Strike up the bands and play the fight songs! College football is in full swing. With the fall comes another academic year of college sports. Every year, there is one scandal or another (usually several) that rock college athletics. Today, Elena Verlee of Online Colleges was nice enough to share the following article about the big whoppers of all time to rock college sports. You can find the original article at www.onlinecolleges.net.

The 10 Most Embarrassing Moments in NCAA History

by Staff Writers

July 31, 2012

We all love to see the embarrassing “Not Top 10″ plays where a player, say, picks up a football and runs it into the wrong endzone. It’s lighthearted fun that no doubt leaves the player feeling a bit sheepish for a little while. But sometimes, sports programs find themselves embroiled in much deeper, much more disgraceful scenarios of their own design. These highly public embarrassments can ruin lives, cost schools thousands or millions of dollars, and leave the entire country with a bad taste in its mouth. These 10 cases are hopefully the most embarrassing moments in NCAA history any of us will have to witness.

1. Jerry Sandusky brings down Joe Paterno:

   What a horrible irony that Penn State’s alma mater includes the words, “May no act of ours bring shame.” For more than 15 years, coaching assistant Jerry Sandusky disgraced the school by sexually abusing boys placed in his care. The resulting embarrassment enveloped once-beloved head coach Joe Paterno, the Penn State football program, the NCAA, and every fan of college football in America. “JoePa” did not live to see his statue removed from its place near Beaver Stadium and forklifted into storage, or his record vacated of more than 100 wins, knocking him from atop the list of winningest college football coaches ever. For the NCAA, having such a man in the record books was clearly too humiliating.
   

2. Reggie Bush stripped of the Heisman:

   Whether college athletes should be paid for their services is a debate worth having. Nevertheless, as the rule stands (and as it stood in the early 2000s), accepting nearly $290,000 in cash and gifts is $290,000 more than players are allowed to accept. USC star running back Reggie Bush was certainly not the first to take people’s offers of limo rides and free housing, but he was the first to go on to win the Heisman Trophy. In a huge black eye for USC and the Heisman Trust, Bush opted to relinquish the award before it was snatched out of his soiled hands, the first time the award has been returned.
   

3. SMU gets the death penalty:

   In the wake of Penn State’s devastating NCAA punishment, many are reminded of another name in the annals of college sports embarrassments: Southern Methodist University. Although Penn State will retain a crippled football program, SMU’s entire 1987 and 1988 seasons were canceled when it was discovered players had been paid thousands of dollars out of a slush fund with the full knowledge of people like former Texas governor and chairman of SMU’s board of governors Bill Clements and AD Bob Hitch. Ironically, Penn State was among the schools who raided SMU’s football roster for players. As a result of the death penalty, SMU’s program took two decades to recover, Clements’ political career was killed, and the Southwest Conference had one of the final nails put in its coffin.
   

4. CCNY point-shaving:

                                   Players accepting money for playing their best is one thing; players taking money for making errors and helping bookies beat the spread is a whole other can of worms. In 1951, a cloud was cast over NCAA basketball when a point-shaving scandal involving seven schools and 32 players came to light. What began with the arrest of three of the stars of City College New York’s NIT-winning 1950 team for conspiring with gangsters to fix games soon spread to NYU, Long Island University, the University of Kentucky, and elsewhere. The scandal remains one of the worst black eyes in college basketball history.
   

5. Jim Tressel and Tattoo-Gate:

     Jim “The Sweater Vest” Tressel was so ensconced as head football coach at Ohio State that when asked if Tressel was going to be fired, OSU president Gordon Gee responded, “No, are you kidding? I’m just hoping the coach doesn’t dismiss me.” Clearly Tressel’s 106-22 record with OSU had brought him significant power, power enough that, when informed his players were selling memorabilia to a known drug dealer in exchange for tattoos, he sat on the knowledge for eight months in 2011. Then he lied to investigators about how long he knew the truth. A red-faced OSU tried to keep Tressel’s chastening to a five-game suspension and $250,000 fine, but ultimately bowed to public pressure and asked for his resignation.
   

