Big Ten’s Delany addresses Ohio State fallout

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany figures Ohio State is in for some tough scrutiny as it tries to dig out from the scandal that cost football coach Jim Tressel his job.

“There will be a lot of hard questions for Ohio State,” Delany said Sunday. “I think they will give to the best they can to answer those questions. Then, the (NCAA infractions committee) will make a decision.”

Tressel, who guided Ohio State to its first national title in 34 years, resigned last Monday amid NCAA violations stemming from a tattoo-parlor scandal that left a big mark against one of the country’s top football programs.

A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 12, and Delany figures a decision will come about six weeks after that.

On a day when the Big Ten announced that Indianapolis will host the football championship through 2015 and rotate the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments with Chicago, the Tressel saga remained a dominant topic.

In December, five players — including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor — were found to have received cash and discounted tattoos from the owner of a local parlor who was the subject of a federal drug-trafficking case. The NCAA allowed them to play in a 31-26 victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, with their suspensions to start with the first game of the 2011 season.

After the team returned from New Orleans, school officials began preparing an appeal of the players’ sanctions. That’s when investigators found that Tressel had learned in April 2010 about their involvement with the parlor owner, Edward Rife.

Sports Illustrated, however, reported last week that at least 28 players were known or alleged to have traded or sold memorabilia in violation of NCAA rules. Pryor’s attorney has disputed the story, but either way, there appeared to be a major compliance breakdown.

“We going back 20 years have been working with our institutions on processes and procedures how you handle information in that situation,” Delany said during a conference call. “You force it up the chain of command so that people with the responsibility to manage this stuff handle it properly with the NCAA. I think the chain broke when the coach became aware of the information and didn’t forward it in the chain of command.”

Delany initially spoke up for the players but again said Sunday he might have acted differently had he known what Tressel knew.

“The facts as they were presented to me (at the time) was Ohio State became aware of a tattoo, extra benefit,” Delany said. “I analyzed it, and for me, there wasn’t a coach involvement. There wasn’t a booster involvement. There wasn’t an agent involvement. There were kids that made some bad judgments. So on that basis, we forwarded the information to the NCAA and they made the decision that they made about the Sugar Bowl.”

Did he feel betrayed? Angry?

“I was disappointed, I was surprised and I felt badly about it,” Delany said. “But I kind of reserve anger for my dog. I try not to get terribly angry.

“I wish it hadn’t happened, but it wouldn’t be accurate for me to say that I was angry. I knew it was serious, but I don’t remember going into a rage.”

Will Ohio State be eligible for the first football championship game? Will it be the Big Ten’s call or that of the NCAA?

Delany said it’s too soon to say, adding it is “going to play out the next couple of months between the institution and the NCAA.”

As for the selection of the championship sites, Indiana president Michael McRobbie said Indianapolis was a unanimous choice for football.

The inaugural title game will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in December, and the league’s presidents and chancellors voted Sunday to keep it there for four more years rather than go outside to Chicago’s Soldier Field.

“What we needed to do since it’s our first effort in the championship game is to get it off to a stable start, build a great foundation and try to launch from there,” Delany said.

He did not rule out rotating future games and playing them outdoors. In fact, he was quick to point out that teams will be playing outside the preceding week.

He called Soldier Field “a world-class venue” and added Chicago has more Big Ten alumni than any other city “by a factor of four or five.”

He said Lucas Oil is “state of the art” and was built “with an eye toward not only NFL but also NCAA.” Delany also said Indianapolis “does a great job” with the basketball tournaments but the league “wanted to stir the pot a bit.”

So here’s how it breaks down: Indianapolis will host the tournaments in 2012, when its five-year deal expires. It will get them again in 2014 and 2016. The United Center in Chicago will host the men’s tournament in 2013 and 2015, with the women at the Sears Centre Arena in suburban Hoffman Estates those years. The United Center did not bid on the women’s tournament.