Big Ten expansion moves ahead

Sparkeye7 · July 1, 2011, 8:25pm

Big Ten, Nebraska believe they’re a perfect match

By Eric Olson, AP Sports Writer

LINCOLN, Neb. Nebraska has officially tied the knot with the Big Ten and, unlike its marriage of convenience with the Big 12, both parties enter this one believing they’re a perfect match.

Nebraska, which became an active Big Ten member on Friday, gets the stability of a 105-year-old conference that includes some of the biggest names in college athletics and an association with some of the most prestigious public institutions in the land.

The Big Ten gets a valuable national brand in the Cornhuskers, one that gives the conference leverage in future television rights negotiations.

Nebraska loses its games against schools with which it has had century-old relationships, such as Kansas and Missouri, and gains a border war with Iowa and high-powered matchups with Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin, among others.

Commissioner Jim Delany said the Huskers are a natural fit.

“They believe in broad-based programs, we believe in broad-based programs,” he said. “They’ve had success in a lot of different programs, as we have. They believe and value the notion of sportsmanship at a very high level, which we believe in and value. There is a lot of connectivity.”

For all that, this was purely a football-driven move. Five national championships and a coast-to-coast fan following made Nebraska extremely attractive to Delany and the many millions watching on ABC/ESPN and the Big Ten Network.

“I would assume that if we didn’t have a good football tradition that we probably wouldn’t have been invited,” Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said.

The Huskers are in the Legends Division with Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern. They’ll find out just how good they are in their inaugural season, starting with nationally televised cross-division night games at Wisconsin on Oct. 1 and against Ohio State in Lincoln the following week.

The Huskers host Michigan State and Northwestern before back-to-back road games against Penn State and Michigan, and Iowa will visit Lincoln the day after Thanksgiving. They miss out on playing two of the three teams with losing records last season.

If the Huskers can win 10 games for the third season in a row, it would be a marvelous accomplishment, Osborne said.

“It’s one of the tougher schedules we’ve had in a long time,” he said.

Game days at Nebraska are like those at other Big Ten venues, with the large crowds, tailgating and other traditions. Delany said Nebraska fans will feel comfortable at places such as Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

“I think they’ll feel they came home in some ways,” Delany said.

Nebraska never felt at home in the Big 12. Osborne has said as much.

The perception in Nebraska was that Texas held too much political control from Day 1.

The purpose of the Big Eight-Southwest Conference merger, announced in 1994 and effective in 1996, was to cash in on increasing television rights fees.

The Big Eight schools were in sparsely populated states that had a combined 7 percent of the nation’s TV sets. The four Texas schools that joined the Big 12 were in a state with another 7 percent of the nation’s TVs, and they were in a conference on the verge of collapse because of cheating scandals.

Nebraska took it as a sign of things to come when Steve Hatchell, the SWC commissioner, was named the first commissioner of the Big 12 and Dallas was picked over Kansas City as league headquarters.

Nebraska wanted to continue accepting an unlimited number of partial academic qualifiers, as allowed by Big Eight rules, but that policy wasn’t carried over to the Big 12 largely because of Texas’ opposition.

More recently, Osborne was irked by the vote to play the Big 12 championship game for what would have been five straight years at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Osborne preferred a north-south rotation. The point is moot now. The NCAA doesn’t allow conference championship games in leagues with less than 12 members.

The financials were another issue. In the Big 12, a school generates greater revenue for itself with more TV appearances in football and men’s basketball, and for advancing further in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

In the Big Ten, revenue from TV contracts, bowls and NCAA men’s basketball tournament shares are divided evenly.

Nebraska won’t receive a full share of Big Ten revenue immediately. Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Delany declined to say in what year Nebraska would receive a full revenue share, which amounted to about $20 million per Big Ten school last year.

Perlman said, however, that Delany has assured him that Nebraska would receive no less than the estimated $10 million it would have gotten if it had remained in the Big 12 this year.

Nebraska’s move to the Big Ten was the result of whirlwind conference realignment last June.

The Pacific-10 made an unsuccessful play for six Big 12 schools, including Texas. Had more than just Colorado left to join what is becoming the Pac 12, the Big 12 would have struggled to survive.

Going to the Big Ten, with its stability and greater revenue potential, was a no-brainer.

Nebraska actually had been waiting for a Big Ten invitation for decades.

Shortly after Penn State became the Big Ten’s 11th member in 1990, then-Nebraska athletic director Bob Devaney spoke with Delany about the possibility of the league taking in the Cornhuskers to make it an even 12.

Devaney, the man who built the Huskers into football national champions in 1970-71, grew up in Michigan and was from the coaching tree of Michigan State icon Duffy Daugherty. He admired the Big Ten and wanted to be part of it.