6. Minnesota brawls with Ohio State:

   The thought process while watching the clip of this embarrassing moment in college basketball history goes something like this: ‘OK, that was a pretty hard foul. Oh, nice, that player is going to help him up OH, NOT THE GROIN!’ Angered at an impending loss to their Big Ten rivals, Minnesota initiated a street fight by punching and kneeing Ohio State player Luke Witte and then stomping his head while he was on the floor. The crowd even booed him as he was helped off the court on his way to the hospital. The governor of Ohio called it a “public mugging.” Two Minnesota players were suspended for the season, and dunking before games — showboating that the NCAA believed attributed to the hostile environment — was banned.
   

7. Miami brawls with FIU:

   To call this Miami football’s all-time low is saying a lot, considering their history. But on the night of Oct. 14, 2006, the country watched in disgust as Hurricane players goaded Florida International’s Golden Panthers into a fight with taunting and showing off. FIU took the bait. A Golden Panther tackled a holder and punched him, and all hell broke loose. Miami players took their helmets off and used them as weapons. An injured FIU player swung a crutch at some Hurricanes. A ‘Cane body-slammed a Panther. Players were stomped and kicked in the head. State troopers had to help separate the teams. More than 30 players were later suspended. Even a TV commentator, former Hurricane Lamar Thomas, was fired for the embarrassing in-game comments, “You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked.”
   

8. University of Minnesota academic fraud:

   Minnesota basketball managed to go almost 30 years after the 1972 brawl before falling on their faces in front of the country all over again. On the morning of the team’s first-round game in the 1999 NCAA tournament, news broke of a former academic advisor claiming to have written 400 papers for Gopher basketball players over a period of five years, with head coach Clem Haskins’ total knowledge. Haskins later admitted paying the woman to do so and was subsequently fired and banned from coaching college basketball until 2007. Some supporters wished he would have fought harder to clear his name, but he correctly decided that would have only dragged the school’s name further through the mud than it had already traveled.
   

9. Nevin Shapiro blows the whistle on Miami:

   When Nevin Shapiro was imprisoned in 2010 for participating in a nearly $1 billion Ponzi scheme, more than a few people in the college sports world must have started to worry. Such worry is warranted. Eight players on the Miami Hurricanes football team have already been suspended for accepting gifts from this persona non grata, but according to Shapiro, dozens more players are involved. He says from 2002 to 2010 he hooked up at least 72 college players with money, prostitutes, yacht and limo rides, tackle bounties (which are currently roiling the NFL), jewelry, and travel. Shapiro is peeved at his predicament and has vowed he will take Miami football down with him.
   

10. Rick Pitino is blackmailed:

    Three, six, and 15. These are the numbers of Rick Pitino’s most notable achievements: three schools led to the Final Four, six NCAA Tournament regional championships, and 15 seconds of sex with extortionist Karen Cunagin Sypher. In one of Louisville basketball’s most embarrassing moments, and certainly the most embarrassing moment of Pitino’s storied career, the coach had an extremely brief sexual encounter with the wife of his equipment manager in a restaurant booth in 2003. The woman then tried to milk Pitino for $10 million. Pitino called the cops on her but in so doing opened himself up to some humiliating courtroom interrogation and accusations of rape by Sypher. Ultimately he was vindicated, but not until adding another sad chapter to the college sports history books.
    

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College football is only a month away. Strike up the band. Sing the Alma Mater. Recite the fight song! Saturday gridiron action is almost back!

With 21st century America's pastime right around the corner, and in light of recent developments in college sports, I thought the following article on powerful college coaches would be fitting. This article was submitted to us by Elena Verlee of Online Colleges. The original article can be found on the news blog at http://www.onlinecolleges.net/.

10 Colleges With the Most Powerful Coaches

by Staff Writers

July 17, 2012

Ideally, colleges should be well-known, desirable, and popular because of the high quality of educational resources they offer students and other members of the community. Yet, here in the U.S. that’s not always the case. Many schools’ academic programs are eclipsed by the overwhelming popularity of their sports teams, and for better or worse that has made the coaches and head administrators of these teams incredibly powerful figures that dominate what has now become a billion-dollar industry for colleges and universities.

