CBS Sports

CBS Sports announced the pairings for the NCAA Tournament Bracket 2011 during the NCAA Basketball championship Selection Show on Sunday, March 13 at 6:00-7:00 PM, ET.

Turner Sports’ Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith join CBS Sports’ Greg Gumbel, Greg Anthony and Seth Davis to host the NCAA BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SELECTION SHOW live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.

Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg join via satellite from the site of the Big Ten Championship at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. In addition, Gene Smith, Chairman of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, joins live from Indianapolis, Ind. to discuss the bracket and the committee’s selection process.

Additionally, CBS Sports’ coverage of the NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP SELECTION SHOW will be streamed live on NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) available at NCAA.com, CBSSports.com, and SI.com.

Meanwhile on celebrity reactions, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, who are a big fans of the University of Iowa basketball program are getting on Twitter with their reactions to the NCAA Tournament Bracket 2011! While the supermodel and star of Project Runway, Heidi Klum likes Syracuse and told Sports Illustrated : “I think Orange is the hot color right now and I love Otto, their mascot.”

Game coverage for the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship begins on Tuesday, March 15 and Wednesday, March 16 with the FIRST FOUR on truTV, and the tournament concludes with the National Championship game Monday, April 4 on CBS. Through Turner Sports’ and CBS Sports’ new 14- year agreement with the NCAA, fans will be able to watch all of the games live in their entirety across four national television networks: CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, for the first time in the tournament’s 73-year history.

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Jim Tressel

Jim Tressel, Yahoo’s harbinger of doom has struck again. Yahoo! Sports is reporting Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel was informed that some of his players had sold memorabilia to the owner of a tattoo parlor in April 2010, more than eight months before the school said it was made aware of improper transactions.If substantiated, both Tressel and Ohio State could face major NCAA violations.

If the allegations are true, Tressel’s situation would be untenable. Not reporting an NCAA violation is a violation. The NCAA could charge him with “unethical conduct, failure to monitor and a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance.” Instead of a cushy retirement package, the seemingly unassailable coach could  be fired with cause.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has said the local U.S. Attorney's office on Dec. 7 alerted the school that some of its players were selling items such as jerseys and championship rings to Rife.

On Dec. 23, quarterback Terrelle Pryor was among five players suspended by the NCAA for the first five games of the 2011 season. All the players were allowed to play in Ohio State's 31-26 victory against Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.

The hard part is proving this. A trusted source’s word is good enough for the reporting court, but for Ohio State to face more than public scorn there must be conclusive evidence that conversation took place. Was it over email? Is there a phone record? Anything Tressel can’t plausibly deny? We don’t know the results of the investigation. We just know there’s something to investigate.

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