There are a lot of people up my way that complain about Gene Smith for not self imposing a bowl ban last year when we sucked like it was a no brainer decision. Has it ever been cleared up that making that decision would have likely gave us eligibility this season? Could we have banned ourselves from last years bowl, and be eligible for this season if Smith had chosen to do that?
I think he self-imposed whatever sanctions we self-imposed well BEFORE going 6-6. i.e. he didn't necessarily know we'd have that "off" of a year. I genuinely think he really thought we wouldn't get a bowl ban. I could be off on the timing though.
He self imposed a lot, but some of it was that "meaningless" stuff, like vacating wins. Big deal.
I do think if we had self-imposed the ban last year, that's all we would have received. But that's my gut. Either way, guys who weren't involved would have been punished, but that's the punishment we have to eat.
EDIT: last paragraph, when I say if he'd self-imposed a bowl ban that's all we would have receieved, I mean that's the only bowl we would have been banned from. I think we'd still have gotten the rest of the punishment too. Just clarifying. Also, I now am pretty sure we DID self impose stuff almost right away, and then had to wait months before finding out if it was "enough."
Hindsight is 20/20, they didn't feel they would receive a bowl ban and therefore fetl no reason to self impose one. Just lined up that way... I bet we wouldn't have recieved one this year though.
I agree, if it had been announced well before the team went 6-6, I bet it would have been enough to satisfy the NCAA. It would have been a good year to have it to, but there is no way they could have known that in advance.
It also seems like tOSU didn't think they were in for as harsh a slapping as they got. Tressel had been fired, money had been returned, compliance staff increased, scholarships forfeited... It was probably a calculated risk to preserve bowl eligibility.
No way was tOSU going to get away from a bowl ban this year. I believe with the 6-6 team it wasnt going to have that big of an impact. Knowing now the OSU team we have today I wonder if that would have made a difference. College football needs tOSU Buckeyes to put away a very boring situation we have going on in the SEC. I hope WVU can go the distance this year.
Waycracken, I know that we've been rolling for all of one game now. But I don't think we're up for taking on say Alabama quite yet. The depth, especially on the O-line, is not quite there yet, we don't have great team play from the back seven yet, and we're still feeling out the offense.
With Urban on the sidelines and Braxton under center we have a shot of winning any game, even against the likes of say Alabama. But I wouldn't bet the house on it and the odds are we'd lose that game and perpetuate the Big10 sucks mantra and all that SEC SEC SEC stuff.
Putting 63 points on Nebraska was nice and we're still undefeated so there's a lot to be happy about, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We gave up a lot of points and yardage against Nebraska. Give Meyer another great recruiting haul, another offseason to develop everyone, and then maybe we can start talking about going toe to toe against the SEC (aka Alabama).
EDIT: Yes, one game. The Bucks had a great game against MSU and they've yet to drop a game. But as great as the OL played against MSU, it was still a very close game against at best a better than average squad. Granted it was at their home and remove some TOs and we probably score another 10 on them. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy with how the team's responded under Meyer's first season as HC, especially after going 6-7 last season. But realistically we're not NT ready yet.
I agree. Im not ahead of myself Im just energized for this new culture for the Buckeyes. I can finally look forward to watching them play win or lose. This is the kind of football I enjoy and if its not this style I would just as soon go back to Woody. I like a coach with fire.
No it's never been cleared up and will never be cleared up. I'm in the group that believes even if we'd self-imposed a ban last year the NCAA would've still imposed one for this year just to look like they know how to bring the hammer down.
Seth,
I disagree about one part. The o-line doesn't need depth for a game it needs it for a season. In short I think they have played really well as of late and in a one game scenario we have a good starting five.
I believe the NCAA had no choice in giving tOSU a bowl ban. Hard to say for sure but with all of the National attention (negative), I for one was not surprised. I also agree this team is very exciting & are playing with desire. I believe this team will compete with anyone but need one more year of the Urban & the rest of coaching staff tutelage. Not saying they will win out but will provide us with excitement every week. GO BUCKS!!!
Apparently we would have been better served to have fake classes (UNC) or a sweet hotel for players to live in (South Carolina) than to let players trade an award they earned for a tattoo.
I dont get it.
I guess I'm in the minority here, but I do believe that regardless of what we thought would happen, we should've self-imposed a bowl ban last year. I don't know that it would've had any bearing on this year, but I think it very well could have. None of us really know.
By not self-imposing a bowl ban at all, it looked smug and like we thought we were gonna get away without severe punishment and that we didn't take the whole thing very seriously. Smith had many missteps along the way in his handling of this whole thing, and I think this is one of them.