with this question, with all responders but one putting at least a majority of the blame on them. Only one person put most of the blame on the players. "How can you expect (coaches) to babysit 105 kids 24/7/365? All they can do is preach the rules and consequences and hope it sticks with the kids."
Thoughts from ESPN.com:
- "Bottom line Tressel was more worried about winning than doing the right thing." -- SN commenter txbornsooner
And from what I have found, that's just part of the game. The ecstasy of gold, the importance of winning, is more important than being clean. And even though the NCAA cracks down on this behavior, they turn a blind eye to graduation rates of programs. In the end, nobody is going to remember the 8-4 with a 100% graduation rate and no NCAA infractions. But people will always remember that magical feeling of the 13-0 National Title run. Even if in the back of their mind, they know it may have come at a high cost.
The schools love this too. The dirtier the coach the more wins they get and more people want to donate money. I'm sure this happens everywhere!!!
ReplyDeleteAlso name me one coach that isn't "more worried about winning than doing the right thing."???
ReplyDeleteSad sign of the times if you ask me. The closer you are to something, the easier it is to overlook a lack of integrity and honor. Those words used to mean something. Now it's all about getting caught and getting away with as much as possible.
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