Bill Byrne, athletic director from 1992-2002, also inquired about Big Ten membership.

Joining the Big Ten, Perlman said, “has been an aspiration for many people around the university for as long as I’ve been here, which goes back to the 1960s.”

“Everybody has acknowledged that the Big Ten had a reputation that would assist the University of Nebraska, if for no other reason than location and we’re a comparable institution,” Perlman said. “Many people look at getting into the Big Ten as a signal that we’ve arrived as a major research university. Many of us think that’s true.”

The Big Ten’s academic arm, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, is extremely appealing, Perlman said.

The CIC, which also includes the University of Chicago, encourages universities to share their expertise in research, leverage campus resources and collaborate on programs involving students and faculty.

It’s hoped the prestige that comes with Big Ten membership gives a bump to the school’s enrollment of 24,500 and aids in faculty recruitment, Perlman said.

Perlman said the difference between the Big Ten and the Big 12 is that the Big Ten schools are “more homogenous institutions.”

“That’s not to say one’s better or one’s worse,” he said. “If you think about the Big Ten, you do come up with an image in the mind’s eye of a major, comprehensive for most part, land-grant institution located in the Midwest. … We’re smaller and we haven’t had the academic notoriety of many of those schools yet, but given what we’ve done the past 10 years, we hold our own with them.”

The Big 12, on the other hand, is “a heterogeneous group of institutions,” Perlman said.

“North-south, southern tradition as opposed to the Midwestern tradition,” Perlman said. “You say Big 12 institution, and you don’t have an image that comes to mind.”

The addition of Nebraska strengthens the Big Ten, and Delany doesn’t know when, or if, the league will expand again.

“The Penn State addition in the east and the Nebraska addition in the west, it’s a pretty powerful two-institution expansion,” he said. “We were cautious and conservative and took our time. Where we are now positions us exceptionally well for future decades.”

Source: [Big</a> Ten, Nebraska believe they’re a perfect match - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2011-07-01-1874905266_x.htm]Big”>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2011-07-01-1874905266_x.htm)

xiggi · July 1, 2011, 9:29pm

Indeed, the are a perfect match.

Too bad the AAU did not get the same memo! The university has been ranked lowest of all the AAU schools since 2000. Getting kicked out by AAU = getting into the Big Ten = arriving as a major research university?

Some people do have a warped sense of humor (or reality) in Lincoln.

Sparkeye7 · July 1, 2011, 10:18pm

Ohio State cleared of charges on car deals

Updated: Friday, 24 Jun 2011, 1:48 AM EDT
Published : Friday, 24 Jun 2011, 1:38 AM EDT

COLUMBUS (AP) - Ohio State football players did not receive improper deals when buying cars from two Columbus-area dealerships, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles said Tuesday following an investigation of 25 vehicle sales.

Questions about players’ car purchases arose in the wake of a scandal in which some players received cash and tattoos for autographs, championship rings and equipment.

The scandal forced out coach Jim Tressel because he knew of the memorabilia sales for months without alerting Ohio State officials, in violation of his contract.

The Ohio BMV undertook its review following allegations that the dealerships sold vehicles to Ohio State athletes and family members at below market rates.

The BMV’s 65-page report issued Tuesday said the certificates of titles for cars sold by Jack Maxton Chevrolet and Auto Direct to players and families accurately reflected the vehicles’ sales prices.

The investigation also rejected allegations that the sales prices did not reflect the true cost of the vehicles because players provided dealers with tickets, jerseys and other memorabilia in place of cash.

“We found no evidence in the dealers’ business records that tickets and/or sports memorabilia were included in the sales,” the report said.

The dealers and their lawyers also said the allegations were false. Aaron Kniffin, the salesman who sold most of the vehicles at both dealerships, also denied the allegations in a sworn affidavit that was previously made public, according to Tuesday’s report.

“The deals that I did for Ohio State student-athletes were no different than any of the other 10,000-plus deals that I’ve done for all my other customers,” Kniffin said in that May 10 affidavit.

Kniffin said any sales involving Ohio State players were forwarded to the general manager, who contacted Ohio State’s compliance office.

The university said at this point it has no reason to believe any student athletes received improper car purchases.

“Today’s report from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles supports the sworn statements two Columbus auto dealers provided us that the manner in which they conducted sales with Ohio State student athletes adhered to university and NCAA rules,” said Doug Archie, Ohio State’s athletics compliance director.

The investigation found that Auto Direct made money on the 10 vehicles it sold to players and families and that Jack Maxton made money on 14 of 15 sales; one vehicle was sold at a loss because it had been on the lot longer than 150 days.

