One day before Thanksgiving, Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee made a turkey of himself. According to the Associated Press, Gee (seen above in his stunning summer garb) said undefeated non-AQ schools Boise State and TCU don't deserve a national title shot, even if they go undefeated.
"Well, I don't know enough about the X's and O's of college football," Gee said, according to the AP. "I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day. So I think until a university runs through that gantlet that there's some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame."
This coming from a guy who has no problem wearing a bow tie, suspenders and a pager. I haven't seen photos of his feet, but I'm almost certain he wears socks with sandals.
"Little Sisters of the Poor"? Way to offend half the teams in college football. Very becoming of a school president.
Gee also said he was very much against a playoff system (big surprise there), saying, according to the AP, "It's not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that's a slippery slope to professionalism. I'm a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well."
It's worked well for the Buckeyes at least. Well, in getting there.Winning (LSU, Florida) has been a different story lately, though Ohio State does have a title (vs. Miami in '03) to its credit.
But college football is different now than it was 50 years ago. Heck, 50 minutes ago. Comparatively, the Buckeyes are different, and you can bet the Horned Frogs and Broncos are different. Teams like Ohio State shouldn't get a free pass to top-tier games because of their history. Teams should be rewarded for their current performances. With scholarship reductions and general parity overall, there honestly isn't much difference between top BCS conference teams and the top AQ teams (see Boise, Utah, and, umm ignore Hawaii).
Gee is obviously just attempting to make an argument to preserve the BCS system. But College football can keep its bowls and have a playoff amongst conference winners to determine a champion.
Players will still get to take their finals and pass their classes. They do so at every other level in every other NCAA sport. The sanctity of the regular season wouldn't be compromised, and it wouldn't be a "slippery slope" to professionalism like Gee claims. Gee also simultaneously makes claims that, one, Boise and TCU don't deserve a title shot and that, two, maybe having a true national champion isn't something to raise a fuss about anyways. You can't have it both ways, Gee.
In an Oct. 13 address to the OSU faculty, Gee said, “I know of no other institution in this country with the same reach, promise, or vitality,” according to the school's official office-of-the-president website.
I can think of no other
Photo of Gordon Gee is courtesy of www.vanderbilt.edu.
Ur pretty gay man.
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