E. Gordon Gee (President West Virginia U.)

[ORD_Buckeye]

Don't underestimate the pull of the James's big donors (Wolfe, Wexner, etc). They got Sanfillippo canned a couple months ago.

The James is the Wolfe's baby. Wexner I'm sure does some things for it, but he's always been more concerned with the main campus. The Tuckermans are huge James supporters, but their wealth is essentially an extension of Wexner. If he tells them to cool it, they will.

The underlying fact is that the two most important members of the board of trustees are Wexner and John Ong. Gee is their personal selection as president. Hell, Wexner--despite not being chair of the search committee--took it upon himself to fly down to Nashville and personally recruit Gee back. Combine that with the fact that Strickland and Eric Fingerhut both had one hour conversations with Gee asking him to come back and assuring him that Ohio State's flagship role would be recognized and locked-in through the current higher education restructuring, and I can assure you that the James doctors, and any donors, that want to go to the mattresses against Gee will lose.

They may put up more of a fight than the pathetic owner of Papa Joe's who demanded the right to reopen the same bar on the same spot ("woops, we just bought the land out from under you the day before the meeting") did, but the end result will be the same.

 

[osugrad21]

Canton

Ohio State president: No football playoff ? ever
Friday, December 14, 2007
By Todd Porter
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

COLUMBUS In a football setting with burly players who have muscles in their eyelids, Gordon Gee fits in about as well as a poodle on Bourbon Street. But the bow tie-wearing president of Ohio State University held his own talking football and the state of the college game.

Gee wore a wide smile Thursday afternoon because Ohio State is headed to New Orleans after New Years to play LSU in the BCS National Championship game. The one-loss Buckeyes fell back into the college football?s top spot when a half dozen other teams couldn?t close the deal during the final weeks of the season.

This tumultuous season has led even defenders of the current BCS setup to think college football?s method of determining a champ is broke. Not Gee.

He said college football can have a playoff over his dead body.

?As far as a playoff system is concerned, there will not be one,? Gee said. ?They will wrench a playoff system out of my cold, dead hands. It?s too much of moving toward having universities being farm clubs for the pros.?

Cont...

 

[BGriffBuckeye]

Gee is such a stud.

 

[shetuck]

Canton

Ohio State president: No football playoff ? ever
Friday, December 14, 2007
By Todd Porter
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

... He said college football can have a playoff over his dead body.


Cont...

i wouldn't want it either, if i was him... why risk the odds when JT's basically batting .500 in MNC appearances in the last six years? the probablities and associated pay-offs and costs-vs-benefits just wouldn't add up for tOSU, imo.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

?As far as a playoff system is concerned, there will not be one,? Gee said. ?They will wrench a playoff system out of my cold, dead hands. It?s too much of moving toward having universities being farm clubs for the pros.?

News flash, Gordy...they already have been for decades.

 

[Steve19]

BTW, Steve; what are your thoughts on Gee making Dean Alutto of the B-school permanent provost?

Sorry, ORD, I didn't see your comment until now.

I have a lot of respect for Joe Alutto, personally as well as professionally. He is a really decent and very competent man who is Buckeye through and through. He has been great for Fisher. I think he would be an excellent choice.

 

[HineyBuck]

I have a lot of respect for Joe Alutto, personally as well as professionally. He is a really decent and very competent man who is Buckeye through and through. He has been great for Fisher. I think he would be an excellent choice.

And if we're staying in house, Steve Mangum would make a great replacement for Alutto as Dean of the Fisher College.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Sorry, ORD, I didn't see your comment until now.

I have a lot of respect for Joe Alutto, personally as well as professionally. He is a really decent and very competent man who is Buckeye through and through. He has been great for Fisher. I think he would be an excellent choice.

Not a B-school guy myself, and I always feel more comfortable with a provost from a traditional arts, sciences, humanities (you know; the core of any great university:pirate1: ) background, but everything that I've heard about Alutto has been extremely complimentary. I think he'll do a great job. Hopefully, he won't get lured away for a president's gig halfway through Gee's tenure.

 

[Steve19]

And if we're staying in house, Steve Mangum would make a great replacement for Alutto as Dean of the Fisher College.

