Yeah, I’m mad.

As a partisan, my immediate reaction to the complete bullshit which emanated from last night’s Ohio State presser was a question:  what was Jim Tressel’s first thought upon hearing the news that A. J. Green had been suspended for the first four games of the 2010 season?  “Suckers“?  “There but for the grace of God go I”?

We’ll never know.  But one thing’s for sure.  We know it wasn’t “I’d better come clean now.”

That’s not even the most offensive part of what we learned.  Tressel’s silence was wrong, but he had the sheer gall to top it by lobbying the NCAA to let his five players – players who would have been suspended for four 2010 regular season games had Tressel been truthful with his school and the NCAA about what he knew – remain eligible for the Sugar Bowl so that Ohio State would have the opportunity to lock in its ill-gotten gains.

And don’t forget those come-to-Jesus meetings with his five players where he extracted pledges from them to return for 2011 and face the music for their bad decisions.  Because they were told that was the right thing to do by a man who didn’t follow his own advice.

If I’m Mark Richt, I’m fuming right now.  It’s not just about having the basic integrity to conduct yourself the way you preach to your players.  It’s also about job security.  It’s hard to escape the feeling that Richt is a coach whose seat was made appreciably hotter because he and Green were honest.  Even the most zealously anti-Georgia football fan out there would concede that Georgia’s 2010 season wouldn’t have begun 1-4 had Green trotted out as a starter in the first four games.  Does anybody doubt that had he followed Tressel’s lead with the result that Georgia had won 10 games last year and Green’s problem emerged now, Richt would still be on firmer ground as to his continued employment in Athens than he is?

So now the ball is in the NCAA’s court.  That’s not a particularly comforting thought in this case.  Sure, the NCAA has a track record of looking unfavorably at people who lie to and mislead its investigators.  But this situation is more complicated than that.

The NCAA went fishing into A. J.’s dealings as a result of reading a TMZ piece about some parties in Miami.  Did their investigators stop when Green told them that he hadn’t attended any such parties?  Nope.  They went on to request his financial records.  The rest is history.

Compare that to how the Tatgate investigation was handled.  The matter comes to the attention of the NCAA as a result of dealings five Ohio State players had with a man under investigation by the federal government.  And upon receiving assurance from Jim Tressel that there was nothing else going on, the NCAA investigators packed up their bags and wished everyone a nice day.  Nothing to see there.  Good call, people.

Of course, the NCAA will say that’s Jim Tressel.  He’s a man of impeccable reputation.  (Even though he’s really not.)  On some level it was determined that he was entitled to more of a pass on his word than Green, despite the fact that at the time the worst incident on A. J.’s blotter was a bogus penalty for excessive celebration.

In other words, this was pretty much an epic fail of an investigation.  And one other consistent thing about the NCAA is that it doesn’t like to admit to making big mistakes.  Throw in that Tressel’s defense is going to be a variant of the “I didn’t know” approach that’s already proven to be hugely successful in warding off sanctions and you’ve got good reason to be pessimistic here, unless you’re an Ohio State fan.

This really sucks.

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UPDATE: Schlabach’s a little over the top with this column, but, damn, Gordon Gee confirms he’s a first class fool.

… Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee said he never considered firing Tressel.

“No, are you kidding me?” Gee said. “Let me be very clear. I’m just hoping the coach doesn’t dismiss me.”

Please, please keep telling me how school presidents have the intestinal fortitude and character to stand firmly against their coaches on important issues when it’s the right thing to do.

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UPDATE #2: Paul Myerberg makes an excellent point.

… That’s one slight difference between the penalties assessed to Tressel and Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl, even if it’s a slight skewed comparison: two different sports, for one, but Pearl’s suspension — which covered the first half of the conference season — was assessed by the SEC, not the N.C.A.A. or the university.  [Emphasis added.]

What was that argument John Pennington pushed yesterday about the Big Ten holding the moral high ground?  He may want to reconsider.

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UPDATE #3: After you look at Brian Cook’s timeline, you’ll wonder why the NCAA gave Tressel the benefit of the doubt in the first place.  It sure beats me.

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UPDATE #4: No surprise here.

https://twitter.com/#!/PeteThamelNYT/status/45583799865716736

He’d rather wait and see if there’s any more lobbying to do.