Football
Remarks of Andy Geiger on the Allegations Made by ESPN on the OSU Athletic Department[Editor's Note: Geiger made some preliminary remarks, then began his comments on the ESPN allegations and the NCAA investigation. His remarks on those topics are below]
"I wanted to give a little update as to where we are on various aspects of investigations and respond a bit, if I may, to some of the charges and allegations that have been made over the past weeks. You know that an investigator was here yesterday, a staff member from the NCAA. We had a couple of interviews yesterday. There is no schedule for them to come back. That doesn't mean that they won't be coming back. There are some issues to follow up on, as always. NCAA is a partner of each of its member institutions in these kinds of things. Compliance is a common interest. It's a daily process. It's our internal audit procedure and we will be continuing to do the work that we normally do plus anything that's required over and above that, but we feel very, very good about where we are and working with the NCAA with enthusiasm and certainly with a welcoming attitude with regard to their presence on campus and their visiting with members of our staff or members of our teams.
Photo by Jim DavidsonI would remind you of the process that we're in with Maurice Clarett and the investigations that took place concerning some of his activities, the ones that caused him to be suspended from the team. That original NCAA investigation is pending, it doesn't become a report until we request his reinstatement and that will not be happening. The NCAA participated in those investigations and there was no finding of institutional violation in that process. The Matt Platz committee, the academic study, a select committee of faculty members and staff members with an outside consultant, Stan Eichenberry, former chancellor of the University of Illinois, and members of the NCAA enforcement staff, spent many, many meeting hours over a long, long summer and fall investigating the charges that were made in the New York Times article concerning Maurice Clarett and others and their academic pursuits at Ohio State. Again, that issue was closed, the report was submitted, the NCAA found no institutional violation. That is not to say that we have ongoing or don't have or do have ongoing activities, we do, indeed.
I think it's important for us to talk specifically about some of the allegations that were made. Please understand that I cannot talk about individual student records. Those records are protected by FERPA. That's a federal law. We already have been sued once under that law. That suit was not pursued and was withdrawn because it was really without merit, but we are extremely careful about student privacy, any student and every student.
One of the allegations is that tutors did outlines or class work for student-athletes. This was examined thoroughly by the Matt Platz committee. We do not believe that that allegation is true. Each quarter, our tutors go through a training session and they sign academic integrity statement which says that they have complied with and understand NCAA and university rules with regard to academic conduct and misconduct. They sign an agreement saying that they will comply with NCAA an university rules. We have a detailed educational manual for tutors, strict guidelines for what they can and cannot do. Obviously doing student-athletes' outlines or class work is a fundamental violation of what tutors can do. We will continue to investigate this allegation and it is part of our ongoing compliance effort to monitor what tutors do and what happens with tutors and student-athletes in their relationships and in their interactions. We have not found any evidence which would lead us to believe that this allegation is true.
A second allegation is that Jim Tressel or other staff gave benefits to a student-athlete or student-athletes. Obviously we are investigating this area and the NCAA was here to help investigate that area. To date, there is absolutely no evidence that any OSU staff person gave any extra benefits to Maurice Clarett or any other student-athlete. And I would add that it would be very much out of character for members of our staff to do so. We vet our search processes very, very carefully, whether it's a head coach or an assistant coach. We believe in the people we have on staff and we work with them constantly on issues of doing things the right way.
Another allegation is that boosters gave benefits to Maurice Clarett and to others. We have no evidence to date that this is true. We have an education program for booster groups and we have a very comprehensive education program for staff and for student athletes. I would remind you that every single one of our teams goes through a compliance orientation at the beginning of each season, that ticket lists are monitored very carefully, that people who are left complimentary tickets get telephone calls from staff asking how did you meet this individual, how do you know this player, what is your relationship with this player, and we also investigate everything from apartment leases to automobile registrations, all of those kinds of things. It's an ongoing part of a very active, very aggressive compliance program. We never stop working on these kinds of things.
