Rosebowl vs OM: Who 'won"?

[BeastMan]

I had an interesting discussion with another State fan the other day about this topic. The OM NCAA battle was essentially an OM and their media vs Rosebowl battle, especially pre-sanctions. Steve jumped out early with a flurry of jabs and some power shots. In typical Steve fashion, he starts strutting and gloating selling t-shirts and then the book hits the shelves. While he was right about the scope of the investigation and seemed to be 1 step ahead of the OM folks every step of the way, now it looks different from 10,000 feet.

Let's establish what Steve's biggest "victories" were. First and foremost, the book and the profit he made from said book. Second would be the Freeze scalp he got by discovering the escort call. There is a wide gap to get to third and I'd probably say the profits from t-shirt sales.

Let's look at OM's "victories". They essentially got off when it comes to scholarships. The NCAA had every opportunity to cripple that program for 10 years and they didn't. That's a fact. Another victory for that side of the isle is Freeze basically skated. It's pretty incredible when you look back that OM as an institution and Freeze both came out unscathed. The assistants, like Farrar, got nailed. The third win for the OM side, and it's a big one, is that no one named the booster from the 601 area code. Steve stated numerous times that he wanted to put in print who did what and name names for the historical record. Well, that booster from the 601 area code swung a big enough stick to shut everyone up, Steve included.

It's interesting because you could make a strong argument that Steve won because of how he kept the light shining but the flip-side is that if you take him at his word, all he wanted was the truth and justice to be served. Well, the truth hasn't all come out and justice wasn't a hammer,it was a tickle feather. What Steve got in all actuality was some cash from MSU fans (and I'm not hating on the hustle at all).

The last thought I want to leave with before the board discusses is that am I perhaps looking at this from too close a scope due to proximity. Are there other things that have come out of this that are ultimately good for MSU like the OM media destroying any credibility they have nationally? I don't think a national guy is ever going to put in to print anything they get from an Oxford source ever again.