(Image source: Fox Sports)

BY DAN CORNFIELD

ANCHOR JIM FLINK

More than a decade of dirt. More accusations pile up against Ohio State football players and now former head coach Jim Tressel. Tressel resigned after more rumors came out against the award-winning coach. ESPN’s Mark May says the problems go much deeper than selling jerseys for tattoos.

“You continue to look back at this program. It’s almost a culture of corruption... And almost on a daily basis there’s another player that comes out saying he got a car at a discount or a he got a free car. Then the car dealer comes out last week saying he sold 50 plus vehicles to either players or their families at the ‘Buckeye’ discount."

The resignation may take Jim Tressel out of the NCAA crosshairs. And Cleveland Plain Dealer's Terry Pluto says hats off to the Vest for falling on the sword.

“Tressel knows that if you lift up enough rugs and peek into enough corners of any major football powerhouse, you will find some dirt ... By resigning, Tressel knows the NCAA may lighten up on the Buckeyes.”

But a timeline of Tressel’s career suggests the NCAA has more work to do in O-H-I-O.

An article published in Sports Illustrated alleges Tressel knew more than he has let on. The author, George Dohrmann, says the violations would have gone away in time. But the cover-up will cause problems for all of Buckeye nation.

“Ohio State would like to say it is simply a Jim Tressel problem, but of course it is more than that. More people than Jim Tressel are responsible for monitoring athletes, for educating them about wrongdoing. This idea that wide-spread cheating was going on and it was only Jim Tressel’s responsibility to know about it is false.”

But the crew of MSNBC’s Morning Joe says this sort of thing happens all over the country. And maybe, Tressel’s fall from grace will shine light on the larger problem in big time college sports.

“At some point we’re going to have to look at this obscene system where universities make billions of dollars. And the kids I know they get the scholarships, that’s great. But if universities were bringing them to schools to give them an education, that would be one thing. They’re not. They’re bringing them as cash machines. And some thing’s going to have to be done.”

But the wide-ranging allegations go beyond the issue of pay-to-play. WBBM’s Adam Hoge says the variety of charges were what doomed Tressel.

“Somehow Tressel had no idea his players were hanging out at two different tattoo shops daily, playing video games with a drug dealer ... What was revealed in Monday’s Sports Illustrated piece is a systematic problem that was likely inherited by Tressel and consistently covered up by the hierarchy at Ohio State.”