The Big Ten was so close to getting a team in the 2017 College Football Playoff but fell just short. Even still, the conference had a bit of a Renaissance as it sat out the most important part of the post-season and led to some calling it the best league in the nation for 2017. Will they build off that momentum as scandal has surrounded two of its programs in recent weeks?
Summary of Last Year
Ohio State won the conference again, their 36th Big Ten title in their history and surprisingly only Urban Meyer’s second in Columbus. Wisconsin was on the playoff door step until a league title game loss to aforementioned Ohio State, otherwise the Badgers finished unblemished. Penn State, Michigan State, and Northwestern all won at least 10 games to finish ranked, as well. Lastly, Michigan disappointed falling down to 8-5 overall, while Purdue showed signs of serious life under new coach Jeff Brohm in a 7-6 campaign.
Penn State’s No. 6 finish in recruiting raised some eyebrows even though Ohio State (No. 2 overall) maintained their blue-chip talent edge over the rest of the conference. Michigan was the next highest rated class at No. 22 overall showing how the league really couldn’t take advantage of its season on the field. Nebraska (#23), Maryland (#28), Michigan State (#32), and Minnesota (#38) rounded out the middle of the pack.
Penn State did haul in 2 out of the 3 Top 10 nationally ranked players to sign with Big Ten teams. Defensive end Micah Parsons (#5) and wide receiver Justin Shorter (#8) inked with the Nittany Lions while offensive tackle and Fighting Irish target Nicholas Petit-Frere (#7) signed with Ohio State.
Top Out of Conference Games: Ohio State vs. TCU
I’m tempted to go Michigan vs. Notre Dame here but will refrain from that analysis for now. With everything going on at Ohio State the truth is they are likely to be challenged in two games prior to mid-November. These teams haven’t met since 1973 and should give us a really fun week 3 matchup down in Texas.
Most Important League Game: Ohio State at Michigan State
Unless you think Scott Frost is going to take off in year one with Nebraska (he’s likely a year or two away) the West isn’t likely to offer up a lot of drama at the top this year. The East, on the other hand, should have several nationally important matchups. My top pick is this gem on November 10th where Ohio State has won their last 6 visits to East Lansing.
Sell 2018: Penn State
This should be a season to come back down to earth for the Nittany Lions. They are rebuilding their defense and moving on without several of their top playmakers on offense, including their offensive coordinator. The schedule isn’t absolutely killer (the non-league games are fairly easy) but they do face Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, and Wisconsin within a 7-week period.
Buy 2018: Michigan State
Some places have the Spartans finishing 4th in the West division and I think that’s crazy. They beat both Michigan and Penn State last year and I’d make the case Michigan State will be improving more than either of those teams. They’re bringing back tons of experience, quarterback Brian Lewerke could blossom in 2018, while they miss Wisconsin in the West and get Ohio State and Michigan at home. I’m betting on 2nd place division finish.
Offensive Player of the Year: RB Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin
It’ll be hard to top almost 2,000 yards as a freshman like last year, in addition to a healthy 6.61 yards per carry stat line. However, Taylor wasn’t a household name until much later into the 2017 season and now the Badgers as a whole will be in the national spotlight from the first week of the season. As always, the carries will be there and Taylor should improve upon his 13 rushing scores from last fall.
Defensive Player of the Year: DE Nick Bosa, Ohio State
Arguably the best defensive end in the country and a top NFL draft pick nominee. He’s coming off 16 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks a year ago with All-American accolades. Ohio State is breaking in several new players in the front seven which could draw more attention than last year, though.
League Title Game: Ohio State vs. Wisconsin
The Big Ten may not be the best conference, although it may be the deepest league which for many will make it the best conference all the same. Both Ohio State and Wisconsin met last year in the Big Ten Championship and they do not face each other in the 2018 regular season. They’re arguably the two best teams in the conference who should give us another post-season rematch.
Wisconsin started 12-0 last year and could do it again. Their conference home slate (Nebraska, Illinois, Rutgers, Minnesota) is softer than soft, although they do face Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State, and Purdue on the road–all tricky games at minimum.
We were supposed to learn the fate of Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer tonight as I’m writing this although nothing has come through the news just yet. It’s difficult to say how much of the program would fall apart without their coach even though for at least 2018 they should be good enough to still win the division–and it’s going to be a very competitive division.
This places a lot of faith in quarterback Dwayne Haskins to rise up as one of the better signal-callers in the nation. I believe he’ll be quite good, and while the Big Ten East will be strong, I’m not sure Michigan State, Michigan, or Penn State are Top 8-ish teams which could lead to the Buckeyes to rise to the top once again in a bit of an unsatisfactory way.