The report also addressed what it called “persistent allegations” that Ohio State athletes and coaches have been allowed to drive dealer-owned cars using dealer license plates.

That practice is not illegal and is allowed under BMV rules, the agency said.

“On the contrary, the statute that governs the use of dealer-plated vehicles by third parties expressly permits dealers to allow any member of the public to operate dealer-owned vehicles,” the agency said in its report.

Source: [Ohio</a> State cleared of charges on car deals](<a href=“Home - FOX36 Toledo”>Home - FOX36 Toledo)

Sparkeye7 · July 8, 2011, 8:10pm

OSU vacates 10 wins, doesnt self-impose bowl ban, scholarship losses

Posted by John Taylor on July 8, 2011, 2:08 PM EDT

Ohio State released its response to the NCAAs Notice of Allegations Friday and its, to say the least, an interesting tack the university has chosen to take.

In the response, OSU acknowledges that this case is major due to the ethical conduct citation in regards to former head coach Jim Tressel, but it believes that little institutional responsibility exists for the preferential treatment violation in allegation #1″, which involves the players and impermissible benefits they received as well as and this will be the crux of their argument in front of the NCAA in August distancing themselves from allegation #2, which involves unethical conduct on the part of Tressel.

While the University recognizes that the institution must take responsibility for its employees actions with respect to Allegation #2, the responsibility is upon Tressel, the report read.

No other institutional personnel were aware of the preferential treatment violations, and Tressel had an obligation to report the potential violation to the appropriate institutional officials.

As a result, OSU has self-imposed the following sanctions on its football program, which the NCAA can sign-off on or add to:

<pre><code>a. Vacate all victories during the 2010 football season, including the 2011 Allstate Sugar Bowl;
b. Vacate the 2010 Big Ten Conference Football Championship (co-champions);
c. Imposed a two-year probationary period effective July 8, 2011;
d. Withhold four current student-athletes named in Allegation #1 from the first five games of the 2011 football season (additionally, one student-athlete who would have been withheld for five games has departed the institution to pursue a professional football career);
e. Withhold one student-athlete named in Allegation #1 from the first game of the 2011 football season and withhold another student-athlete named in Allegation #1 from those number of games resulting from the decision of the SAR Staff; and
f. Sought and accepted the resignation of Tressel on May 30, 2011
</code></pre>

The punitive actions mentioned in d and e have been known for months, while f was revealed by athletic director Gene Smith during an interview that appeared in the Columbus Dispatch today. Whats most interesting, however, is whats not contained in the punitive actions self-imposed by the school, namely no bowl ban and no loss of scholarships.

Based on the message sent by the NCAA to USC around this time last year, its hard to fathom that the OSU football program will be permitted to skate without one or both of those sanctions being slapped on the program by the time all of the NCAA dust clears.

In addition to the punitive measures, the university has also instituted, or will institute, several corrective actions, including an increase in the number of full-time compliance officials from six to eight; waiting until a players eligibility has expired to issue institutional awards, including the storied gold pants; and further educate both players and Columbus-area businesses on preferential treatment.

Add it all up, and OSU firmly believes that the sanctions they imposed on themselves should be enough and asks that the NCAA take no further action while once again stressing their lone-wolf characterization of Tressel.

<pre><code>Regarding Tressels penalties, the institutions analysis was that Tressels penalties should reflect the seriousness of the position in which he placed both himself and the University. One of his penalties was suspension for the first five games of the 2011 season, which was the same as the student-athletes penalties. The University also intended to prohibit all of his off-campus recruiting activities for one year, which reflected the seriousness of Tressels failure to report. The University eventually determined that it was in the best interest of the University and Tressel for Tressel to resign, and he agreed to do so.

In summary, the University believes that the corrective and punitive actions are appropriate and negate any competitive advantage gained by the institution as a result of these violations. The University asks the Committee on Infractions to accept these penalties and take no further action.
</code></pre>

Ohio State is schedule to appear before the NCAAs Committee on Infractions on Aug. 12, with a decision from The Association expected at some point during the 2011 regular season. After some initial uncertainty, it was reported today that Tressel will appear in front of the COI.

Source: [OSU</a> vacates ’10 wins, doesn’t self-impose bowl ban, scholarship losses | CollegeFootballTalk](<a href=“http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/07/08/osu-vacates-10-wins-doesnt-self-impose-bowl-ban-scholarship-losses/]OSU”>OSU vacates '10 wins, doesn't self-impose bowl ban, scholarship losses - NBC Sports)

Sparkeye7 · July 8, 2011, 8:11pm