Gordon Gee Joked That Catholics Can't Be Trusted, The SEC Can't Read

Ohio State President Gordon Gee, the man who expensed more than $64,000 worth of bow ties, has stuck his foot in it yet again, getting recorded making a few innocuous jokes about Notre Dame, Louisville, and the SEC. Some of them were legitimately funny!

The remarks were made at a December meeting of OSU's athletics council, and the Associated Press obtained the recording through an open records act request. The AP was probably hoping for juicy dirt on paying athletes, or Gee's notoriously close involvement with football recruiting. Instead they got some Catskills-level comedy.

On negotiating with Notre Dame, who the Big Ten long courted for football:

"The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they're holy hell on the rest of the week...You just can't trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that."

On how Buckeyes should respond to SEC fans who point out that the Big Ten, with 14 teams, struggles with math:

"You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we're doing."

On conference realignment:

The top goal of Big Ten presidents is to "make certain that we have institutions of like-minded academic integrity," Gee said. "So you won't see us adding Louisville," a member of the Big East conference that is also joining the ACC.

After a pause followed by laughter from the audience, Gee added that the Big Ten wouldn't add the University of Kentucky, either.

Good ol' laugh-a-minute Gordon. Naturally, Gee was chastised after being confronted by the AP, saying "The comments I made were just plain wrong, and in no way do they reflect what the university stands for. They were a poor attempt at humor and entirely inappropriate."

Gee is undergoing a "remediation plan," which is...what? Sensitivity training? CCD? Gordon Gee is the best. I hope Jim Tressel doesn't fire him over this.

[ Associated Press]