OSU Q&A

1) Do I think that there is at least some element of truth to Clarett's allegations? Yes.

2) Do I think players got money from boosters? Yes.

3) Do I think that happens at a lot of other top football or basketball schools? No. I think it happens at all other top football and basketball schools. And some not top ones, too.

4) Do I think that Jim Tressel actually called a car dealership himself and knowingly set up a free car for Clarett? No. He's much smarter than that. If it happened, he had a graduate assistant do it.

5) Do I think ESPN can prove any of the serious things they allege in the articles? No.

6) Do you think that there's any reason to consider any of the primary sources on this (Clarett, Sammy Maldonado, and Marco Cooper) particularly reliable? Ummm... let's see... you have a pathological liar who left the school on bad terms, a cokehead who left the school on bad terms, and a thug who got busted with drugs and a gun... who left the school on bad terms. No reason to question their motives. Interestingly, in the article where they were blowing Maldonado, I didn't see them mention anywhere about how he failed a drug test during his time in Maryland. Also, maybe the fact that he's a retard who had to take remedial classes when he got to OSU... maybe THAT had something to do with his credits not transferring.

7) So, given the fact that the sources are all highly dubious and ESPN likely can't prove any of their allegations (either because they're not true, or because OSU wasn't stupid enough to leave a paper trail), should they have published the story? Probably not.

8) Should they have turned this into the orgy of multimedia (magazine, website, TV) that it has become? Absolutely not.

9) Should OSU self-impose a one-year death penalty on the athletic department, as a CNNSI columnist has suggested? Yes. Absolutely. Based on this uncorroborated word of pathological liars and druggies, all of whom have an ax to grind with OSU. Ya know what? Let's make it two... no... THREE years. Because this is far worse than anything SMU did.

10) Is OSU going to get spanked by the NCAA? Probably not. Supposedly, a lot of this stuff was already investigated, and cleared. I don't expect anything new to come out of this, other than a world of shit flowing out of the mouths of Purdue fans this weekend.

To sum up: Yes, OSU cheats. No, it's not worse than any other comperable program. No, ESPN can't prove it. No, they shouldn't have run this story. No, it won't cost the school its championship. Yes, it will go away.