Ohio State honors Jim Tressel with tribute wall in football facility

The wall went up 13 days after Ohio State and Tressel appeared before the NCAA Committee on Infractions. Watch video

Doug LesmerisesThe Jim Tressel tribute wall at the Ohio State football facility.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - One of the most complicated breakups in sports added another layer last week.

Ohio State continues to simultaneously isolate and embrace Jim Tressel.

Last Thursday, Ohio State finished a wall mural honoring Tressel inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. The wall is in the main hallway of the OSU football facility, where other wall designs honoring Woody Hayes, listing the Big Ten teams, recognizing OSU All-Americans, etc., are prevalent.
 
In a lot of ways, the Tressel wall fits. He's a major, successful part of Ohio State's football history.

But he's also a major part of Ohio State's messy present. With the NCAA more than a month away from ruling on Ohio State's NCAA case, already honoring the coach at the heart of those violations is interesting.

Ohio State's basic case to the NCAA is that the responsibility for the violations committed within the football program lies with Tressel. Ohio State made the point to the NCAA that it forced out Tressel, and it views that resignation as one of the main penalties already suffered by the school. When Ohio State appeared before the NCAA in Indianapolis, the OSU crew went into the meeting room as a group, and Tressel went in by himself, accompanied only by his two lawyers.

Yet 13 days after Ohio State's NCAA hearing before the Committee on Infractions, the Tressel wall went up.

It's not hard to imagine Ohio State honoring the Tressel legacy. The guy won seven Big Ten titles, one national championship and went 9-1 against Michigan. That can't be ignored.

But to put a tribute like that up before the first play without Tressel at the helm takes place? Fascinating. And that wall reflects how the past must be remembered by the Buckeyes. The record listed for Tressel is 8-1 against Michigan. The Big Ten titles won are six. The overall record with the Buckeyes is 94-21. Because everything that happened in 2010, including Tressel's 100th win at Ohio State, can't be recognized.
 
The 2010 season was vacated. The wall mural of Big Ten championships down the hall from the Tressel wall doesn't include 2010. The reason that season was vacated is the same reason Tressel isn't still walking down that hallway in the flesh.
 
So instead, he's on a wall.

What's your take? Do you like the wall? Not like it? Like it but think it's too soon?

Source: http://www.cleveland.com/buckeyeblog/index.ssf/2011/08/ohio_state_honors_jim_tressel.html

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