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Gene Smith (Former AD, ‘10 AD of the Year, '13 NAAC Organizational Leadership Award)

Yeah, I’m not that much of a homer. My comment is more along the lines of we have had so many people run through our athletic department there have to be a few qualified people, like Pat Chun.

Hopefully I am completely wrong with my opinion. I’m just not too impressed of the two big hires of one of my Alma maters.
That's fine I'd just rather people word it that way. I've heard good things about Chun as well.

Their has been a decent amount of people Advocating coaching hires for the football team cause from Ohio or played for Ohio State of late. I don't give 2 shits about that I care that they are a good OC. Same with President/AD. Be good at your job being from Ohio or not is irrelevant.

I was an undergrad during the Hollbrook years so I get it and there is something in AD/Pres said for getting the Culture of the university. But that's not be from Ohio/Ohio State that's being adaptable and understanding a culture
 
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That's fine I'd just rather people word it that way. I've heard good things about Chun as well.

Their has been a decent amount of people Advocating coaching hires for the football team cause from Ohio or played for Ohio State of late. I don't give 2 shits about that I care that they are a good OC. Same with President/AD. Be good at your job being from Ohio or not is irrelevant.

I was an undergrad during the Hollbrook years so I get it and there is something in AD/Pres said for getting the Culture of the university. But that's not be from Ohio/Ohio State that's being adaptable and understanding a culture
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The most important President this university has had since William Oxley Thompson had no ties to Ohio or Ohio State. In fact, he did his doctorate at tsun. Yet he put an end to and undid the fuckery that Fredo and its little band of troublemakers had unleashed, restored the university to its rightful and historical role as the state flagship and put it on the trajectory to where it is today. And he did most of it with a glass of bourbon in his hand.
 
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strike-strike_memes.gif


The most important President this university has had since William Oxley Thompson had no ties to Ohio or Ohio State. In fact, he did his doctorate at tsun. Yet he put an end to and undid the fuckery that Fredo and its little band of troublemakers had unleashed, restored the university to its rightful and historical role as the state flagship and put it on the trajectory to where it is today. And he did most of it with a glass of bourbon in his hand.
Good old Ed Jennings.
 
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That's fine I'd just rather people word it that way. I've heard good things about Chun as well.

Their has been a decent amount of people Advocating coaching hires for the football team cause from Ohio or played for Ohio State of late. I don't give 2 shits about that I care that they are a good OC. Same with President/AD. Be good at your job being from Ohio or not is irrelevant.

I was an undergrad during the Hollbrook years so I get it and there is something in AD/Pres said for getting the Culture of the university. But that's not be from Ohio/Ohio State that's being adaptable and understanding a culture
Read that Chun was a bit boring and not much of a “salesman” in terms of fundraising.
 
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Well, if it happens all the OSU fans bitching about NIL shortcomings will likely get their wish on paying recruits a ton of money to come here. Plus we'll get someone that isn't a puppet with the NCAA's hand up their ass complying with things they should just ignore, it'll be a middle finger to every investigation until they just give up. The SEC is very good at doing that (not aimed at you or your team, I legitimately mean that). There is plenty I didn't like about Gene, he ends up at around a B- on my final report card.

Not saying I would agree with the hire at all, but it may not be all bad if we can get him to unlearn some of what he learned in his past endeavors. Trying to be positive. Also a major caveat - I don't really know anything about the guy other than the schools he was with. So trying to reserve judgment.

From teetotaling Gene to no rules Aggie.
One extreme to the other.
 
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I’m not guaranteeing this is a great hire—who knows how it will turn out.

But I do know that if Ohio State went with one of the long rumored favorites, people would be bitching that they weren’t aggressive enough and the status quo isn’t good enough in the new NIL era.
If OSU ate from the Gene Smith tree, we may get a AD who wanted to uphold Smith's legacy, and end up being too conservative so as to fall in line with perceived expectations.
 
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No college football program has ever spent more on its coaching staff than Ohio State will in 2024. Gene Smith’s decision to authorize such spending was driven by the desire to see the Buckeyes get back to the heights where they belong.

Ohio State is set to pay its assistant coaches $11.425 million in base salary this season – over $2 million more than the Buckeyes paid out last season, when they already had the highest-paid assistant coaching staff in the country. Add that to Ryan Day’s total compensation, which is now over the $10 million mark, and OSU will spend well over $21 million in coaching salaries alone for the 2024 football season.

That prompted Smith to lightheartedly apologize to Ross Bjork, his soon-to-be successor, when talking about the football budget in an interview session at the Fawcett Center on Thursday. But as he approaches the end of his tenure as Ohio State’s athletic director in June, Smith wanted to make sure he did whatever was necessary to give this year’s Buckeyes a chance to win championships.

“I probably put a significant burden on Ross with the budget because I was playing poker with football. Went all in,” Smith said. “Where we are with football and not winning Big Ten championships, I wanted to make sure that we did everything we could to make sure football has a real chance next year.

“When I think about my legacy, so to speak, I think about that. I hate to leave when Ohio State football is not back to winning Big Ten championships.”
 
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GENE SMITH REFLECTS ON CAREER AS OHIO STATE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, TALKS FUTURE OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS​




GENE SMITH BELIEVES COLLEGE FOOTBALL SUPER LEAGUE IS WORTH CONSIDERING BUT REVENUE MODEL MUST MAKE SENSE FOR OHIO STATE​

Conversations have ramped up nationally in the last few weeks about the potential for a Super League.

