Wolverine Wednesday: Kids Don't Go to Ohio State to Study Public Relations

They clearly don't understand PR in Columbus.  They have made one mistake after another trying to manage tattoo-gate. 

Let's take a look at how poorly OSU has handled their Public Relations in this matter:

12/23/2010: AD Gene Smith:  “There are no other NCAA violations around this case,” Smith declared. “We’re very fortunate we do not have a systemic problem in our program. This is isolated to these young men, isolated to this particular incident. There are no other violations that exist.”

Really?  Why would you say "we do not have a systemic problem in our program" if you don't?  He knew they had one. 

3/8/2011: Tressel Press Conference after Yahoo report that he knew the players sold their gear.

• Jim never apologizes and just says he made a minor mistake not letting OSU know about the email.
• The school suspends Tressel two games against two weak MAC teams
• President Gordon Gee drops this line (regarding JT's job status) “No, are you kidding me? I’m just hopeful that the coach doesn’t dismiss me”

3/18/2011: Tressel extends his suspension from 2 games to 5 games under media pressure on 2 games being a joke

4/20/2011: AD Gene Smith calls the Tressel situation a nightmare in a interview


5/18/2011: During the Big Ten Spring Meetings:  AD Gene Smith gives his support to his head coach Jim Tressel

5/30/2011: OSU decided to fire ask Tressel to resign.  On Memorial Day when there was little to no sports activity.  No NBA finals or even the Indy 500.  A day with only a few baseball games.  

The reason for the timing was not for the respect for the Military or anything else you have read or heard.  It was because the SI article was due out the next day and OSU wanted to get in front of the article.  OSU was alerted about the article and potential violations on Friday.  Jim was on vacation and returned on Saturday.  Sunday they discussed the situation and Monday they made it public. 

5/31/2001: NCAA and OSU are investigating Pryor and his 8 cars in 3 years. 

Stay tuned I'm sure it will get worse.