Friday afternoon Rusty Miller of the ASSOCIATED PRESS reported that highly regarded Ohio State football public relations point person Shelly Poe had been re-assigned within the Ohio State sports information department.

Poe is one of the very, very few public relations persons highly respected by both the media and industry peers. (Thanks to a tireless work ethic, she was inducted into the college sports information directors Hall of Fame at a very young age.)

From the Miller AP story:

Ohio State’s top spokeswoman for the football program for the past four years has been reassigned to duties elsewhere within the school’s sports information department.

Shelly Poe, responsible for handling communications and public relations for Buckeyes football, will now oversee women’s soccer and softball, men’s and women’s swimming and all on-campus championships. She was inducted into the college sports information directors Hall of Fame in 2006. Poe was athletic communications director at her alma mater, West Virginia, from 1988 until she was brought to Ohio State in 2007.

Jerry Emig will take over football after managing for four years the same sports Poe will now handle.

If you know the backgrounds of Poe and Emig, the move by Ohio State is nothing short of stunning.

And I do mean stunning.

Over a decade ago, it was Emig who was top dog at the OSU Sports Information Department. But in January, 2000, he resigned after it was discovered he had described comedian and Ohio State alumnus Richard Lewis in the Buckeyes’ basketball media guide thusly:

“Actor, Writer, Comedian, Drunk.”

Meanwhile Poe, thanks to impeccable credentials from her WVU sports public relations work at her alma mater, was lured to Ohio State in 2007 to take over media communications for the football program.

How badly did OSU want Poe to represent their football program to the public? From a Scout.com story about her move in 2007:

The Ohio State coaching staff, led by Jim Tressel, went to West Virginia and, through its powers of persuasion, was able to get the person it wanted.

No, this isn’t about Josh Jenkins, although the parallels could end up being similar. In this particular incidence, the subject was Shelly Poe, the director of West Virginia University’s sports communications office. Tressel and receivers coach Darrell Hazell were able to convince the lifelong West Virginian that a move to Columbus to serve as the football program’s sports information director was the right one.

A graduate of University High School in Morgantown, Poe said it was hard to leave her comfort zone but looks forward to a new challenge in Columbus.

“It’s really hard,” she said. “I’m from here, I’ve worked here as a student and I never left. I’ve been 19 years in this same job and it’s been wonderful, it’s been great, but this was a really super opportunity and chance to do I guess almost specifically just the stuff I like to do.”

Ohio State’s athletic department likes to pride itself on tradition, excellence and people, and Poe said the latter of those was one of the main reasons she took the prominent job.

“I think I counted it up – I met with 24 different people and they were all just super,” Poe said of her June interview at OSU. “They were really nice and friendly but they have so much pride in Ohio State and they have so much enthusiasm for whatever it takes to get it done. That was very appealing.”

“I thought he was very friendly, easy to deal with,” Poe said of Tressel. “That’s kind of how people are in West Virginia, kind of laid back.”

The CHARLESTON (WV) GAZETTE reported at the time of her departure from Morgantown:

Shelly Poe, West Virginia University’s sports beacon for 19 years, is leaving the Mountaineer athletic department for a similar job with Ohio State.

Poe, 42, has accepted the position of football communications director in Columbus and will begin working with Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel at the end of next week. Her last day with WVU is next Monday.

“I will be the point person for Ohio State football,” Poe said. “It’s a terrific opportunity. Everyone there seems so people- oriented. They want their athletes - as well as their staff - to grow.”

WVU is losing one of the most highly decorated sports information directors in the country. Last summer she was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame. She is also recognized as a trailblazer for women in the profession. At the time she took over for Joe Boczek as SID in 1988, Poe was the only female in the position at a major football school.

Four years later, Poe was replaced today by an OSU staffer who resigned in disgrace 11 years earlier for calling a celebrity Ohio State alum a “drunk” in an official Ohio State sports publication.

Of Poe’s ouster, today I was told by a credentialed media member who has covered the Ohio State football beat for well over a decade that Poe was re-assigned at the urging of Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel.

I was told by the same source that Tressel indeed had a hand in luring Poe from her alma mater, West Virginia, to Ohio Sate with the promise that she’d be allowed to do her job the same way she did it at West Virginia. With complete autonomy. (Which resulted in her becoming one of the most celebrated individuals in her industry.)

But once Poe got to Columbus, Tressel went back on his promise, constantly contesting player access to the media.

Following the Ohio State spring game on April 23, the same game which ESPN’s Mark Schlabach reported Tressel was nearly banned by OSU officials in deference to future NCAA penalties, Poe made Buckeye quarterback Joe Bauserman available to the media.

