Ohio State President up in arms about TCU and Boise State

“They will have to drag a college football playoff system out of my cold, dead hands,”—Gordon Gee, President of Ohio State circa January 19, 2008

Back in 2008 everyone’s favorite whipping boy in college football was Ohio State. And who could blame them? They had just gotten whipped in two straight National Title games by SEC opponents, and Jim Tressel looked a lot more befuddled than he had when he won a National Title in 2003 at Ohio State.

Now, two years after the defeats, Ohio State’s President, Gordon Gee, stuck his neck out and made some very provocative statements to the Associated Press about non-BCS automatic qualifying schools Boise State and TCU.

“Well, I don't know enough about the Xs and Os of college football,” said Gee. “I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer’s row every week for these schools. We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor. We play very fine schools on any given day.

“So I think until a university runs through that gauntlet that there’s some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to [be] in the big ballgame.”

Well, at least he didn’t say this last year when the “little brother” down the road was within a second of making the National Title game. We all know that the Big East is basically the Little Sisters of the Poor, just in a different habit (take that comment as tongue-in-cheek).

I could go on and on and on about how TCU and Boise may, or may not deserve to be in the National Title game at year’s end. I could rant and rave about how we should have a playoff in college football, but honestly, no one wants to hear my babble. Plus, the ‘A’ I received on my English paper a few years ago arguing for a modified playoff system (just call it the Niemeyer theory) was pretty good.

Maybe one day I’ll share it with the world. Lord knows Gordon Gee won’t agree with me.

“It’s not about this incessant drive to have a national championship because I think that’s a slippery slope to professionalism,” Gee said. “I’m a fan of the bowl system and I think that by and large it's worked very, very well.”

Crazy thing is, I agree with that last statement. Stay tuned for more fun developments involving college football, including the week 13 Big East preview, and maybe a more in-depth look at the playoff vs bowl system debate. Maybe Jake would join me in that endeavor? We’ll see.