ohio state athletic director gives quote directly out of his own ass

this isn't bad journalism, but is definitely hilarious. from a cbssportsline news bit about the new president at ohio state, gordon gee:

"I have zero tolerance for those who do not live by the rules of the university or by the rules of the organizing body," Gee said in an interview Friday. "It's very important for us to set a very high standard for ourselves."

He said Ohio State won't have a bigger fan for players' on-field performance. But, he added, "I'm going to be here to support you to make sure that what we do off the field is consistent with the philosophy and values of the university."

fair enough. i mean, that's mostly public relations posturing, but the guy seems somewhat legit. i don't know when this happened but it claims earlier in the article that this gee fella once "disbanded the athletics department at vanderbilt" because he felt they weren't upholding the values of the rest of the school. anyways that's not the funny part. the funny part is here:

Gee's approach fits the way things work now at Ohio State, athletics director Gene Smith said.

"The focus should always be on what we're here for and that is to educate and to help these young people get their degrees," Smith said. "There's no other priority higher than that."

the NCAA's 2006 graduation rates report contains data for student athletes that entered school between 1996 and 1999. the 1999-2000 entering class is the most recent class for which graduation data is available, because the NCAA gives each class a 6 year window. so for those 4 entering classes (1996, '97, '98, and '99) the national average graduation rate was 55% for football players and 45% for basketball players. at osu, however, only 49% of football players graduated along with a whopping 10% of men's basketball players. ohio state won a football national championship in 2002 and made a final four in men's basketball in 1999. so yeah, i'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you, gene smith. there is a higher priority than educating those young people and helping them get their degrees.

not saying ohio state is the only school that operates like this, but, i mean, cooooooooooooooome onnnnnnnnnn. we all know what the deal is when it comes to big time college athletics. you're not fooling anyone who actually has a brain and pays attention to this kind of stuff.