There's an allegation that Clarett and others had summer jobs and got paid for doing no work. Obviously compliance is a shared responsibility. Everybody has to cooperate. It is impossible for investigators, staff, compliance officers, administrators to be everywhere simultaneously. We have an obligation with our student-athletes and they have an obligation to inform us if they have a summer job and they have forms that they fill out on which before the summer starts, they tell us whether or not they plan to have a summer job and after the summer when the fall starts, we ask them if they had a summer job. The information that Maurice Clarett has shared with the public is inconsistent with the information that he has represented to the university. We also telephone when student-athletes indicate that they plan to have a summer job or had a summer job, they tell us who the employer was and we telephone that employer to find out if the student showed up and if they, indeed, did work.
There is, as I said, a thorough employment monitoring system. Forms to student athletes, forms to employers. We continue to investigate this allegation, but at this time we have no reason to believe that this allegation is true.
There's an allegation that Jim Tressel arranged for the use of loaner cars. We have thoroughly investigated this allegation with the NCAA and it was part of the original Maurice Clarett investigation. The NCAA has determined that there is no violation. He was treated by this dealer in ways that the dealer has treated other potential car purchasers and they have documented this.
There's an allegation that Ohio State black-balled Maurice Clarett from teachers and tutors after he was suspended. This is absolutely untrue, in fact, the contrary was true. We made every effort to make sure that he understood that full services were available to him and he continued to attend the university with an athletic grant and aid.
After he was suspended, but while he was enrolled full-time at Ohio State and receiving that aid, our Student-Athlete Support Services Organization staff and academic tutors were fully available to him. There's an allegation that a player was enrolled in disability services without his knowledge and allowed to take untimed tests and tests, quote, with help, end quote. Let me explain to you how disability services works. Students are not enrolled in disability services without their knowledge. Let me repeat that. Students are not enrolled in disability services without their knowledge. They submit to many tests and must sign forms giving their consent in order to qualify for disability services. Disability services is not connected with the department of athletics. Students might be tested in high school and may be retested at Ohio State, in fact, probably will be retested.
Taking tests without time limits and/or taking tests with readers and describes are some of the accommodations might qualify for through disability services. Again, this has nothing to do with intercollegiate athletics. This is part of what disability services is all about. If a student is going to take a test that way, it has to be also with the complicity and involvement of the faculty member involved. It is not something that a student may elect to do on his or her own.
Independent study classes. Students register for classes on their own. Advisers and counselors do not register students for classes, may not register students for classes. Independent study is arranged with a faculty member and the faculty member has specific rules that he or she must follow in order to present an independent study class. Independent studies class have a 93 tag, 293, 493, 593, 693, at the graduate level, 893. Those are all independent study courses. And they are offered across the spectrum of the university in many majors, and in the catalog, if you see Spanish 293, for example, I don't know if that exists, but as an example, that's an independent study course in Spanish. Each professor varies in terms of how often they expect students to meet with them and what standards they set for the class, but the faculty member has to defend the class.
There is an allegation that academic advisers were switched for Maurice Clarett. We have absolutely no evidence that academic -- athletic academic counselors were switched. He had the same academic counselor for all five quarters that he attended.
When students switch from an undeclared major, for example, to a declared major, they switch college academic counselors. At Ohio State, the athletic counselors work in cooperation with college counselors. College counselors establish what the student's program is going to be, not the athletic counselors. Every quarter, a degree audit is submitted for each student-athlete. We are very concerned that our student-athletes make progress towards a degree. NCAA rules are getting more and more stringent continually as part of academic reform movements in college athletics, and the number, percentage of your actual degree program, which must be completed in time certain, 40% after two years, 60% after three years, 80% after four years, et cetera, is prescribed. It has to be certified by the registrar of the university, not the athletic department, not the athletic department. A degree program is prescribed by the college, not by the athletic department or anybody in SASSO.