After Poe allowed media access to Bauserman, who said little to nothing of substance about the most recent NCAA inquiries and the football program itself, Tressel sought out Poe’s ouster, which was granted today with the announcement that Poe has been re-assigned to women’s soccer, swimming, softball and “director of all on-campus championships.”

It was also Tressel who pushed for Poe’s replacement to be Emig, who I was told today got into a confrontation with a media member at the 2011 Sugar Bowl because the reporter asked Terrelle Pryor, during his only media availability that week, about the then-recently-imposed NCAA sanctions involving tattoos and cash for Ohio State player-only memorabilia.

If you were (somehow still) wondering if the walls were closing in on Tressel, I think you now have your answer.

Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.

Well that was awkward painful fun.

Video below also includes Tressel chest- bumping one of our troops during a 2009 trip to the Middle East. Read more…

Jill Riepenhoff of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH reported Sunday, “three times in the past three years, Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor was stopped for traffic violations while driving cars that were owned by a car salesman or a Columbus used-car lot where the salesman worked.“

More from Riepenhoff:

Pryor told The Dispatch last night that he borrowed cars from the dealership only when his own was in for repairs. As for the SUV he borrowed in 2008, Pryor said, “I wanted advice from some of my family and friends I trusted to see if it would be a good vehicle for me to maybe buy.”

Pryor’s situation is remarkably similar to a 2004 ESPN The Magazine story in which Maurice Clarett claimed he was facilitated “loaner” vehicles by a local Columbus car dealership thanks to his status as a star Buckeye football player - with Ohio State coach Jim Tressel himself overseeing the transactions.

(Guess who else beat Michigan, Terrelle?)

On Nov. 10, 2004, Tom Friend wrote in the ESPN publication: Read more…

In its decision last Thursday to allow five Ohio State football players to play in the Sugar Bowl - despite suspending the same players for five games each for the 2011 season - the NCAA cited the fact that the players did not know they were breaking NCAA rules when they sold Ohio State player-only items to Columbus tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife.

(Tattooed Gibson was teammates with the guilty players)

From the NCAA release:

The decision from the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff does not include a withholding condition for the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The withholding condition was suspended and the student-athletes will be eligible to play in the bowl game Jan. 4 based on several factors.

These include the acknowledgment the student-athletes did not receive adequate rules education during the time period the violations occurred, Lennon said.

NCAA policy allows suspending withholding penalties for a championship or bowl game if it was reasonable at the time the student-athletes were not aware they were committing violations, along with considering the specific circumstances of each situation.

Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith also made clear during a press conference to announce the NCAA penalties that his compliance staff had fell down on the job when it came to making it known to players that they couldn’t sell such items.

“We were not explicit with these young men that you could not resell items that we give you. We began to be more explicit in November 2009.”

On the same day Ohio State and the NCAA claimed OSU player ignorance of the rules, the Buckeye football player with the most tattoos on the team between 2007-09, Thaddeus Gibson, said that Ohio State football players during the time in question were repeatedly (explicitly) informed of the NCAA rule in question. Read more…

On Wednesday afternoon, we broke the name of the Tattoo Parlor in Columbus, Fine Line Ink, where multiple Ohio State Buckeye football players were later confirmed by the NCAA to have sold Ohio State player-only merchandise and received extra benefits in the form of tattoos.

One day later, Ohio State officially announced that five Buckeye football players were suspended for five games due to NCAA violations involving Fine Line Ink.

Per the official NCAA release, the violations included the sale of the following items:

Mike Adams: Sale of 2008 Big Ten championship ring
DeVier Posey: Sale of 2008 Big Ten championship ring, 2008 Gold Pants
Terrelle Pryor: Sale of 2008 Big Ten championship ring, 2008 Gold Pants
Solomon Thomas: Sale of 2008 Big Ten championship ring, 2008 Gold Pants

Edward Rife is the man who owns Fine Line Ink and who bought those items from Ohio State players. On Rife’s current Facebook page, several Ohio State football players - past and present - are listed as “friends”:

In addition, photos that could be seen on Rife’s Facebook page this week included:

A photo of Terrelle Pryor at Rife’s tattoo parlor showing off the tattoo he got at Fine Line Ink:

An image of DeVier Posey getting a tattoo at Rife’s Fine Line Ink establishment:

Rife displaying a 2009 Ohio State gold pants charm. (Pryor, Posey and Thomas sold him their 2008 gold pants):

Rife displaying a 2009 Big 10 Championship ring:

An auction site that specializes in championship rings is currently offering a 2009 Big 10 Championship ring for sale at $3,295.00 with the description:

2009 Ohio State Football “OUTRIGHT BIG TEN-ROSE BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP” **Starting** Player’s Ring

A single pair of 2009 Ohio State gold pants are also available on the same auction site.

