Gordon Gee Should Take A Lesson From Santa Ono
By Matt Niehaus
Gordon Gee said something obnoxious and elitist again.
I know, I’m as shocked as you all are. Gee has a reputation for saying things for shock value but the more he says these things the more I believe he truly feels this way.
Gee’s target this time around was the SEC, the same SEC that embarrassed his university in back to back National Championship games and has since won seven national championships in a row. Mean while Ohio State hasn’t made an appearance in a National Championship game since their embarrassing losses.
The SEC came under fire from Gee for a common joke amongst fans of other conferences. The joke being the Big 10 is called the Big 10 while having 14 members. Gee said this of the SEC:
"“You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we’re doing.”"
Sure the there is a stereotype of southerns in this country that they can’t read and write, hell I say that about Kentucky and it may be true, except for the Covington, Newport area. Anyways if you’re Gordon Gee you can’t say that if there is a recording device around!
He then proceeded to trash Louisville and Kentucky, as a Cincinnati fan that makes me laugh because lets be honest if you’re a Cincinnati fan you trash those two schools and make fun of them all the time.
The part that annoys me about this situation is Gordon Gee continually makes an ass out of himself. This isn’t his first run around with controversy. After he makes these comments it seems everyone gives him a pass. Like “Oh Gordon you’re so silly” its annoying to say the least. If it were any other president they’d be fried.
A name most people are not familiar with is Santa Ono. He is the 28th president of The University of Cincinnati and from the first
year of his presidency has been the best president this great university has seen. Ono is beyond personable, constantly talking to students, constantly tweeting, hell he almost hit me with his Porsche this year and got out to apologize. He is a great guy. You will never see or hear Ono making a bone head statement like Gee.
Now both of these presidents have been friendly over the past year, doing joint seminars and speeches. Ono is a character, Gee is one to the difference is one is cordial and creative while the other is out of touch. I mean you will never see Ono spending $64k on bowties.
Ono is huge on twitter right now (#HottestCollegeInAmerica), he has been saying and doing the right things, keeping the students happy while taking control of the faculty. I can’t speak for Ohio State but I’ll assume Gee could take some character lessons from Santa.