Yeah, I really like Steve and agree. A good man.

I suspect though that there will be real disquiet about Fisher sinking badly in the world rankings in recent years, which most people believe is due to the perception that it has not globalized its faculty and student body.

I can't understand why. Fisher has some leading researchers. A few years back, they had the top China research team in any business school outside China. One doesn't see Europeans or Chinese in real leadership positions, but there are some there.

If I look at the b-schools that have done well, they have been more willing to bring in the Europeans in leadership positions. Duke, North Carolina, Michigan, Tuck, Harvard, all of them have worked hard to attract the quantitative management researchers from Europe and Asia. Fisher has not managed to attract and retain those folks in top positions.

Steve is a very competent individual and I think he would have a lot of loyalty from his peers at Fisher. It may be a time to bring in an outsider who understands Ohio State's traditions but signals to the world that Ohio State has a more global vision. If that is the decision, I hope that person is wise enough to let Steve play a key role in the School.

 

[Steve19]

Not a B-school guy myself, and I always feel more comfortable with a provost from a traditional arts, sciences, humanities (you know; the core of any great university:pirate1: ) background, but everything that I've heard about Alutto has been extremely complimentary. I think he'll do a great job. Hopefully, he won't get lured away for a president's gig halfway through Gee's tenure.

Joe is 65 this year and has a wonderful marriage, house and life in Columbus. He is also a man open to the arts and sciences. Ohio State is very lucky to have him. My bet is that he would stay right there in Columbus.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

It may be a time to bring in an outsider who understands Ohio State's traditions but signals to the world that Ohio State has a more global vision.

Perhaps they'll look Southern Hemisphere.

 

[BB73]

bucknuts

Gee Discusses State Of College Football, More

OSU president Gordon Gee stopped by the school's bowl media day last week and shared his view on a wide range of topics, including a college football playoff, Jim Tressel, the Rose Bowl, coaching changes and more. Click this free link for all the details.

Cont'd ...

 

[mash08]

I love Gordon Gee. My husband is a marine stationed at the ROTC unit so we are always over there for a little while before the games. I was amazed at how much he wanted to get to know people and actually acted like he cared. You wouldn't have seen Holbrook do that.

 

[shetuck]

Sporting News: Ohio State president looks forward to screaming for Buckeyes

Ohio State president looks forward to screaming for Buckeyes
Posted: December 22, 2007

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The No. 1 cheerleader for No. 1-ranked Ohio State wears a bow tie.

Colorful, talkative and forceful Gordon Gee is back for a second time as president of the nation's largest single-campus university. After a decade away at Brown and Vanderbilt, he's obviously savoring his time as the head of a perpetual gridiron power -- while at the same time decrying the notion of football factories.

Gee will be in the stands at the Louisiana Superdome on Jan. 7 when the Buckeyes take on LSU in the Bowl Championship Series national title game. He wouldn't want to be anyplace else.

"Last year I think I went to the Renaissance Weekend, which is where a lot of very smart people get together and talk for four days about very important issues," Gee said of how he spent time last year in January. "This year I'm going to go down and scream like hell. So, yes, my life has changed, absolutely."

During the Buckeyes recent bowl media day, Gee, rehired in January to replace Karen Holbrook, was drawing a crowd that rivaled the ones surrounding star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells and All-American linebacker James Laurinaitis.

Gee, about half the size of either player, held court on a variety of topics. Here are just some of them:

On how football wins change a university's fundraising: "There's a lot of data that shows that a great football season does not a great fundraising year make. What it does show, and I've been a part of this for a long time on all sides of the equation, winning and losing, is that it creates an unbelievable level of support and spirit for the university among its alumni and among its friends."

cont'd...

 

[heshootznscores]

One quick note that I thought was really cool..

Block O took one full bus to the michigan game and on our way back, our original time to get home was 9pm. We unfortunately got stuck in michigan in traffic for about 3 hours and didn't get back to the 'Shoe till past midnight..When we pulled up, Gee was standing there in his Pajamas waiting to thank us for going and supporting the Bucks. It was honestly the coolest thing ever..that he would be up that late and come out to the stadium in the cold to wait for us and tell us thanks. It was awesome.