Often, these college coaches command multi-million dollar salaries that outpace those of any other figures at the school (and the budgets of some entire departments) and may even hold quite a bit of influence over the college president and the direction of the school itself. While some coaches have done a lot to help schools, their athletes, and their image through their influence, others have abused their power and made some pretty poor and sometimes downright appalling decisions. The coaches that follow have been some of the most powerful in recent sports history and are well known for their winning streaks, high profiles, and in some cases, distressingly unprofessional misdeeds.

1. Penn State, Joe Paterno:

   
   Paterno was head coach of the Nittany Lions for almost 46 years and holds the record for the most victories by an NCAA Division I coach. He coached five undefeated teams, won major and memorable games, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007. In short, he was one of the winningest and most powerful figures in college football, yet that power had a dark side, as was revealed in 2011. Paterno was fired from Penn State when it was revealed that he not only had knowledge that assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was abusing young men but actively dissuaded other university officials from reporting him to the authorities. Celebrity, high salary, success, a long tenure, and the support of team boosters and college donors gave Paterno power at the university that he shouldn’t have had, influencing the decisions of the board and the president, making him almost impossible to fire, and ultimately causing harm to dozens of young men that could have easily been prevented. Paterno is perhaps one of the clearest and most saddening examples of a college coach who had too much power for far too long.

2. University of Alabama, Nick Saban:

   
   Those who are outraged by how much university administrators make only need to look at astronomically high coaching salaries to put things into perspective. Nick Saban currently holds the record for the highest salary ever paid to a college coach: $32 million over eight years, with use of a university airplane, two cars, and a country club membership to boot. It’s a testament to his power and status at the university that he was able to command this amount, and in 2008 Forbes called him the “Most Powerful Coach in Sports.” More than his salary, however, gained him this distinction. Saban was given complete control over the football program, including recruiting, coaching, business administration, and even marketing. So far, the investment seems to be paying dividends to the university, with a profit of $32 million in his first year of coaching alone and bringing in even more through donations from alumni and school supporters.

3. Ohio State, Jim Tressel:

   
   Think college coaches aren’t really all that powerful? Jim Tressel admitted in 2010 that he had knowledge of his players taking money and tattoos from a drug dealer, concealed this information and did not report it to authorities, let these players start in games, and after all that was defended by the university president for these actions. In fact, Ohio State president Gordon Gee stated that, “I’m just hopeful the coach doesn’t dismiss me.” Gee may have been joking, but there is some distressing truth in his statement about the skewed balance of power in college sports today. Despite his improper actions, Tressel still had the support of the school and the community, with fans showing up at a pep rally to support him. While he was ultimately allowed to resign (a controversial decision in itself), his reputation doesn’t seem to be as tarnished as it should have for his actions, and he now works at the University of Akron as a vice president.

4. Indiana University, Bobby Knight:

   
   Bobby Knight has worked for a number of college teams in his coaching career, each time helping the teams to turn around and become winners, most famously at Indiana where he led the Hoosiers to numerous championships, won several Coach of the Year honors, and was even asked to coach the U.S. Olympic team. Yet Knight is as famous for his fits of temper as his high win count. During his tenure at Indiana he spewed profanities during an NCAA tournament news conference; kicked his son, an IU assistant, and responded with a four-letter obscenity to Indiana fans behind him who booed; refused to let his team finish an exhibition game against a Soviet team; and even purportedly choked one of his players. During all of this bad behavior, Knight was never under any threat of being fired by university president John Ryan who said he couldn’t fire Knight because of the alumni. In fact, it wasn’t until Ryan was replaced as president that Knight was ousted, with Myles Brand making a name for himself at the university for those actions. However necessary, Brand would face outrage, protests, and even threats for his actions, which in retrospect were long overdue and well within his power.

