New athletic director at OSU has his work cut out for him

It was a tough couple of years for Andy Geiger, athletic director of Ohio State University, and when he announced that he was retiring because he was burned out, no one found that difficult to believe.
Maurice Clarett alone would be enough to burn out some ADs. And Geiger had to deal with several other athletes who got into trouble with the law -- though none of the others were of as high a profile -- not to mention a basketball recruiting scandal that caused the university to disqualify its team from this year's NCAA tournament.
Given all that, we wish the university's new athletic director, Gene Smith, who comes to Columbus from Arizona State, the best of luck.
Area of concentration
And with our best wishes, we add a suggestion that while he goes about addressing the various disciplinary issues that led Geiger to distraction, he should focus as well on something we can only assume was off his predecessor's radar screen. Among the highest profile sports on the campus of the Ohio State University, it has been getting more and more difficult to find the student in student-athlete.
In the NCAA's recently released Academic Performance Ratings, Ohio State's football team ranked 11th from the bottom among 234 teams.
Teams could earn up to 1,000 points. A number of 925 is considered failing and represents a graduation rate of less than 50 percent of the student athletes. Ohio State had seven teams below that threshold: men's basketball, 881; football, 870; men's gymnastics, 920; men's ice hockey, 892; wrestling, 904; women's fencing, 904, and women's gymnastics, 898.
Ohio State was listed last among Big Ten schools academically in football (at 870) and last in men's basketball (881) and with an overall rank of 938 was ahead of only one Big Ten school, Purdue.
Consequences loom
These numbers are not academic. When combined with other factors, they could have real consequences. Beginning this fall, programs that don't measure up run the danger of losing scholarships. Teams deemed deficient will be barred from replacing a scholarship player who leaves while academically ineligible.
Smith is going to have to impress on his coaches that academics do matter.
In doing so, he can't very well call on his most recent experience, since Arizona State had a lower overall rate than Ohio State and had five sports below the 925 mark.
Better that he model his administration on that of his alma mater, Notre Dame, which was among the top five Division 1-A schools, with 13 of its 22 programs scoring 1,000 and none falling below 934 (football). "I know there are pressures that exist. I understand the many challenges in dealing with some of the issues the athletic department has faced," Smith said when he took the job.
He has certainly been given the incentive to perform. He was given a seven-year contract with a base pay of $450,000. He can earn up to $625,000 annually if he meets certain athletic and academic performance goals.