Eleven Warriors

The initial email from the concerned attorney is sent to Tressel on April 2nd. He warns Tressel about Edward "Eddie" Rife, saying the feds raided the tattoo parlor's house and that they seized "a lot of Ohio State memoriabilia; including championship rings." Tressel replies four hours later saying he will "get on it ASAP".

The attorney follows up two weeks later, specifying some of the awards and memorabilia in the possession of Rife. Tressel again responds within hours, saying he will "keep pounding these kids hoping they grow up."

The unnamed attorney replied later that day (4/16) indicating he was advising Rife on his defense options and Rife was looking at 10 years. Tressel is advised to keep his players away from Rife and his tattoo parlor and to avoid calling Rife on the phone as the feds would have access to those records.

Tressel initiates contact with the attorney on June 1st, saying "our rings arrive this week for 2009 Big Ten ...any names from our last discussion ?? I would like to hold some collateral if you know what I mean." The attorney responds, stating the investigation was wrapping up and there were "no more names".

ESPN's Eamonn Brennan says it's time to put an end to the silly "no great teams" line this season:

If we needed further evidence to this effect, see Sunday’s insane offensive effort against Wisconsin in which Jon Diebler and the Buckeyes only put on the single greatest long-range shooting display in Division I hoops history. (Ohio State shot -- get this -- 14-of-15 from beyond the arc. They scored 1.63 points per possession. Their effective field goal percentage was 83.0, which is as historically insane as anything we’ve seen in the past five years, and probably longer.)

Thing is, we didn’t need further evidence. We certainly didn’t need one of the greatest offensive performances in college hoops history to convince us. Why? Because even if the Buckeyes had merely beaten Wisconsin by, say, 10 points -- even if Thad Matta’s team had simply added another win to their docket -- that was enough. Ohio State would still have finished the regular season 29-2 and ranked No. 1 in the nation. Those two losses would still have come at two of the toughest places to play in the country versus two top-10 teams. In other words, they were the kind of losses that even a “great” team can suffer without losing much of the sheen of its greatness. Short of an undefeated regular season, the Bucks did just about everything right. 

Bartender, get that man a drink.

Winn has worked magic with these this season and it will be sad to see them end, but we can at least take pride knowing our Buckeyes topped the final list:

Ohio State is my final No. 1 team because the Buckeyes are most deserving as of right now ... and because I think they're going to win the national championship.

Winn's Ohio State breakdown with awesome Diebler chart:

Jon Diebler is the most prolific three-point shooter in the history of the Big Ten, having made 348 treys in his 13-year career (or maybe four-year career) with the Buckeyes. Inspired by his 10-trey game at Penn State on March 1, I decided to plot out Diebler's 97 Big Ten three-point attempts from this season in the same style as the "Who's Feeding Jared?" graphic, to see what we could learn. I found 94 of the treys in Synergy's individual-game shot chart data (three were mysteriously missing, but the sample is solid), and made a 17-game, conference composite, then divided it into five floor zones:

 

 

Some of you will recall that Diebler is also Jared Sullinger's best post-feeder, and it's not shocking that Diebler is most accurate from the portion of the floor (zones 4 and 5) where he plays his two-man game with Sullinger. What is surprising is just how lethal Diebler is (a 71.4 percent shooter!) from the right corner. Leaving him open is never a good idea, but when he's in that zone, it's a death wish.

The Lakewood St. Edward tackle, considered the best OL prospect in the '12 class, has long been a Buckeye commit, but this clearly shows Hoke isn't afraid to go into Ohio and challenge for these types of kids. Michigan is also going after a few of Kalis' teammates (TE Sam Grant, DT Greg Kuhar, and OL Tyler Orlosky all have offers from UM). When asked about the Michigan offer, Kalis had the following to say:

I was offered by Michigan yesterday. I'm pretty much set on Ohio State, but my mind is still open at this point. I talked to Coach Funk yesterday and he said they would have offered me when I was 15 if they were the coaches here. He said they really want me, they really need me, and how excited they are to get to know me. They want me to come up to see Michigan and get the blue carpet treatment.