I believe the investigation for Meyer was supposed to be done by Sunday. But the results were going to stay internal until at least when the board meets this week (Monday or Tuesday iirc), which I imagine is when a decision from the results will be made. Public announcement should come sometime after that.
Thanks, I hadn’t researched the whole saga enough!
To me, it seems quite likely that Meyer will remain as the coach. There seem to be two possibilities:
(1) His issued statement was accurate; he did know about the abuses and did run them up the chain in accordance with Title IX requirements; or
(2) His issued statement was inaccurate and he did not report them.
If (2) were the case, he would already have been fired; they wouldn’t need a board blessing for firing him on that basis. Given that (1) appears to be the case, it seems like they have already decided that they are ok with his having hired and then retained a known alleged spousal abuser; otherwise, they would have already fired him given that he publicly admitted to that over a week ago.
I think the most likely course of events is that Gene Smith gets fired (for not telling Meyer to fire the coach when Meyer reported it up the chain) and Meyer gets suspended for a few games for lying about it at Big Ten media days.
I agree, but I don’t think he should get suspended for lying to the media.
Of course, they start with Oregon State and SUNJ-New Brunswick, so maybe they suspend him to pretend that they care about something more than winning and money.
From what little I’ve read, it sounds like the second option may be the actual truth, but it doesn’t look like there’s really that smoking gun to remove all plausible deniability to have him lose the job. I don’t believe that 5 police reports could be filed in Columbus over the years and that it would not make it’s way to his attention, especially when his wife and close confidant (and university employee) knows as well. Those high level coaches are such control freaks in charge of every little detail, it’s very out of character to feign “hey I was in the dark here”.
I thought he would be fired for sure, so if he does hold onto the job I’ll raise my hand and admit my surprise.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear: both options assume that he knew about that abuse. He has acknowledged that he was aware of both instances already.
The question is whether or not he reported it. If he did, there should be an easily discoverable paper trail (a bit of caution: I’m no Title IX expert, but I’ve been told this would be the case). I can’t imagine they would have to wait for a formal board meeting to let them know that there is no paper trail; if that were the case, they could just fire him not only for failing to meet his Title IX requirements – which, from what I understand, would be a contractual violation for which they could get rid of him for cause (read: no buyout) – but then also lying about it. If they were sure they had cause to fire him, they would have already done so, because the things that would give them a slam-dunk for-cause case are bad enough that you can’t keep a coach, no matter how successful.
So, the point is, at a minimum, they don’t have a slam-dunk for-cause case. That indicates to me that he did report it, but (obviously) was happy to keep Smith on staff. That’s a moral failing, but probably not one that will relieve OSU of their obligation to pay his buyout. So they won’t fire him, absent some really egregious emails or text messages that they found. Trying to find those emails or text messages is a not-insubstantial part of what they’ve been paying a very expensive law firm to do these last couple weeks.
Yeah, the last paragraph is exactly where I’m at. If they are trying to get rid of him because they question his moral judgment, they’re taking their time to find something that can allow them to fire him without paying the buyout.
Do you really think that is the case? If they want to fire him, they fire him, then they can figure out why afterwards. No way they would be delaying right before the football season, if they were going to need to look for a new headcoach, even interim.
It’s absolutely the case if they don’t want to face a massive wrongful termination lawsuit, which would be even worse than naming Ryan Day the season-long interim.
But no, I think all indications are that they’re going to keep Myer and at most slap him on the wrist. Because winning. You’ll notice I said “IF they are trying to get rid of him” not “they are trying to get rid of him, so…”
Exactly. From all indications, it seems that the combination of him being a winning head coach and them (apparently) thinking that they’re likely to have to pay a significant buyout outweigh whatever blowback they’ll get from having an alleged-wife-beater-supporter and admitted liar as a head coach. I have very little doubt that they would fire him if they thought they could get out from under the contract, but at some point it becomes too costly.
If they want to fire him, they go ahead and do it. Just like if he were a bad coach. They then have plenty of time to come up with a defense if he sues for wrongful termination.
I don’t believe for a minute they want to fire him and are trying to figure out how to do it.
There is way more money at stake than the amount of Myers buyout. It’s the money that they would lose if he left because they wouldn’t win as much.
I’m with the juice, I ultimately think tOSU probably wish they can make it all go away as quietly as possible and continue with what’s best for the program – which is clearly keeping Meyer as HC.
Maybe the AD or even school President falls if something was sent up the line and not acted on properly. But overall for the institution it’s not like this news could be too shocking since they knew all along of Smith’s 2009 domestic violence and were content to have him on staff at that point.