5. Florida State, Bobby Bowden:

   
   Bobby Bowden is one of the most decorated coaches in college sports history, winning an impressive 389 games (though some of those wins were vacated after it was revealed that ineligible players were on the field). Bowden may have an impressive record, but he’s another coach who held perhaps a little too much sway at his college. In 2008 the head of the Board of Trustees asked Bowden to step down in light of recent losses and Bowden’s advanced age (at the time, he was turning 80). Bowden responded that he would let them know if he wanted to come back or not, publicly demonstrating for all to see who was really in control of the situation. Even the governor of Florida announced that he supported Bowden if he chose to return to coach and that he considered him one of the greatest coaches of all time, wishing him luck for the season. Bowden would eventually retire on his own terms, but his power over the university and the community makes him stand out as one of the most influential coaches to ever work in college sports.

6. University of Louisville, Rick Pitino:

   
   The only coach to ever lead three separate teams to the Final Four, Rick Pitino was a college sports heavy hitter, a fact that was also evidenced by his incredible $7,531,378 a year salary. Yet his position at the school, perhaps cemented by this winning history, was so solid that even a major scandal couldn’t shake it. Despite his contract stating that Pitino could be fired for “acts of moral depravity or misconduct that damage the university’s reputation,” he held onto his job after it was discovered that he had sexual relations with a woman in a Louisville restaurant then paid her to have an abortion and keep quiet about the tryst. Those actions may have done damage to the university’s reputation, but university president James Ramsey decided that the damage would be worse if the school lost Pitino, allowing him to stay on as coach. After this year’s winning season and healthy prospects for next year, Ramsey probably feels pretty justified in that decision, though he’s made it quite clear where the university’s priorities lie.

7. University of Florida, Urban Meyer:

   
   Urban Meyer is in the top echelon of college coaches when it comes to salary, pulling in a contract with the University of Florida that promised him a whopping $24 million over six years. He has since moved on to Ohio State, where he commands $4 million a year, bonuses, and the use of a private jet. Unlike many others on this list, Meyer has generally held himself above many of the problems that have affected other powerful college teams, a big part of what helps him command such a high salary. Yet when he resigned from Florida in 2009, some pointed to serious problems with the team, including drug use, preferential treatment, entitlement, and scholarship manipulation. Meyer has denied these allegations, but with misbehavior and rule violations so prevalent in college sports and kept so deeply under wraps by embarrassed schools, it may never be known what truly happened.

8. Duke University, Mike Krzyzewski:

   
   Sometimes just called Coach K, this Duke coach has led his team to four NCAA championships, 11 Final Fours, 12 ACC titles, and 13 ACC championships. He’s also the coach of the men’s national basketball team, winning gold at the 2008 summer Olympics and hoping to lead this year’s team to a repeat victory. For his expertise, he’s paid pretty well, pulling in a whopping $4,195,519 during the 2010-2011 season. What’s more, he seems to have thus far avoided many of the scandals that have plagued other high-profile coaches, instead being better known for helping ensure almost all of his players graduate. He did raise eyebrows with recent comments in defense of Paterno, stating that the iconic coach’s record of winning shouldn’t be wiped clean because of recent revelations of misconduct. Many have found this distressing, as it reflects and increasingly common attitude that gives winning games more importance than doing the right thing.

9. University of Connecticut, Geno Auriemma:

   
   So far, all the coaches on this list have been for men’s sports, but there are some women’s sports coaches who stand out for their power on college campuses as well. Geno Auriemma is one of those coaches. He has led the Huskies to seven NCAA Division I championships, won six Naismith College Coach of the Year awards, and is the head coach of the U.S. women’s national team in this year’s Olympic games. He has long enjoyed a rivalry with Pat Summitt of the University of Tennessee, with each vying to coach the best women’s basketball teams. While Auriemma has largely enjoyed a spotless record at UConn, a recent lawsuit may tarnish that, as an NBA official for the Olympics claims Auriemma harassed her and then had her fired. The allegations may be proven to be false, but for now many are hoping that the legal trouble doesn’t distract Auriemma from coaching the women’s team to victory.

