Print This Post Print This Post

Jul

11

Does this mean Gee’s ‘war’ is over?

By Matt Wilson | Filed Under Miscellaneous 

The now former Chancellor at Vanderbilt, Gordon Gee, has earned praise from virtually all corners in the last few years when he began speaking of the evils of big-time college sports and actually did something about it: He “abolished” the athletic department at Vanderbilt and folded it into the Division of Student Life.

Among his many public comments about the problems of big-time college athletics was this: “…repsonsibility is diffuse, the potential for abuse considerable and the costs — both financial and academic — unsustainable.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Gee announced he was returning to be the president at Ohio State University.

That’s right, Ohio State. The school with the highest athletic budget in the history of college sports. The first college athletic budget to hit nine figures at $101.8 million.

That’s right, Ohio State. The school that finished as national runner-up in both football and basketball. The school that’s players are more well-known and more-televised than most of the teams in Major League Baseball.

That’s right, Ohio State. The school that has been investigated for major NCAA violations in football and basketball in the last five years.

Here’s another quote from Mr. Gee during his term at Vanderbilt about the necessity of changing college sports:

“There are many who say that the entrenched interests — television, alumni, legislators, among others — will never truly accept anything less than a continuation of the status quo. But that is simply unacceptable — as educators, we have an obligation to try to make things better.”

An admirable sentiment, of course. But there’s a problem here. In his career as a college president, Mr. Gee has already served one term as president at Ohio State and has been president at football powerhouses Colorado and West Virginia. As far as I am aware, Mr. Gee’s crusade against gigantic, out-of-control football and basketball “factories” did not start until he was at Vanderbilt.

You see, at Vandy, Mr. Gee had nothing to lose — and everything to gain — by pursuing this public campaign. The press has often portrayed him as the lone voice of sanity in the sea of SEC football fanaticism. Vanderbilt, often the punchline to jokes about its football team’s woes, actually got positive national media attention out of “reforming” its athletic program.

Here’s another quote from Mr. Gee: “There is a wrong culture in athletics, and I’m declaring war on it.”

Now that he’s at Ohio State, Gee has the perfect opportunity to make the change he wants to see in college sports. If he really wants to make waves, he can enact the reforms he wants in “the belly of the beast,” as it were.

If he doesn’t, then his “war” is over and all it stood for was just empty rhetoric.

It’s your move, Mr. Gee. We’re watching.

Comments

2 Responses to “Does this mean Gee’s ‘war’ is over?”

  1. The day after « Peabloggy on July 12th, 2007 8:31 am

    [...] Sports fans and bloggers are wondering whether Gee will attempt to do at OSU what he did at Vanderbilt–abolish the position of athletics director and fold athletics in with Student Life. Most are skeptical. Matt Wilson, of Nashville’s City Paper, covers it well. [...]

  2. Quiet Declarations » Roundup on Gee’s Vanderbilt Exodus on July 12th, 2007 10:57 am

    [...] for athletics: Vandy athletes will stick to plan Does this mean Gee’s ‘war’ is over? Gee was good guy for [...]

Comments Policy: The City Paper does not moderate comments before they appear on Nashville City Blogs and bears no responsibility or liability for comments posted by our readers. We do use an automatic spam filter and a dirty-words scrubber to screen out foul language. Comments with more than three hyperlinks may be automatically rejected as spam. Please stay on topic and play nice. Foul language and personal attack are not welcome here and egregious violations may result in your comment being deleted.

Leave a Reply