people really need to get over tressel's transgression. seriously. he did not "cheat" in anyway to gain an unfair advantage. we all know the ncaa is a joke, yet we love to hold their decisions over the heads of coaches and programs we disfavor. it is rather ridiculous that some committee of nameless freaks can tell a private individual how he has to treat his personal property. yes, the greatest sin is to lie to the ncaa, but we can use some judgment and discernment when qualifying the transgression.
for crap's sake, miami received hardly any (any?) sanctions for actually cheating to gain a competitive advantage. unc received no sanctions for fabricating classes so student athletes could play the game. and here we are at good ole u.n. of l suffering sanctions for giving too many school books.
but no, by all means tressel is a cheater and should be banished from everything.
I have a few thoughts in response to this...
First, why bring Miami and UNC into it? They are completely irrelevant - because they didn't get punished the way they should have in no way exonerates Jim Tressel for being punished the way he should have. I can't speak for others, but personally, the fact the NCAA punished him isn't what I hold over his head - the fact that he cheated and lied through it all is what I hold over his head, even if he wouldn't have been punished. I don't want anyone associated with the Miami or UNC scandals to be involved here either.
Second, I know you didn't say this in your post, but the prevailing "pro-Tressel" sentiment is "he lied to protect his players", which I disagree with. He lied to protect himself, and it was in his own best interest to keep his players eligible. That is a huge dinstinction that immediately makes this entirely different than, say, the Lawrence Phillips situation.
Third, why are people acting like tattoo gate is his only black eye?
Youngstown State self-inflicted a lack of institutional control penalty against themselves because of what was decided to be Tressel's fault and doing, purposefully distancing himself from the initial investigation into impermissable benefits and also with testimony that he was the one that called Mickey Monus (the booster that gave the kid the massive benefits) asking him to set up a job for his quarterback.
Probably the biggest smoking gun of all - what about Maurice Clarett? Of course, there's no saying definitively what is or isn't true, but Clarret testifies (as do other anonymous sources that agree with elements of his story) towards an entire system of benefits, phantom jobs, guaranteed class grades, vehicles, etc.
THEN you throw in tattoo gate, and Tressel has dirty hands everywhere he's been and not just isolated incidents.