Finally, there's an allegation that in Maurice Clarett's African-American studies classes, there were 40 people in them and "like 30 of them were football players," quote, end quote. We've checked the rosters of all of the classes that he took. At most, in one class, 19%, 19%, 1-9, people in the class were football players and the N in that class was approximately 50. Otherwise, there were only about 7% football players in his classes except for the several classes that he took where he was the only football player registered in the class.
Now, in our analysis and examination of our academic programs, as part of recertification, which happened not very long ago and as part of the Platz committee investigation and analysis of our programs, our student-athletes spread their majors over the spectrum of the university much like nonstudent-athletes do. There are over 200 majors at Ohio State and we have student-athletes in a plethora of them. There is no dominant major in terms of what student-athletes take and what football players take and we watch that extremely carefully. I would be pleased to try to answer any questions you have, remembering I can't get more specific with regard to a student's record than I have. Questions?
Photo by Jim DavidsonREPORTER: Will Jim talk to ESPN, Andy and try to learn more about maybe their agenda here or why maybe it's their radio station web site or the network, sports center itself, it seems to be coming from one set place.
GEIGER: I do not know their agenda or their motivation, and it's a mystery to me as well, and, no, I have not talked to them. George?
REPORTER: Andy, you said based on the original investigation, there was no finding of institutional violation. Is that because you never applied for Clarett to be reinstated so the investigation was never completed?
GEIGER: No, George, if they had found institutional violations, we would have had to go through that process of a sanctioning kind of process, and the distinction here was there was no institutional violation.
REPORTER: Is it true that football players receive class credit for participating on the ball team?
GEIGER: Several people at Ohio State receive participation credit, band people, athletes, Lantern, musical organizations, theater groups, all of those kinds of things. We give nondegree credit for participation in those activities. We think the activities are valuable. We they intercollegiate activities is an important part of a person's education and to not value them in some way given the time and effort that students put into it and the role that it plays in their lives, I think, would be too bad.
REPORTER: So even though they -- it seems like you're in the minority in that because most schools just say a scholarship is --
GEIGER: Yeah, I think we've got it right. Other folks may not have it right.
REPORTER: During the Purdue telecast, which you probably were not privy to --
GEIGER: I saw myself looking pensive sitting in the press box.
REPORTER: -- it was constantly quoted what a distraction this was, it struck me as being incestuous that they were touting their own story.
GEIGER: I really don't want to talk about ESPN and their role in this story. I've talked to my commissioner and to others about what their agenda might be and we're all a little mystified.
REPORTER: Are you going to speak to Maurice Clarett about these things or any of the other guys that have made comments to ESPN that you know of, did the NCAA say they'd like to talk with Maurice Clarett again?
GEIGER: I can't talk much about what ESPN is going to do, they're going to do what they're going to do and other than what I've said I don't want to get into an investigation.
REPORTER: In the process you described in hiring Coach Tressel, in the ESPN article, President Cockran of Youngstown State said, I feel like I got crapped on, the file says that the coach had indicated to the president that he had done an investigation that the NCAA said was not done. When you vetted, how was that explained?
GEIGER: We used a headhunter and we used conference commissioners and other sources. We talked indirectly with people at the NCAA and indirectly and he got a clean bill of health.
REPORTER: Given the size of this community and the widespread of Ohio State football, isn't it difficult to monitor the activities of all your boosters, and I wonder, sensitive as it is, how you can speak with assurance that they're not doing a lot of this stuff that ESPN reports?
GEIGER: Well, what I told you was, as far as we know, there's no credence to the allegation. We're going to have 105,000 people in the stadium on Saturday and probably another 20 or 30,000 milling around outside. Can I vouch for every single one of those people? I would love to be able to do so, but obviously that's impossible. We can only hope that the message that we continue to give and will always continue to give is that we value the rules. We value the relationships with our sister schools. We know that we haven't been turned in for recruiting violations or illegal payments or those kinds of things. It has not surfaced in this program. This is not a privately operated program. It's a pretty visceral, pretty open kind of program. I have to operate on some parts actual factual knowledge, and some parts faith, hope, and credit.
