And a good read on this, from Chris Dufresne, at LAT, "Ohio State's Jim Tressel dug himself into a hole with handling of scandal":
Hubris is part of the plague of being one of the most powerful people in town, as Tressel was in Columbus. Control freaks think they can control things. Control freaks with power think they can control everything.RTWT.
Tressel's 106 wins in 10 years, 2002 national title and 9-1 record vs. Michigan made him virtually unimpeachable.
It must have made him think he didn't need to disclose NCAA violations even as he signed a "certificate of compliance" form in September certifying he knew of no violations in his program.
That was grounds right there for his dismissal.
Tressel kept lips zipped in December when the violations became public. He stood by as his players took five-game suspensions for the 2011 season.
His lie was the worst kind — confessed only when discovered by canvassing his emails.
Not only did Tressel know of the violations, having been tipped by Columbus attorney Chris Cicero, he forwarded the information to one of the player's mentors.
You'd think the adults couldn't mess it up more than that, but they did.