Sports Then and Now

Jim Tressel's Gatorade bath following the Sugar Bowl will be his last as head coach at Ohio State.

Given the embarrassing black eye that he has bestowed upon one of the proudest universities in big-time college football I guess it is ultimately no surprise to learn that Jim Tressel has coached his last game at Ohio State, but with the Buckeyes now squarely in the sights of NCAA investigators it is still unclear if this move will significantly reduce the inevitable penalties the school now appears to be facing.

From the president to the staff to the fans, Ohio State has long been among the national leaders in football arrogance. When the president said last fall that schools such as Boise State and TCU didn’t belong on the same field as the Buckeyes, the Buckeye Nation shook their heads in agreement.

But what made Ohio State so proud and they believed justified their cockiness wasn’t just their great record on the field, but also the pride in knowing that they accomplished their success the right way. While other programs were regularly answering NCAA inquiries, the Buckeyes ran what seemed like a clean program and were under the leadership of a coach who wrote books about integrity and doing things the right way.

But then last December the walls started to come down on this great facade.

Just days before facing Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, news came out that five players, including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, had violated NCAA rules by selling rings and other memorabilia for cash and reduced prices on tattoos.

At the time the story seemed very contained and only became more than a minor story when the NCAA suspended the players for the first five games of the 2011 season, but let them play in the bowl game.

Critics of Ohio State cried foul, but it was obvious the power and influence Ohio State had over the BCS and NCAA. Read the rest of this entry →

Caroline Seger returned to Philadelphia to face her former team.

Philadelphia’s Megan Rapinoe drew first blood early in the match, at home in a hot, humid Quick Stadium. Coming into today’s first confrontation with league leading Western New York Flash, the Independence was riding a three game win streak and appeared to be the only club left in Women’s Professional Soccer that might have a realistic chance of beating Marta and company. Rapinoe scored on a long, high shot from right to left, catching Flash keeper Ashlyn Harris dozing while the ball sailed hard into the upper left netting. With that goal, it looked as if the Flash may have indeed met their match.

It didn’t take long, though, for Western New York to even the match with a typical front third assault, capped off by a beautiful header from Becky Edwards into the right corner. Edwards had scored a similar strike against Magic Jack at home last week on her birthday. Read the rest of this entry →