REPORTER: During your time here, you've presided over, watched some NCAA investigations we know about, some we may not know about. It's been my experience that you've never addressed anything in the midst of an investigation, which appears we are now, I wonder if you could address why both you and Jim today have taken what appears to be more of a forward or offensive position in this which represents a change from the past.
GEIGER: I think, Bruce, that I've been an athletic director for 33 years and in the business for 43 years and I have never seen an institution attacked in this way before and I think that for us to be silent and to not stand here and I'll stay here until 5:00 if you guys want me to, I'll do the best I can. I can't violate the things that my lawyers have told me I can't violate, but I think it's very important for our university, for our fans, for our students, for members of my staff, who I'm so very proud of, it would be wrong to be silent. They deserve to have somebody stand up and say that we're doing well, we're proud of our program, we stand by our program, and we'll defend.
REPORTER: Do you acknowledge that this is a change in your approach to these kinds of matters?
GEIGER: I've never had one like this before, this is the first time I've had this and this is the first time I've responded to the first-time experience. So in that sense, it's a change, but it's a double-sided change, I think. John?
REPORTER: If a coach at OSU misled you in the context of an NCAA investigation, how would you handle that?
GEIGER: I think I've demonstrated how I'd handle that. Next question.
REPORTER: I want to go back to the car situation. You outlined a week ago here that Jim Tressel put him in contact with McDaniel or whatever it is in Marion and subsequent to that, there may have been dealings with a second dealership. First of all, was the only car McDaniel was involved with was the one they had to repossess?
GEIGER: Yes, I mischaracterized that, I want to straighten that out. They did not repossess that car and that was a mistake on my part. I misunderstood what I was told. Maurice had a car for a few days, was not satisfied with the car, wanted something fixed on it. They came down and got the car to do that, made an appointment with Maurice and his mother. In the meantime, I think, tried a different car, never showed up for that appointment, and the car was returned and that was the end of that relationship.
REPORTER: The second part of that is, did he establish his own relationship with this other car dealership completely?
GEIGER: I don't know about the other car dealership. Maurice had many, many cars. Many cars -- or drove many cars, let me put it that way.
REPORTER: It's been made pretty clear that Jim did make a call to McDaniel to say I've got a player or a student here that needs a car, keep it on the up and up, if it's on the up and up, why focus on one specific dealer?
GEIGER: The call to the dealer was not a violation, but it will never be done again. It will now not be accepted practice that anybody would call a dealer.
REPORTER: After the Platz committee, there was, obviously they looked throughout the university, alleged academic fraud dealing with athletes, not long after that, it came to light the lawsuit dealing with Boban Savovic and there was much in that deposition that dealt with out side people outside the university dealing with paper, again, dealing with that kind of approach to athletes. The Platz committee, if I'm not mistaken, was all composed of Ohio State professors, was it not?
GEIGER: Professors and staff.
REPORTER: Would you ever entertain the opportunity to have somebody from the outside to take a look at this?
GEIGER: We had Chancellor Eichenberry as part of that as an outside consultant looking at that. Rusty, I welcome anybody to take a look at what we do. We had a peer review as part of recertification. I confess to you much like Bob Hunter just asked a question about boosters and fans and those kinds of things, I don't know who's helping whom with homework, girlfriends and boyfriends and moms and dads and cousins and uncles and all those kinds of things that may help with homework. I've been guilty of helping my own sons with homework until they got out of junior high school and then I was over my head, but the issue of students doing their own work is fundamental to what a university should be all about and we would welcome anybody looking at it.
REPORTER: And also tied into that same situation dealing with Boban Savovic and depositions have been filed, one of the things that it said from there is that no one from compliance checked to see where Boban Savovic was staying.
GEIGER: You know, I can't really talk about an investigation that's clearly ongoing and I certainly can't talk about something that's involved in a lawsuit. So that's a big, fat duck of that question. I'll answer it eventually.