Four Ohio State players were cited for selling their 2008 Big 10 Championship rings and three were noted for selling their 2008 OSU gold pants.

But none were cited for selling 2009 Big 10 Championship rings or 2009 OSU gold pants.

Thursday I noted that former Ohio State football player Antonio Pittman Tweeted that Buckeye football players had been getting tattoo “hookups” since 2001. Read more…

At a press conference yesterday Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith revealed that current Buckeye football players had sold and bartered some of their Ohio State awards and merchandise for cash and tattoos.

Among those players selling one-of-a-kind, player-only items was OSU star quarterback Terrelle Pryor. Pryor sold his Big 10 Championship ring, a 2009 Fiesta Bowl award and his 2008 Ohio State gold pants charm - which is rewarded only to Buckeye players who beat Michigan - to the proprietor of a tattoo parlor in Columbus.

During his remarks about the NCAA violations committed by the players, Smith said that the school would appeal the sanctions. The Ohio State athletic director then presented what he offered as “mitigating circumstances” what he thought might cause the NCAA to reduce the penalties levied against the players and school.

One such “circumstance” that Smith said he would offer the NCAA in Ohio State’s appeal was his claim that the players who were punished sold the Ohio State items “to help their families.”

Smith:

“The decisions that they made, they made to help their families. … These young men went into their decision (to sell Ohio State awards and merchandise) with the right intent, to help their families and also we feel that there’s some mitigating circumstances that we can present.”

Smith was not specific in his characterization of the number of players who only aimed to “help their families”, but today he indicated during a radio appearance on Sirius/XM sattelite radio that perhaps that was not the intention of all of the players.

“A majority of the guys gave the money to their families, we will use this as a teachable moment. A majority of money went back to families.”

Smith did not provide that “majority” qualifier yesterday when presenting the sale of the Ohio State items by Buckeye football players as a solely noble endeavor.

Perhaps Smith was made aware in the interim of Pryor’s comments to the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER on November 11, 2010. In listing the reasons he was returning to Ohio State for his senior season, Pryor said: Read more…

Yesterday Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith announced that multiple Buckeye football players, including Terrelle Pryor, Dan Herron and DeVier Posey, had been suspended for five games in 2011 for, in part, receiving extra benefits in the form of tattoos.

During his remarks, Smith said of the situation:

“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.”

One former Buckeye football player though disagreed with that statement a few hours after Smith’s comments.

Following Smith’s press conference, ex-Ohio State player Antonio Pittman, who played for the Buckeyes from 2004-06, Tweeted: Read more…

Today we got word that Terrelle Pryor and his Ohio State teammates Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams, Solomon Thomas and Jordan Whiting were afforded an extended vacation from football in 2011 by the NCAA.

(New Buckeye Tradition? Pantload of Dough)

That those players are eligible for the Sugar Bowl defies logic but we’re way past the point of holding the NCAA or its member institutions accountable for anything.

Another part of this saga that might be upside-down to some is the fact that the majority of Ohio State fans I’ve been tracking since today’s suspension announcement also want Pryor to be benched for the Sugar Bowl.

If you’ve never lived in Columbus, that might come as a surprise, but if you know anything about the innumerable, mind-numbing traditions of Ohio State football you understand why Buckeye fans are more upset with Pryor than other charged Buckeye stars like Posey and Herron. Read more…

Ohio State announced today the NCAA has suspended football players Mike Adams, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Solomon Thomas and Terrelle Pryor for the first five games of next season. Also, Jordan Whiting is suspended for the first game of Ohio State’s 2010 season.

(Full release below)

The players will be eligible to play in the Sugar Bowl.

For Pryor, the suspension was a result of him selling awards. The Ohio State quarterback must repay $2,500 to charity for selling his 2008 Big Ten ring, his 2009 Fiesta Bowl Sportsmanship award and his 2008 Gold Pants.

Ohio State reported the violations to the NCAA on Dec. 20. The school will appeal the suspensions.

Here’s the entire NCAA press release: Read more…

Yesterday in the wake of reports that Ohio State football players may have gotten tattoos in exchange for autographs, which would likely represent an NCAA violation, Terrelle Pryor Tweeted the following:

Today, that Tweet disappeared from Pryor’s account. Read more…