Both nd09hls12 and I have said we think they’re keeping him. If you think it’s that easy to fire him, and that a multimillion dollar lawsuit doesn’t give the university pause, then okay, we fundamentally disagree. If anything I think it’s an additional factor pushing them to keeping him.
My main point is that I don’t think they are anywhere near wanting to fire him (my extremely jaded view of the state of sports). You guys seem to think they want to fire him, but won’t because it’s too difficult.
Yes, they would consider a lawsuit, no question, but since Meyer generates 100’s of millions (maybe like $10mil per year above an average replacement). The loss from firing him in revenue is significantly more than any loss from a wrongful termination suit. Wrongful termination suits almost never result in even an entire year’s earnings.
Ticket sales alone account for nearly $10 million per game at tOSU ($66 mil over 7 games). So financially, a few million dollar law suit shouldn’t move the needle anywhere near as much as getting the best coaching situation possible in place.
What part of “I think all indications are that they’re going to keep Myer and at most slap him on the wrist. Because winning.” suggests I think they want to fire him? I don’t think they want to fire him, and I don’t think they will.
Again–IF they wanted to fire him, it’s more complicated than you suggest. Even your monetary loss example–those aren’t two choices they are choosing between, they’re two things they’d have to deal with IF they chose to fire him. It’d be the cost of the lawsuit PLUS the cost of a new coach PLUS the loss in revenue. All of which makes for a compelling case not to fire him, even IF they wanted to, and IF they wanted to, they’d be better served with an airtight case to keep as much as they could in buyout.
Oh, I got the impression you and nd09 both thought they wanted to fire him, but wouldn’t because of red tape.
Obviously there is a lot that goes into firing someone, unless you are USC. But when the performance of the football program is the most important thing at your school, you act swiftly if there is going to be a change.
Also, one more clarification. I don’t think you are wrong about anything.
I come from a seriously negative perspective about any major athletic school, or professional team, and their complete lack of concern for anything other than money. My points are only related to actions I believe taken when that is all you care about, which I sincerely believe to be the case here.
At all but maybe 10-20 schools, I absolutely agree that everything you have said would transpire.
I’m genuinely shocked that Gene Smith did not get fired. They say that Meyer and Smith did not engage in a coverup. They also say that only Meyer and Smith knew about it, and did not tell anyone. Well, no shit there was no cover-up: there was nobody else to tell! I mean, I guess they could have called the governor? The whole point is that Meyer and Smith should have fired him when they found out. Unbelievable.
Also ridiculous is that they’re buying that Meyer wasn’t knowingly lying at Big Ten Media Days. Yeah, sure.
I think it’s still possible that they are going to fire him. I’m not saying it’s likely, just possible–there’s enough gray area surrounding it all, that level of “plausible deniability” (however flimsy, as hooks says) that prevents them from firing him with no questions. Given that situation, I think they’ve got to be extra careful about crossing their t’s and dotting the i in their Script Ohio before they let him go. There’s enough to say “you tolerated a known problem as a coach on your staff, whether or not you followed the correct protocol by the book” and let him go, but that won’t fly with boosters and fans and would leave them open to a countersuit if they don’t do it correctly.
Of course, they could also be working carefully in the OTHER direction, taking their time to make an airtight case for keeping him. Either way, I think the chains here are pretty complicated, and I have no faith that the outcome will be satisfactory no matter what happens.
No surprise here – https://twitter.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1031646698551107585
That said, I will be surprised if nobody else at all gets fired. Somebody (somebodies) in authority were cool with keeping a known alleged serial domestic abuser around.
The expression “time served” feels ridiculous in this context.
“We suspended you with pay while we investigated. We found wrongdoing and your punishment is the paid suspension ends.”
So, no more vacation? @sounds like a punishment to me@
The “best” theory I’ve seen: “the Maryland blow up with DJ Durkin is a a B1G smokescreen to take the focus off of the Meyer/tOSU investigation.”
Right…because Maryland’s coaches killed a kid in June just so it could become a story in August to take the heat off of Meyer?
I buy it.
So, the assistant coach has been convicted of abuse? I know he’s been accused of it, but I haven’t seen anything showing a conviction.
I’m not sure where I stand with this. I truly detest Meyer and I think he’s a snake oil salesman at best. But he didn’t run around abusing his wife. This reminds me of my time in the army. I have one of the best Patons in the brigade, PT scores, weapons qualifications, we’re always the main effort, etc. But one kid goes out and does something stupid, like a DUI or gets arrested for something, and now people want to question my leadership. I didn’t go out and act stupid. A 19 year old kid did.
I’m not sure anyone should lose their job for someone else’s actions.