10. University of Tennessee, Pat Summitt:

    
    As unfair as it may be, women’s sports often don’t get as much attention on college campuses, nor do their coaches. Yet Pat Summitt made a name for herself during her tenure at the University of Tennessee coaching the Lady Volunteers basketball team. She is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history in either men’s or women’s basketball, for all divisions. During her time at Tennessee, Summitt led her team to eight national championships, earning 1,098 victories during her 38 years as coach, and never once having a losing season. In both 1997 and 2000, Tennessee asked Summitt to coach the men’s team, an unprecedented move, but Summitt declined the offer, opting to stick with the women’s team. She was so well-regarded as a coach that she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by Barack Obama. That’s a kind of power and prominence that no other coach on this list can match.

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Ohio State University and Its Vested Interests

The Sweater Vest has made his last appearance at The Horseshoe. 1

The other shoe has dropped. The mess has hit the fan. The sweater vest has a snag.

Jim Tressel resigned as Head Football Coach of Ohio State University on Monday. What once appeared to be a ball of hail continued to snowball into an avalanche in Columbus, Ohio. The result: its National Championship winning football coach of 10 years is gone and there are numerous questions abound for the futures of the program and the coach.


THE FUTURE OF BUCKEYE NATION
The first question is: what happens next at Ohio State? The allegations against the university are quite serious. The list of possible NCAA rule violations include knowingly playing with ineligible players with prior knowledge of ineligibility, selling and trading game memorabilia, improper benefits such as boosters arranging the use of automobiles by players, and attempting to cover up improprieties. The sensational list of associates, including a tattoo parlor owner, alleged drug traffickers and convicted felons, do nothing to show Ohio State in a more favorable light.

The University of Southern California came forward with its knowledge of similar allegations. The result? All of its victories from their BCS National Championship season of 2004 and their 2005 season were vacated. Reggie Bush, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2005, returned his trophy and the award was rescinded. Head Football Caoch Pete Carroll left USC to coach the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL. USC was slapped with a number of penalties, including lost scholarships and a ban from bowl appearances. Finally, the possibility (some would argue “inevitability”) that the BCS will strip USC of its 2004 championship remains.

USC cooperated. Ohio State is accused of a cover up. The NCAA has demonstrated that, even at a storied and historic college football program like Ohio State, it has very little tolerance for blatant disregard for the rules. Unlike the alleged pay-for-play scheme involving Auburn University quarterback Cam Newton this past season, Tressel and Ohio State have admitted wrongdoing. Tressel has admitted a cover up.

The NCAA is still investigating this situation and additional violations may be uncovered. This scandal is far beyond the stage of suspicions and allegations, as is the case in Auburn, where no wrongdoing by the university nor Newton has been discovered. OSU may be in for very severe penalties, which could cripple the program, and the Athletic Department as a whole, for years to come, possibly enough to deter A-list coaches from accepting the OSU coaching position.

OSU QB Terrelle Pryor with an Ohio State tat on his throwing arm.
I hope it was a SWEET tat, in exchange for his college career. 2

NOT SO BULLETPROOF VEST

The second question is: what happens to Jim Tressel? Does he ever coach at a major college football program again? Does he ever coach at any university again? I think that there are still questions to be answered. The list of improper conduct known to the public is bad. It may be incomplete.

Tressel is almost certainly going to receive additional discipline from the NCAA, over and above the penalties handed down to Ohio State. I think that Tressel may be damaged goods for several years to come, even for a program seeking to raise its profile in need of a great coach. Tressel’s best option, should he choose to remain in coaching, may be to seek an opportunity as an assistant in the National Football League (of course, there is no National Football League right now).

The only thing I can say is, “Shame on you, OSU!” The cesspool that is major NCAA athletics is not a free-for-all, contrary to the actions of some players, coaches and institutions. While the NCAA is far from perfect, or even “good”, in its administration of college football and balancing of politics against the best interests of the student athletes and the fan experience, its integrity (whatever integrity it still has) is still of value. Overt deception, such as that of Tressel and “The” Ohio State University, are not going to be ignored or be punished with a slap on the wrist. While many college football fans may not approve of the manner in which the NCAA steers the ship, the NCAA is still in charge. It may make a mockery of itself with some of its decisions in response to questionable ethics, but, by golly, it will not let someone else make a mockery of it.




Who actually PAID for this? 3

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1) Image from sportsgrid.com
2) Image from waitingfornextyear.com
3) Image from holyturf.com