Ohio State investigating car dealers relationship with players

Jim Tressel-Ohio State/Courtesy: scienceblogs.com

 ((ht: dispatch.com))

Ooohhh. This is getting even better. A report in today's Columbus Dispatch details an ongoing investigation by Ohio State's director of compliance as to whether athlete's and their families at the school recieved "Improper Benefits" from a local car dealer.

Folks, this is getting deep.

According to the report, the owners of Jack Maxton Cheverolet and Auto Direct, both located in Columbus, were interviewed in detail by Ohio State's director of compliance, Doug Archie.

Archie says he doesn't believe that any violations have occurred, but he wants to investigate the transactions to make sure. He says that both dealers contact him and discuss transactions with players on a routine basis.

There is a common thread in the investigation and that is a salesman who worked at both dealers. The same salesman, was on the Ohio State pass list as a guest of players.

Read the entire story from the Columbus Dispatch RIGHT HERE

We aren't going to come out and say...at least directly that this doesn't pass the "Smell" test, but quite honestly....it doesn't. We've been told in the past that there were some questionable transactions involving players and local car dealers in the past, but there has...at least to this point, never been any corroborating evidence.

However, the story talks about a particular Ohio State athlete, linebacker Thaddeus Gibson,  who purchased a 2009, Chrysler 3000 with less than 20,000 miles on it...and according to the transaction record...paid $0 for it. For his part, Gibson responded "I paid for the car, and I'm still paying for it". But then didn't answer any other questions.

This may prove out to be nothing, but then again it may not. Just the sheer number of athlete's and families involved in sales does and should raise a red flag. And there seems to be some preliminary evidence it may not have all been "Above board". For Ohio State's sake, this better play out to be much-ado-about nothing, because if it doesn't...and is tacked on to the problems they are already facing with the NCAA...ooohh...we shudder to think about the repercussions.