Ohio State University president Gordon Gee once again firmly and confidently placed his foot in his mouth, disparaging Notre Dame, Catholicism, Louisville and the SEC all in one sitting, according to the AP. Gee has issued an apology, calling his remarks “wrong,” “inappropriate” and “a poor attempt at humor.” He will undergo a “remediation plan” according to the school.
Ohio State president takes shots at Notre Dame, Louisville, SEC
For the umpteenth time, the Ohio State president has said some silly things, this time about Notre Dame, Louisville and the SEC.
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Gee was speaking to a meeting of the Ohio State Athletics Council back in December when he made these comments, blowing by previous instances of silly statements in terms of both quality and quantity.
On Notre Dame:
“The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week,” Gee said to laughter at the Dec. 5 meeting attended by Athletic Director Gene Smith and several other athletic department members, along with professors and students.
“You just can’t trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that,” said Gee, a Mormon.
On Louisville:
The top goal of Big Ten presidents is to “make certain that we have institutions of like-minded academic integrity,” Gee said. “So you won’t see us adding Louisville,” a member of the Big East conference that is also joining the ACC.
On conference expansion and the SEC:
“You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we’re doing,” Gee said, when asked by a questioner how to respond to SEC fans who say the Big Ten can’t count because it now has 14 members.
Speaking further about conference expansion, Gee said that the Big Ten would never invite a school like Kentucky, and said he thought the conference made a mistake by not courting Missouri and Kansas.
On Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, in reference to conference revenue sharing:
“No one admires Jim Delaney more than I do — I chaired the committee that brought him here,” Gee said. “Jim is very aggressive, and we need to make certain he keeps his hands out of our pockets while we support him.”
In terms of outlandishness, I think both the Notre Dame and SEC comments top Gee’s “Little Sisters of the Poor” reference, as well as saying the tattoo scandal made the school a “poster child for compliance.“ Let’s also not forget how he claimed the NCAA would have punished Ohio State beyond self-imposed sanctions just because they’re Ohio State. Gee also once compared coordinating Ohio State’s different colleges to doing the same with the Polish Army, which is a pretty big-time World War II burn for those of you who are into that sort of thing.
With all that in mind, where do you, fair reader, think these latest quotes from Gee fit in his personal portfolio of absurdity?
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