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The University of Akron announced Thursday that it has hired Jim Tressel for a newly created administrative job raising money and building support for student programs. Tressel, who got a master's in education from Akron and taught and coached there in the late 1970s, resigned last spring as Ohio State University's head football coach amid revelations that he had known about, but failed to act on, allegations of rule breaking by his players there. The National Collegiate Athletic Association punished Ohio State for those violations in December and placed severe restrictions on the coaching and other activities in which Tressel could engage at any institution that hired him.
Akron's president, Luis Proenza, told reporters that he had no reservations about hiring the university's alumnus to work with its students, alumni and community. "Look at the man. Look at what he has done," Proenza said. "Look at the thousands of lives he has impacted. We knew that was the asset." Akron also got a bargain given what Tressel is used to earning. The $200,000 salary Akron will pay him if the trustees approve his hiring is a good $3 million less than he earned as coach at Ohio State.
