# tOSU Prez takes Potshots against N.D., SEC, and Louisville **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 30, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751 "2013-05-30T22:24:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/1 "2013-05-30T22:24:01Z")
In article at [ESPN](http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9325510/gordon-gee-ohio-state-president-takes-shots-notre-dame-catholics), Gordon Gee said of Notre Dame. > [@](#): > > “those damn Catholics” can’t be trusted and “The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they’re holy hell on the rest of the week,” Said of the SEC (and Louisville) > [@](#): > > “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. and > [@](#): > > During his comments to the athletic council, Gee also questioned the academic integrity of schools in the Southeastern Conference, and the University of Louisville. Considering what has happened at tOSU in the last few years, I think Gordon Gee ought to be keeping his mouth shut and a low profile. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/2 "2013-05-30T22:26:27Z")
Bah, just sounds like standard sports-fan trash-talking to me. I wouldn’t take it as actually meaning anything. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/3 "2013-05-31T00:41:45Z")
Actually to me it sounds an awful lot like a university where athletics is king and fuck the rest. Ya know, kinda like Penn State (although in their case “fuck the rest” was literal). ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/4 "2013-05-31T01:09:35Z")
From what I have read, his remarks were much more incendiary than remarks that have cost others their jobs. Substitute Jews for Catholics and rabbis for priests. He would be gone by now. Compared to Sergio Garcia, Fuzzy Zoeller, Jimmy the Greek or a good number of others, Gee’s comments were way more out of line. I think he is toast and/or he should be. What goes through these people heads? They hold very responsible positions yet they can’t weigh their words before they speak them. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/5 "2013-05-31T01:32:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Bah, just sounds like standard sports-fan trash-talking to me. I wouldn’t take it as actually meaning anything. The difference is that Gordon Gee is the PRESIDENT of THE Ohio State University. Not a guy in a barcolounger with a six pack of beer and bag of peanuts. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/6 "2013-05-31T01:48:49Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > The difference is that Gordon Gee is the PRESIDENT of THE Ohio State University. > > Not a guy in a barcolounger with a six pack of beer and bag of peanuts. Yeah. His comments are unacceptable from someone in his position, particularly since his comments directed at the SEC are so laughable when you compare graduation rates between a Big Ten football factory school like OSU and an SEC one. Utterly stupid. Dude should (and probably will, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly) be fired for being a moronic douchebag. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/7 "2013-05-31T02:02:55Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > The difference is that Gordon Gee is the PRESIDENT of THE Ohio State University. > > Not a guy in a barcolounger with a six pack of beer and bag of peanuts. No, he is THE president of THE Ohio State University.😃 He’s a world class suck-up twit and the Ohio Board of Regents should fire him yesterday, and make him repay his ridiculous salary ($802,125 annually, plus housing) to boot. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/8 "2013-06-03T21:46:57Z")
Speaking as a conservative Catholic… I’m normally quick to pounce on Catholic-bashing, but in this case, I’m not all that outraged. I’m inclined to believe that Mr. Gee was not so much mocking the religious tenets of Catholicism as he was taking a swipe at the administration of Notre Dame for the way they do business. As many people know, the Big Ten has negotiated with Notre Dame about joining their conference- it hasn’t happened because ND plays hardball financially. They get a lot of money from their football program that they don’t want to share with other teams in a conference. And THAT ticks off school administrators and Athletic Directors in the Big Ten (and in other conferences), who think (not without reason) that the Irish are money-grubbers, despite their saintly image. As an Irish Catholic, I root for Notre Dame and always have- it doesn’t follow that other schools don’t have some legitimate beefs with the school. My sense is, Mr. Gee was really just saying, “Those priests who run Notre Dame may seem like sweet guys at Sunday Mass, but they’re cutthroat negotiators who are out to get every dime they can.” And he’s probably right. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/9 "2013-06-04T12:50:02Z")
I’m a Notre Dame grad, and I really don’t understand the outrage. Gee is a twit, and continually shoves his foot in his mouth - understanding that context, this was clearly sarcasm gone very very wrong. But as I understand it, he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to academics. Ohio State doesn’t do all that good of a job graduating their athletes. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/10 "2013-06-04T18:19:12Z")
The problem is that this isn’t the first time Gee stuck his foot in his mouth. Gee was supposed to speak at a Columbus Catholic high school graduation this week, but they accepted his offer to withdraw from the commitment. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/11 "2013-06-04T19:30:45Z")
USA Today is reporting that he’s resigning. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tosu-prez-takes-potshots-against-n-d-sec-and-louisville/659751/12 "2013-06-04T20:09:14Z")
I’m intrigued by one comment especially: > [@](#): > > “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. Well yes, literally he can say that. His lips are capable of forming the words. But figuratively-literally, which I assume he meant, “I can say that” in this context means that the speaker is a member of the group being derided. So he figuratively-literally _can’t_ say that. Why did he say that he could?