"Why would he redact Small's name?" you ask? Simple. Small had graduated recently enough that his improper benefits would still fall under the statue of limitations for which OSU could be punished, BUT as he had already left school, the NCAA has no subpoena power over him. The only way the NCAA could have busted OSU on this was if they somehow got their hands on the original, unedited emails. Which they did. Ouch.
Ohio State continuing to redact Small’s name from the complete set of emails is all the more troubling (for them) considering the comments made by Smith in announcing penalties against the football program on Dec. 23, 2010.
At that time, six Buckeyes were cited by Smith for taking extra benefits. But those players did not include Small, who had also committed violations that the NCAA could consider actionable. Despite that fact, Smith said at the time:
“There are no other NCAA violations around this case. We’re very fortunate that we do not have a systemic problem in our program. This is isolated to these young men, and isolated to this particular instance.”
Smith knew of Small’s NCAA rules-violating activities involving Rife, which were inside the NCAA’s statute of limitations, when he made that statement. If Smith believed that Small’s actions were not subject to NCAA penalties, why did Ohio State redact Small’s name from the later-released, complete Cicero-Tressel email correspondence while revealing former Buckeye T.J. Downing’s name?
Clearly Smith misrepresented the situation within the Ohio State program with his comments on Dec. 23, 2010, to the media - at the very least as it pertained to Small.
Put more bluntly, he lied.
So now this isn't just a case of a "rogue coach" or a a few "bad seeds." This is--plain and simple--systemic cheating at the highest level within the athletic department at Ohio State.
Grab your popcorn, kids. This is getting fun.
