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| Hmmm |
ESPN lawyer John Greiner, based in Cincinnati, said in the court filing that the events surrounding OSU football are sad.
Tressel did not forward the e-mails to his superiors at OSU or to the NCAA, a decision which ultimately lead to his ouster under pressure from Ohio State officials. Meanwhile, Pryor decided to leave OSU and apply for the NFL’s supplementary draft after Tressel was shown the door.
In the lawsuit, ESPN says that OSU is “aggressive and misguided” and “equal parts cynical and hypocritical” for claiming they are prohibited by FERPA from releasing the communications that concern Sarniak. Noting that Sarniak is neither a parent or guardian of any player on the team, the lawsuit states that OSU hasn’t indicated the records would discuss grades, financial aid or other items covered by FERPA.
OSU has 21 days to respond to the suit once it is served with papers.
This is simply getting out of hand. This started way back in December of 2010, and now has exceedingly gotten worse. It doesn't help the fact that ESPN is acting like a girl dumped at a high school prom.
Whether or not ESPN will win, is a mystery, but this certainly isn't going to help with the 20111 season. Our friends from tBBC had a good way of putting the situation:
"Clearly, what’s happening at Ohio State is a story, and may be THE story right now- it would be wise for ESPN to continue picking at the scraps that Yahoo! and others have left. But until they grab a hold of the idea that they can discover rather than just “cover” and create stories by seemingly following a corporate narrative, the scraps from others will be all that they will be left with.
Remember… this isn’t always about what’s “right” or “fair”, but the bottom line and the economic realities of sports that have expanded well beyond the “co-curricular” model. Particularly for an institution that has no problem working to “expose” a student athlete to then turn around and make him the center of a revenue-producing entity on their network."