Did you fail to punish the 19 year old kid, because he was related to a former commander you served under? Did you ignore the previous times he’d been caught for a DUI? Did you knowingly take him with you when you transferred and took command of a different platoon, despite a DUI 5 years previously, and just assume no one would ever find out about the kid’s pattern of DUIs? Did the wives of your NCOs all know that this kid kept having multiple DUIs, tell their husbands, but somehow your platoon sergeant and squad leaders all decided not to tell you? Did you lie about his DUI when asked by the IG? If you did, your leadership sure as hell should have been questioned. Nobody should question it for a kid being stupid. They should question it if you didn’t handle it and let it become a pattern.
THAT is what happened here. You’ve got a coach with multiple incidents. A pattern of domestic abuse. Evidence that everyone knew about it, and Meyer, when confronted, admitted he knew about it and lied about it. He kept that coach on his staff, at two P5 schools, despite the coach being mediocre by all accounts, through a pattern of issues stretching back to at least 2009.
And he doesn’t need to have a conviction to warrant being fired. Come on. “Well, we think he murdered someone, but he hasn’t been convicted, so we’re going to continue letting him hang around 18-21 year old kids in a position of authority.” Great idea.
Also, this isn’t even taking into account Meyer’s record of PLAYER behavior. One incident isn’t on the leader. A consistent pattern of allowing problematic and sometimes criminal behavior absolutely IS on the leader at the top.
As far as Meyers history of being a sleeze. TOSU knew what they were getting befor they hired. Clearly they were comfortable with that.
Sure. And that’s why he’ll get a slap on the wrist instead of be fired. But that doesn’t mean you ignore all of that when forming an opinion of whether or not he should have fired or kept this one assistant. He’s got a pattern of keeping around sleazeballs for various reasons. Regardless of what tOSU thinks about it, this isn’t an isolated incident on the part of either the assistant coach or Meyer, as you suggest when you say Meyer shouldn’t be held accountable for it.
I can buy the first and second paragrap. As far as there not being a conviction:
We’re not talking murder. We’re talking alleged abuse between a couple. That’s a situation that has two sides to the story. I question the evidence she has provided. If it’s been as horrible as she claims during the time span that she claims, surely there would have been some kind of conviction by now. Everything I’ve seen has been based on her testimony. No physical evidence. All of the connections have originated with her testimony. IE, she told Meyers wife.
I’m not trying to defend the coach here. I’m just saying in my experience people can, and do, say all kinds of things. If all of the horrible things she accused him of occurred, then there should be some kind of evidentiary trail to back it up.
Pictures aren’t physical evidence? There were bruises the size of frisbees on her body. Guess she just fell down the stairs a lot. Guess it’s none of our business. Guess there’s nothing to be done. Oh well. And this is why people don’t believe victims of abuse, which in turn makes it so hard for them to prove their cases. And so they stay quiet, because people treat them like they’re the problem. Unless you’re suggesting that the only reason someone can be fired is being convicted of a crime, then I’m not sure what you’re arguing. You clearly are trying to defend the coach here. The burden of proof for conviction of a crime isn’t required at all. People can be fired for being a bad influence or contributing to a negative environment. Say you’ve got an employee who repeatedly is involved in questionable activity. Every time something comes up, he’s always got the barest of excuses as to why it’s not his fault. The first time, maybe you let him pass. The second time, if not the first, you give them very clear warnings as to what’s going to happen if the situation continues. The third, you fire them. None of that requires a judge to pass a sentence or a jury to read out a conviction notice. Urban Meyer was aware in 2009 that there was enough of a problem between this guy and his at the time pregnant wife of 1 year that he and Shelly Meyer had to intervene and get them to counseling. Then there were multiple more incidents prior to their divorce. There were violations of restraining orders after the divorce. The guy was banging an office worker in the office and taping it, ordering sex toys delivered to the office, and taking pictures of his wang while on an official University-sponsored trip to the White House. All of which is corroborated by text evidence (though I’ll refrain from looking at it…ugh). The dude is an idiot and not a good guy. He’s clearly not a good influence on the student athletes he’s supposed to be coaching. Ordering sex toys isn’t a criminal act, and really the only problem with it is that he was using the university office, and even that is…minor. Having sex with a co-worker? Fine, if it’s two consenting adults. Doing it in the office, and taping it? How is that not violating several workplace policies? And the WH thing? Again, not a convictable offense in a court, but damn sure would be ground for dismissal for “bad judgement and being a poor representative of the University” at a minimum. I’m not a lawyer, but you don’t have to be one to see this guy is a dirtbag. This is a failure by Urban Meyer as a leader of an organization, pure and simple. Sure, “people can, and do, say all kinds of things.” There’s a laundry list of things this a-hole has done. But hey, none of that… Read more »
Huh. Hit the “read more” and it displays paragraphs, not just the wall o’ text.