Sportico recently obtained a “pitch deck” circulated among college sports stakeholders in mid-February detailing a specific 80-team plan for how a new league could look. The model features 70 teams split across seven 10-team regional divisions, featuring each of college football’s power conference teams. Ohio State is in the Midwest division under the plan, joining Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Missouri, Northwestern and Purdue.

An eighth 10-team division of smaller schools, determined by a system of relegation/promotion similar to how European soccer leagues function, rounds out the 80-school model.

Smith’s biggest concern with the concept is how money from TV contracts and the like will be split among such a large field of teams. While he doesn’t mind the fact that massive brands like Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, USC and others will share those revenues equally among 18 teams – some of which clearly don’t hold the same stature as those brands – in the Big Ten, the numbers for a Super League worry him.

“I would be more concerned about the revenue share,” Smith said. “Seventy teams (is what) I think I’ve read about and heard about, but the Ohio States of the world aren’t gonna feed everybody.

“We’ve fed some of the teams in our league and they’ve fed us. We’ve gotta play somebody. So at the end of the day, you’re talking 70 versus 18 and you’re talking 16 in the SEC. So it’s simple math. And then, by the way, we’re not the only school in our league that feeds others. So now you’re talking 70. I struggle with that.”


Smith also acknowledged that perhaps there’s something he hasn't seen yet that the private equity side of a potential Super League could cover, one that ensures Ohio State is pulling in a similar revenue to what it is earning under the Big Ten’s current form. The conference started a new seven-year, $8 billion TV deal in 2023.

Structural change is undoubtedly going to keep happening in college football. And it may just have to come from outside the NCAA, whose power is continuing to wane. Smith feels that while at one time the organization did its job well and has tried to innovate in recent years, irreparable damage was done near the end of Mark Emmert’s tenure as president.

“I think it’s worked exceptionally well during my tenure,” Smith said. “What it didn’t do was shift. I think there was a period of time where the association was strong, where the governing structure was strong. But everything is about leadership. And I have a lot of respect for Charlie Baker, our executive director now, our president now. But he’s probably four or five years too late and he’s trying to recover. The organization didn’t shift with the times or the ecosystem that we served, which is why you have all these interest groups, pressure groups in it right now. Lawyers, politicians, everybody. When there’s a leadership void, people will step in.”
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“I have a concern about the length of the season, and I’ve actually had concerns about the football student-athlete experience practice-wise overall,” Smith said. “I don’t worry about the games. Football players don’t play that many games, frankly. So it’s really about making sure that you have a culture where the coach and your support staff, everybody understands, you’ve gotta manage practice. You’ve gotta take care of their bodies.”

But as the Super League conversation continues, Smith believes it’s something that the powers that be have to be open to – with revenue considerations.

“We’ve gotta listen to that, we’ve gotta learn, because maybe that might be the right model,” Smith said. “I know this, I won’t be in the seat but places like Ohio State, if they’re in that model, it can’t be like the NFL model where revenue is shared equally. We don’t draft, we recruit. We chase championships and make investments to chase championships in football. Everybody else doesn’t do that.”
 
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This is the biggest crack pipe dream you can imagine. Does anyone really think that the B1G/SEC are going to voluntarily give up their expansion acquisitions while promoting 36 teams (including G5s) to be their equals and thus diluting their power and revenue.? Does anyone think that the B1G is going to lose out on USCLA and the LA market to invite the fucking juggalos to their table?

By the way, one of the primary movers behind this is none other than huckster Gordon Gee, who's evidently trying to take attention off what a mess he's created at WVU after getting run off by the board at Ohio State.
 
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GREG ODEN, BRAXTON MILLER, KYLE SNYDER, GENE SMITH AMONG 14 MEMBERS OF OHIO STATE’S 2024 ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME CLASS​

Gene Smith
Administration, 2005-24

Gene Smith will retire as Senior Vice President and Wolfe Foundation Athletics Director at The Ohio State University at the end of this month after a storied, 19-year career leading the Department of Athletics, one of the most successful and outstanding athletic programs in the country. Smith's tenure as AD at Ohio State started in April 2005 and is the third-longest among the school's eight athletics directors.

Under Smith, Ohio State has finished as the No. 1 athletics program in the Big Ten Conference in the Learfield Director's Cup standing eight times. Ohio State teams have won 117 Big Ten championships and 35 national championships. Smith's philosophy of developing the 'total student-athlete' has resulted in academic achievements concurrent with athletic success, including all 36 teams posting at least a 3.00 cumulative grade point average for 2023-24, 811 Ohio State Scholar-Athletes and 489 Academic All-Big Ten honorees.

Recent construction projects completed under Smith include the Schumaker Olympic Sport Complex, Covelli Arena and Jennings Wrestling Facility, Ty Tucker Tennis Center at Auer Tennis Complex, Field Hockey Stadium and Lacrosse Stadium. In addition, the Eugene D. Smith Leadership Institute (EDSLI) was created, funded by $15 million in private support, to provide leadership, character and career development for all Ohio State student-athletes to best prepare them for life after graduation.

Fund raising was also one of Smith's gifts. Along with his development team, more than $930 million has been raised since his arrival.
 
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