It's called a bitter kid. The NCAA already investigated all the crap he's talking about in this ESPN article and they found OSU not to be at fault or no truth to any of the stuff he's talking about. To confirm the story, ESPN interviewed Marco Cooper, a former OSU player who was suspended from the team for a marijuana charge and then while on suspension was found passed out in a car parked along a street on campus in the middle of the night, with bags of crack cocaine and a loaded 9mm pistol in the passenger seat. Probably not the best guy to talk with when trying to look legitimate.
"Uh, yes. You in the back in the yellow and blue tie." "Hi. Chris Webber, Ann Arbor Times. My question is for Ms. Holbrook. Ms. Holbrook if this indeed proves to be true, will you be handing back your National Championship trophy the way Michigan did in basketball? After all, wasn't it your fans that were relentless during that investigation in their insistance in them doing just that? Thank you, I'll sit down and listen to your answer."
That's ok, Michigan didn't actually win one. Clarett thinks Tressel could've turned around this PR nightmare for him? That's even crazier than his accusations. This kid just does not have a realistic view of his situation. The part where Clarett tried to get back is very revealing. Tressel said work out at 6 am every day and get a 3.5 GPA (I assume AIDS Awareness is still a course at tOSU) and Clarett says F that. Seems reasonable enough to me that a student suspended for lying and getting grades under mysterious circumstances should have to prove some dependability.
Clarett's accusations strike me mostly as the product of a guy who's been accustomed to heaps of attention suddenly getting none. Maldanado's story is far more damning than Clarett's IMO. The real problem is how tOSU's low academic standards for their football players puts those players at a disadvantage when they transfer. When Maldanado transferred, something like 17 of his 42 credits were acceptable to other schools, because the vast majority were either in remedial courses or in courses like Officiating Basketball and Power Volleyball. Obviously, this kind of lowered expectation is a problem at a lot of institutions, but it seems especially egregious at Ohio State. Obviously for every story like Maldando, there is a story like Krenzel or Robert Smith coming out of Ohio State. But situations like Maldanado's call into question whether football is leading the academic side of Ohio State (its main mission as an institution) to fail these kids. I know it was a problem under Cooper, but it's unclear whether it's getting any better under Tressel.
I truly enjoyed the piece on Madanado. The stuff movies are made of in my opinion. Fall of a tragic hero, let his hubris drive his life, only to come back and be challenged and overcome. If I had the cash and time, I'd buy the rights to his story and write a treatment... Anyhow, this is mere conjecture, but I would feel that University's might intentionally give Football players courses as such, not only to keep them eligible, but to also deter them from transferring. Kind of a bush-league tactic, but I don't put it past Athletic Directors at all. As for my thoughts on whether or not OSU did the things that Clarret accused them of... come on guys, do we really have that much faith in OSU? I mean, I wouldn't trust Mo Clarret to babysit my dog, much less trust a lot of what he says, but my lack of trust in Maurice Clarret is rivaled only by my lack of trust in DivIA perennial football powerhouses.
This is not surprising. Some of my friends play at big time schools and I won't name them so they won't get in trouble, but they receive free money all the time. I played HS football with them and they have some cool stories for me. My friends tell me about the secrect $100 handshake. If the team wins a game, they meet with several alumnai afterwards and shake their hands. Each hand shake usually get's them $50-$100. My friend had so much money he bought me an PS2 and Madden 2005 + NCAA football 2005. We play online all the time and I appreciate it. Sometimes they do not know what to do with all of the money.
Former OSU running back Robert Smith said today, while he didn't receive anything, he knew plenty of players that did. Not good news for Ohio State.
NFL scouts won't like the sound of that. Seriously though, this is big time college football. There are no good guys here. And the fans are so stupid for buying into the "amateurism" charade. College football is professional football, except there's no salary cap.
Oh yes, because it's just the OSU program where money is handed out I knew many college football players back when I was in college and even at my university <Miami University> which was no football powerhouse until Benny Rothlisberger came along, players were "given" money from boosters. It happens at every program around the nation, if the NCAA really wanted to nail every program at the D1 level they could...
What surprises me isn't that this came out, but that people are actually surprised. What? Corruption in big time football? The only reason we don't hear about stuff like this more often is because it's not in anyone's interest to clean up the system. Not the players, coaches, school administrators, boosters or fans. It takes a tactless bastard like Clarett for big time football to get a much desired punch in the crotch, and for that, I salute the dumbass. You gotta like a guy who uses his stupidity to fight evil. Jason Whitlock with his cynical and honest take: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=whitlock/041111&CMP=OTC-DT9705204233
The booster stuff seems inevitable and almost impossible to police, especially with "unofficial" boosters. What OSU needs to do is reform its relationship between the athletic department and its academics. It's ridiculous for a student leaving a Research I institution to have half of his credits denied by someplace like Grambling. It damages the university's core institutional and academic priorities.
this needs to happen at more places the ncaa needs to get off their butts and do something for these kids... they are making tons of money... let's quit lying about why they go to these schools and trussel's been connected to this stuff in the past