Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel spoke about his time at the school on the one-year anniversary of his resignation. (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

On the one-year anniversary of his resignation from Ohio State, former Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel told The Plain Dealer‘s Doug Lesmerises that he has no regrets about his tenure in Columbus.

His 10-year run as coach ended on Memorial Day 2011 because of major NCAA violations.

“It was going to end one day, in one way or another, and that wasn’t the way we wanted to end it,” Tressel said.

“Wow, a lot happens in a year, a lot that you don’t know is going to happen. But I don’t feel scarred or disappointed or mad. I just don’t feel that way. The people at Ohio State have always been great to me, and things end up the way they do, and you go on to the next play or the next day, and that’s always been the way I look at things.”

Tressel spent last football season working for the Indianapolis Colts. In February, he was hired by the University of Akron as its Vice President of Strategic Engagement.

Despite the uncertainty over the past year, Tressel said he always knew he and the Ohio State program would be fine.

“We talked a million times to our young people about the fact that Ohio State is bigger than you, or Youngstown State is bigger than you, and it’s going to move forward,” Tressel said. “So do the best you can while you’re there and know that it’s a part of your life forever, but that there’s a moment when it’s not the every day part of your life.

“The people I run into want to talk about the fond memories, and I’m sure that’s not unlike when you lose a loved one and you think back on all those wonderful times, and that’s absolutely the way I feel.

“I suppose it was disappointing to some. They thought we would do that forever, but it took a strange turn. But I think when you step back, at least I do, I think of all the good times and the excellent I people I worked with and got to meet.”

The Ohio State Buckeyes self-reported 46 secondary NCAA violations less than a week ago, but the athletic department has up to a dozen more violations pending, according to a report by The Lantern‘s Pat Brennan. 

“We’ve got 12 pending,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith is quoted as saying. “It may turn out to be secondary. It may not.”

A school spokesman later told the paper that there were less than 12 pending cases. Smith also clarified that the school is not facing any major violations, according to tweets by CBS’s Bruce Feldman and Brett McMurphy.

AD Gene Smith in a statement: "Contrary to reports attributed to me, Ohio St is not facing any major NCAA violations."

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Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) May 24, 2012

Ohio State AD Gene Smith says school isn't facing major NCAA violations just "several secondary violations being processed"

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Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyCBS) May 24, 2012

Ohio State’s football team is banned from going to a bowl this season as punishment related to the alleged sale of memorabilia for tattoos, among other allegations against the programs. Long-time coach Jim Tressel resigned in the aftermath of reports about the behavior.

The 46 self-reported secondary violations from last week involved 21 sports and covered a period dating back to May 30, 2011. They included one instance where new football coach Urban Meyer said “good luck” to recruit while attending his game. It is a violation to speak with a recruit during a competition.

“It’s nothing that troubles me,” Smith told The Associated Press about the 46 violations. “It’s normal operating business. It’s nothing that troubles me. I’ve seen all the cases. We know all the cases. You look at them, and they’re inadvertent mistakes.”

News broke last night that Jim Tressel, former head football coach at Ohio State, was closing in on an administrative position at the University of Akron. Now we have definitive word, as Akron introduced Tressel as “vice president for strategic engagement” in a news conference this morning.

“It’s always important where you are and to come back to the place that gave you your first chance,” Tressel said, according to NewsChannel 5 in Akron.

Tressel landed his first coaching job at Akron, working there as a graduate assistant from 1975 to ’78.

The former coach will begin in his new administrative role on May 1. He is expected to make approximately $200,000 per year.

The 59-year-old Tressel spent 15 years as a head coach at Youngstown State followed by 10 more at Ohio State. He resigned as the Buckeyes’ coach in May amid allegations of numerous NCAA rule violations. He leaves behind a 229-79-2 career record as a college head coach.

The University of Akron will announce that it has hired Jim Tressel, according to Kenny Roda of WKNR Cleveland.

Sources have told me that Akron will hold a press conference tomorrow to announce that Jim Tressel has been hired by the university

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Kenny Roda (@roadmanwknr) February 02, 2012

Working on what Tressel's role or job title will be at Akron. Don't know yet.

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Kenny Roda (@roadmanwknr) February 02, 2012

Roda adds that he is unsure what exactly Tressel’s role will be, but Pat Galbincea of Cleveland.com reports that Tressel could be hired in an administrative position.

Tressel, 59, resigned as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes in May 2011 amid an NCAA investigation of rule violations. He spent 2011 as a consultant for the Indianapolis Colts. He has a 229-79-2 career record as a head coach.

The Indianapolis Colts are already underway in their efforts to replace head coach Jim Caldwell, whom they fired Tuesday. Jerry Gray, Mike Zimmer and Pete Carmichael Jr. are among the names already being discussed. But now two big-name head coaches have emerged as serious candidates for the opening: Jim Tressel and Brad Childress.

Tressel, 59, resigned in May as the head coach at Ohio State and worked this season as a Colts consultant. According to Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star, owner Jim Irsay flew to Sarasota, Fla., today to speak with Tressel, and multiple sources expect him to be interviewed for the head coaching position.

Childress, 55, who coached the Minnesota Vikings for four-plus seasons before his firing in 2010, may also be on the Colts’ radar. Jason La Canfora of the NFL Network reports that the Colts want to talk with Childress, who also interviewed recently for the vacant position in Tampa Bay.

The Colts went 2-14 this past season in the absence of Peyton Manning, leading to Caldwell’s firing this week. It’s unclear whether Manning or an outside hire, perhaps Stanford prodigy Andrew Luck, will be at the helm when the Colts take the field in 2012.

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Ohio State University will be punished with a one-year postseason play ban following the 2012 season.

The NCAA will also strip the school of four football scholarships over the next three years, on top of the five scholarships which Ohio State has already forfeited as a form of self-punishment over the same span. According to the Columbus Dispatch, the Buckeyes will also have an additional year of probation on top of the two-years of probation the school self-imposed earlier this year.

Jim Tressel will reportedly be handed a show-cause penalty, according to the paper, which means that any school that may choose to hire him in the future could be subject to sanctioned themselves.

The punishments stem from a controversy which occurred last season when it came to light that several Ohio State football players, including then star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, were selling their awards and equipment to a tattoo-parlor owner. Initially just the players were punished for the infractions, but this spring leaked emails revealed that former head coach Jim Tressel was aware of the violations months before the NCAA found out about them.

Pryor and Tressel have since left the school.