Around the 'Shoe

His payments resulted in one year probation and disqualification for the Rose Bowl for OSU at a time when people usually looked the other way, not just a few bucks here and there.

You do know that Pryor had to return a "gift" he received while he was being recruited by OSU, don't you?

I doubt any big time program is squeaky clean.

This thread is all over the place. The OP was about backroom deals being struck between parents and boosters, allegedly with the coaching staff's awareness and approval. Several people have said they believe that goes on everywhere, that it's an epidemic. I don't believe that. I like to think OSU's above that but I also thought Tressel was above what he did, so while I am hopeful, I am not naive.

But a lot of this discussion has been about the "preferential treatment" athletes get once they're on campus that mainstream students don't get, some of which is perfectly legal in terms of special tutors, meal programs, access to workout facilities, free tickets, as well as some "favors" that aren't but are also basically petty, like football players getting free beer and brauts at campus bars or banging chicks like the Duke nympho a couple years ago who decided she wanted to screw as many jocks as she could get her hands on and then wrote a "senior thesis" about it. I don't see kids picking a school because bars are giving free drinks to jocks or because some wanna-be porn star goes to school there because, yeah, I agree, that sh*t goes on everywhere. Whether it's OSU, Ohio U or Northern Ohio, jocks have been and always will be the BMOCs, school royalty, and as such, they've always gotten and they're always going to get special treatment. I'll bet Michael Jordan hasn't paid for a meal since he was 17 and he'll turn 50 next year.

So I think we need some clarification: are we defining "cheating" as anything and everything that's done "under the table," including low-grade "preferential treatment" jocks get, which could include free drinks, hitching a car ride home, a GA arranging some tail when a football player wants to get laid but is to lazy to hit the bars but doesn't involve a prostitute paid for by a booster (in other words, the difference between CMU and "the U"), or are we limiting "cheating" to the big stuff, e.g., cars, big money, free rent, parents and girlfriends being given jobs or homes, prostitutes, etc.?

My point is there's a lot of grey area in this discussion. It can't be separated into black and white but we can talk shades of grey so at least we're moving toward black and white.

i dont think anyone is saying they are all getting paid. im for sure not, but cmon. if you think the top top recruits arent getting paid at: ohio state, florida bama, oregon(especially them who wants to go there?) usc, etc. there will always be rouge boosters who are willing to give these guys "jobs" if they come play for that school. there's no real way of stopping it. coaches cant be with these guys 24/7 and it's a shame they usually have to fall on the sword for those few bad apples

i lived in Lexington the past 4 years, and i still witnessed UK basketball and football players driving around explorers. It still goes on today. When Terrence Jones was in a car wreck last Fall, and he fled the scene, his buddy was driving an escalade.

I have degrees from OSU and Alabama.

But make no mistake: I am a dyed in the wool Ohio State fan.

So, you mean to tell me you actually believe coaches do not know it goes on? LOL! They certainly know it goes on, but what can they actually do without catching anyone in the act. Many of these coaches were players themselves and have lived the culture. It hasn't changed and they're not stupid. It goes on and they know it goes on. That's why there are people hired to do that job.

What was described to me is a shadow system where a small network of boosters, acting independent of the universities, makes sure the family gets set up. The kid and representatives of the football program may catch a glimpse of what is going on and may very well be condoning these actions through unofficial channels, but if so, they never let on if for no other reason that to maintain plausible deniability.

This is more subtle and nuanced version of what was shown on the ESPN documentary on Marcus Dupree (The Best That Never Was) where the manufactured home for his mother sort of showed up out of nowhere and where it appears likely that his uncle cashed in.

I'm by no means wealthy and I would never do something like this, but it really wouldn't be hard for me to filter a kid's family a few thousand dollars right now. Anonymously get one of the parents a cash envelope during recruiting with a couple thousand in it that says "Ohio State, more to come". Basically, unless the kids family member turned this over to the FBI (why would they and why would the FBI be interested enough in pouring resources into this type of investigation as they have bigger fish to fry), who is going to know. So maybe there are some rumors and the kid's mom ends up giving him some spending money or buying him a used car when she doesn't have a pot to piss in, but the dollar amounts aren't great enough to really get on the radar.

Yes, some cases like Reggie Bush or Cam Newton show up big due to the dollar amounts (and possibly bitterness from programs who lost out), but the odds are that there is a seedy underworld out there, and my guess is that TOSU is no exception.