And:

I might go up there with either Sam [Grant] or [Greg] Kuhar sometime. I think they like Michigan, and I know that [Tyler] Orlosky is definitely the most interested. Me and Orlosky are very close and we've always talked about playing together at the next level somewhere, so time will tell. I know Orlosky is a Michigan fan and excited to get up there to see what they're all about. I think I'll definitely give [Michigan] a chance to recruit me and I'll see where my teammates go.

Tressel doesn't lose many commits -- especially guys from Ohio, but Hoke clearly plans to make JT earn his classes. And with offers out to every kid in America, Hoke is casting a wide net with the goal of returning the Wolverines to glory as soon as possible.

You probably noticed a new "Donate" button on the sidebar today and I wanted to take a minute to explain its presence.

For the longest time, the revenue brought in from Google ads and the random t-shirt sale here and there suited our needs just fine. We were able to cover all of our hosting and related costs with a little coin left over to throw a party.

As we've grown, however, we've taken on coverage of more live events. Whether it's been home football or basketball games, we're blessed to have a press pass and have done our best to bring you as much of the games as possible. But, we have our sights set higher and are planning on sending two guys to cover the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, among other things in the near future. As such, we have begun accepting donations to help offset some of the travel costs for this event and others like it going forward.

So, if you feel like we add even the slightest bit of information or amusement to your life, please consider donating. The money will go towards live event coverage, tech improvements and whatever else we can do to make this the best possible Buckeye experience on the web.

If you can't or don't want to, it's all good as well. One of the goals of this site is to prove that the non-subscription model can work and we'll continue doing just that.

Per a release from Ohio State:

Mobile, AL. (Jan. 16)—Ohio State linebacker Ross Homan will represent the Buckeyes in the 2011 Under Armour Senior Bowl. Homan has officially accepted an invitation to the senior showcase event, it was announced today. He will play for the North team while in Mobile, which will be coached by Marvin Lewis and his Cincinnati Bengals staff. The 62nd game is scheduled for 3pm (CT) on Saturday, January 29th in Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The game and all practices will be televised by NFL Network.

“Ross is a fine football player and played a big role in leading the Buckeyes to a great season which culminated with a Sugar Bowl victory,” Senior Bowl President and CEO Steve Hale said. “We believe he’s a great addition to our North roster and we’re really expecting him to perform well down here next week.” Homan, a first team All-Big Ten selection for the Buckeyes, was a three-year starter at linebacker for Ohio State. He capped off his career with a team-high nine tackle effort against Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. He totaled 72 tackles, two tackles for loss and one interception on the year. For his career, the Coldwater, Ohio native racked up 287 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss and seven interceptions.

Tickets for the 2011 Under Armour Senior Bowl are currently available for purchase at the Senior Bowl ticket office (151 Dauphin Street), the Bel Air Mall customer servic

OSU released a statement Saturday announcing their intent to appeal the NCAA's decision to suspend five players for five games to begin next season. We've known this was coming, but the statement provides additional details:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State has notified the NCAA that it will appeal the reinstatement decisions for its football student-athletes. The university has requested this appeal be heard via a teleconference, which would include university officials and the student-athletes.

The appeal will be heard by the Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, an independent committee comprised of representatives from NCAA member colleges, universities and athletic conferences. This committee’s decision is final. It can reduce or remove the reinstatement conditions, but it cannot increase the conditions imposed by the NCAA national office reinstatement staff. An appeals teleconference date has not been set as cases with student-athletes currently in season will be given priority.

Ohio State student-athletes involved in this case are able to practice, participate in workouts and all other permissible offseason activities, including spring practice and the spring game, which is not competition but rather the final spring practice session.

I wouldn't expect to hear anything for at least two, probably three weeks based on similar situations in the past, but the five should get reduced to four with an outside/miracle shot of getting it down to three.

We're not huge into blogger beefs, unless you're talking about that one erect turd of a site that accused of us stealing their content, but this is disingenuous at best:

We’ve known about a possible investigation for the past three days, but have stayed deliberately silent on the matter because of a lack of credible sources. However, with the Dispatch confirmation of earlier reports and ESPN's reporting tonight, the news has spiraled into a miniature scandal.

Really?

This is part in parcel with the whole Scout/BSB assault on Bucknuts relating to their rivalry and lack of love between each other. Here's one of Scout's "insiders" saying the whole ordeal was "much ado about nada" just two days ago (before claiming to be close to the situation and holding relevant details late last night).