I’m not defending anyone. The guy definitely seems sleazy. So pictures of bruises are evidence that he hit her? Was he prosecuted? I’ve seen girls try to show me old bruises and claim the guy did this to her that night. In one of the cases, I had previously taken a different guy to jail for the old bruises she was claiming the new guy inflicted. If I see signs of physical harm, I take whichever one to jail for domestic violence.
He seems like a douche but I’ve seen articles where she had a drinking problem. In most of the cases I’ve worked the victim wasn’t totally innocent either.
I don’t know if the guy beat on her or not. None of us do. We all know they had a rough marriage. I don’t know if Meyer believed he was beating her and just kept the guy on because they were friends. That seems pretty foolish from a guy that appears to be pretty smart.
I can agree to disagree on this. I don’t think we are going to see this the same way.
He admitted in a text to her that he strangled her and abused her.
https://twitter.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1025500090578939904
So you accept that the guy had a repeated pattern of at MINIMUM poor decisions and bad character. That’s not enough to warrant firing him from a job where he is in charge of college kids? Failure to remove him from that position by his boss doesn’t deserve anything?
I guess we do disagree.
1. The vast majority of domestic abuse goes unreported.
2. Ones that are reported almost never lead to formal charges. This is because of both the relationship between the parties, and it is very difficult to prosecute these issues because outside of absolutely awful physical evidence, it is largely he-said/she-said.
Generally if domestic abuse reaches the police it means that it was quite serious. The fact that a judge granted a restraining order is overwhelming evidence that this is legit. Also, the fact it the police were called like 9 times.
As a reference to where I’m coming at with this, I’m a cop. I deal with domestic issues everyday.
1. That might be true. I know I ride a lot of calls based on domestic issues. Probably the most frequent issue I get called for.
2. I agree it is largely he said/she said. That being said. Most of the calls I ride are unhappy people that regret choices they’ve made. I have seen a few that involved women getting beat up, and I do my best to get the woman out and get her to prosecute the man. It doesn’t happen too often though. Normally, I go to court, and she denys that she accused him of doing anything.
The vast majority of the domestics I ride involve some kind of drug, alcohol or whatever else they like. Many of them are about control. One, or the other, are trying to use the police to make that other person do what they say.
3. Most domestics are not serious. They’re drunk or high people that can’t get along. In the state of Georgia getting a restraining order is easy. You take a copy of the police report to the court house and talk to a clerk. She fills it out, and the judge signs it. I think the theory is that they obviously aren’t getting along and separation is best until it’s been adjudicated by a judge. The restraining order is a precaution not a judgement.
^This is such a worthy hill to die on. Kudos to you!
I know. Not the popular stance to take at all. It’s what I believe though. I was taught to try to think for myself. I try not to voice my opinion on things I haven’t given thought to.
ESPN keeps listing Brian Kelly as a candidate for other jobs:
http://www.espn.com/college-football/insider/story/_/id/24420827/david-beaty-ed-orgeron-lead-2018-19-college-football-hot-seat-rankings
I find it a little humorous, but have taken them less seriously since they listed him for USC a few years ago.
Given that it happens with consistency, it seems very likely that Kelly’s agent is encouraging it, which is almost amusing. The idea that LSU would hire him at this point is laughable (I’m assuming that’s it based on the headline, as I don’t have Insider). If Kelly were out of a job tomorrow for a non-scandalous reason, he would, at best, get a below average Power 5 job. In terms of attractiveness, he’s a lot closer to, say, Kevin Sumlin right now than being a coach in serious demand by a major program.
But! But! But! Brian Kelly has academic restrictions! Just think of how good he’d do at LSU!
Yeah, I completely agree. LSU would happily trade Orgeron for Kelly (if a genie made them that offer, and no better offer), but if they were conducting a new coaching search and all the attendant hassle, they would look for someone much better.
Good thing we’ve won the bowl game against them, when the stakes were that the loser had to take Ed O! Dodged a bullet there!
CBK is 2-0 vs LSU, so this theory does have some legs. Though he is 0-2 vs Bama/UGA…
We need to shut down the Big Ten until we figure out what the hell is going on
Someone elsewhere I was talking to had the best idea: kick out tOSU, PSU, Maryland, Michigan State, and Buttgers. Bring back U. Chicago. 10 team conference again, play a round-robin, done.
3 game wrist slap.
lol nothing matters