Ohio State’s No. 1 fan is back

University president
Gordon Gee can’t wait
to get to New Orleans.

COLUMBUS (AP) — The No. 1 cheerleader for No. 1 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 savoring his time as the head of a perpetual gridiron power, while 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. “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:

UOn 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.”

UOn Bobby Petrino leaving the NFL Atlanta Falcons before completing a season in order to jump back into college head coaching at Arkansas:

“I think Bobby Petrino’s latest act is just another idea of what is wrong with the profession. Here we tell our players that they live by a certain set of rules and regulations and yet we don’t hold our coaches to the same standard. I think that’s wrong. I think we need to recalibrate that.”

UOn what changes he would make when it comes to such hires:

“The problem is the fact that the 8th Amendment of this country exists, which is that you cannot have unusual punishment for people. The solution would be for us to enter into an agreement among institutions in which the hiring process had a much more rational basis to it. Everyone will gather together as university presidents and say we’ll agree to something like that — then they’ll go home and break the rules.”

UOn diversity among college head coaches:

“I have a great friend, [Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator] Norm Chow, who is Chinese. And Norm has never an opportunity to be a head coach, much, I think, because he’s Chinese.”

UOn whether Ohio State coach Jim Tressel ever asks him to help recruit players:

“I was there last Saturday and was privileged to be with a great group of young men. Hopefully I didn’t send them fleeing.”

UOn Tressel’s value as a head coach:

“I’m grateful to be back in the public sector in which I earn less money than the football coach. So the world is back in balance. I think that all this stuff has run away when you think about the purpose of education, the purpose of universities and that we are paying these extraordinary salaries. Now, the market demands it. And so we live in a market economy. Nonetheless I can rail against it.”

(Gee makes $1 million a year not counting a mansion and six-figure entertainment tab. Tressel makes more than $2.6 million and men’s basketball coach Thad Matta around $2.5 million.)