Nobody is right all of the time, but at least be man enough to admit you're wrong (or blindly taking part in site beefs) when you are.

We've never been huge into any messageboard or forum community and right now, I'm pretty thankful for that. You are not effective in reporting news when you have a clear bias against another operation.

What once was a dirty Southern secret is getting a little bit more attention these days. Oversigning, besides being a tricky word to spell, is essentially the act of signing more recruits than you have room for on your roster. The SEC is particularly notorious for this, bringing in classes that often exceed 25 freshmen, and to make up for this, veterans are often told to hit the road under the pretext of an injury or take a grayshirt. For instance, in the last five years, Arkansas has signed 135 recruits to Ohio State's 99. Both teams have a roster limit of 85, so as you can imagine, there are quite a few former Razorbacks that didn't measure up in practice and were sent packing.

An Ozone commenter got things rolling, so to speak, by shining a light on the overlooked practice when he created oversigning.com in February of this year. The site does a great job of not only explaining the practice, but also aggregating and highlighting discrepancies and was spread via Twitter, blogs and college football message boards. In late November, the Wall Street Journal picked it up, featuring not just one, but two articles on oversigning and then things got real when oversigning made it to Wikipedia.

In case my explanation above was too muddled, here's Wikipedia's opener on the topic:

Oversigning (also spelled Over-signing) is a process in which American college athletics teams award to recruits a number of scholarships that, when added to the number of scholarships given to current members of the team expected to play in the next season, is greater than the maximum number of scholarships permitted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). While occasionally occurring in other sports, oversigning occurs most often - and has thus received the most attention from media members and fans - within college football (where the maximum number of athletic scholarships permitted in a season is 85).

While currently permitted within NCAA rules, many college football fans view oversigning as highly unethical, arguing that it requires schools and coaches to be dishonest with young adult and adolescent recruits.

Yesterday, ESPN featured the practice of oversigning on Outside the Lines. They tell the story of Chris Garrett, an LSU quarterback recruit that found out his scholarship was being yanked during voluntary workouts in the summer of his sophomore year. Adding insult to injury, Garrett received a certified letter from the university dated 11 days prior to when he had met with his head coach and all seemed well. Predictably, Miles refused to comment on the situation.

So bully to the Wall Street Journal, ESPN's OTL, oversigning.com and other outlets that are calling the SEC out for what it is: a conference that puts winning at football ahead of academics, the integrity of amateur athleticism (see: Newton) and the promises made to young men every February.

Finally, here's a look at the recruiting class sizes of Big Ten teams vs their SEC bowl opponents (2007-2010):

It must be nice to have what amounts to an entire additional recruiting class every four years.

USA Today released their annual FBS coaches salary index today and below you'll find the $2 million club (for all salaries, refer to the link).  Ohio State's Jim Tressel is the 6th highest-paid coach in the land, just behind Les Miles of LSU and just ahead of Iowa's Kirk Ferentz.

Some notes:

• Michigan's Rich Rodriguez is paid well -- $360k per win. Not nearly the heist he pulled the last two years, but still earning far more than he deserves to pocket (especially when you factor in the hidden costs of recruits not qualifying, transfers, NCAA investigations, etc.)
• Mack Brown has earned the right to be paid well. He's done a terrific job at Texas over the course of the last decade, but he takes the cake in terms of what he's paid per win. This year, as the Longhorns stumbled to a 5-7 record, he took home over a cool million per victory.
• Nick Saban is a very, very good coach. He's turned Alabama into a dominant player after 20 years of middling success, but is he worth nearly $6 million?
• Tennessee's Derek Dooley is easily FBS' highest-paid first year coach, but that comes with the turf when you take a job at one of the blue bloods of the college football world.

And here's the Big Ten's pay chart:

Notes on the Big Ten pay:

• Figures for Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald were not available as they are a private institution. He's rumored to be making somewhere in the $1-1.5M range.
• Bill Lynch, the lowest paid coach in the league, is gone. His successor, Kevin Wilson is thought to be getting $1.2M per year.
• As far as earning their pay this season, Dantonio and Bielema have done well, while Ferentz, obviously has not.