REPORTER: From the perspective of the NCAA and Ohio State related to academic fraud or finding of institutional control in that area, does the NCAA make a distinction in the case of a tutor that you hired at SASSO or at the Yonkin Center helping and a circumstance like you outlined, a mom, a dad, a friend, a boyfriend, would one put you in danger with the NCAA and would one not?
GEIGER: It's up to the university. I think if the university -- if there's a violation of common procedure, commonly accepted procedures at the university that that would be a problem and that would be the standard.
REPORTER: Staying on academics, some of the players were quoted as saying when they tried to transfer, very few of those credits were accepted at the other universities. Do you think that's true and if that is the case, does that not reflect very well on --
GEIGER: I know absolutely that those things are true and I know absolutely that from similar universities, we don't accept certain grades, certain courses from other schools. If they don't fit a degree at Ohio State, then we don't accept them. If it's remedial work, then we don't accept it. If it's a D, we don't accept it. If a course is evaluated as being below a certain level at school X and we do that sometimes here, then the credit is not accepted. Individuals do academic work and the unusual aspect of the allegations that have come through ESPN is that the individuals that they have selected as examples struggled and I can't say more than that.
REPORTER: Andy, is there anything to the Clarett claims that that information bad information is being casted to the NFL from OSU?
GEIGER: I have no knowledge of that.
REPORTER: We've looked back on almost two years from the day in Phoenix-Scottsdale when the incident came up about going home for the friend's funeral to today, can you just talk a little bit personally and to your staff, you mentioned in 33 years or 40 years never having been through anything like that. Is the aggravation or the frustration or the level of the fact that we've been here and we keep talking about the same thing because everybody in the community and even nationally now is saying, how long can this go on and how ridiculous can it get?
GEIGER: How I feel is unimportant. I'm doing my job and I will continue to do it as well as I can and that includes standing here and addressing these things. It's interesting to think about the last two years that we've had here. We're almost up to the anniversary of what should have been one of the great days in Ohio State athletic history that turned out to be a day of shame for the whole city because of the riots and the fires and all of the stuff that got out of hand. And then in Tempe, we had the outburst that dealt with Maurice Clarett -- he wasn't denied permission to go home, and we told him that if he had filled out or would fill out and have his mother complete the part that she needed to complete, the FAFSA form, which would qualify him for federal aid and would, therefore, trigger NCAA special assistance money, that we would reimburse him for his trip home, but he needed to do his part, otherwise he was not eligible for that money and I was not willing to risk his eligibility or anybody else's eligibility by letting him go without all of that being completed.
The young man who he wanted to visit in terms of a funeral had been dead for 10 days with 12 bullets in him. He had five days off in the interim where he could have gone and paid respects to the family and deal with all of that and yet we were called liars and we were pretty well whipped by him and we chose not to fight back. In fact, I complimented him, I believe, in print in public about his comment about the homeless and his concern about the position that he found himself in with regard to that. And we have been off to the races ever since then and it is the most unusual thing I have ever seen, but we will deal with it. We recruited him. He was part of Ohio State. We were eager to have him stay, not necessarily play football again, that was up to him, but we were certainly encouraging him to stay in school, to finish courses, to withdraw on time if he wasn't going to finish the courses so that some day in his life, if he decided to come back and finish, he would be eligible to do that. We still feel that way.
REPORTER: You indicated a bit earlier that at least one thing that comes out of this is you'll make a change in the fact that you won't allow a head coach to make a call, even if it wasn't a violation. Jim said when he was up here it's Ohio State policy that freshmen live on campus their first academic year. Maurice obviously was here for a quarter, some freshmen this past year were here spring quarter, they now live off campus, he said. Can you clarify for me the distinction between academic year which when I was in school thought meant once you had 45 hours in and is that an area where you might make a change in allowing guys, rather than one quarter and then letting them go off campus to making sure they're here a full year?
GEIGER: I think we look at all aspects of what we do constantly and that would be one that would be on the table and I would lien on the coach more for that than not. He's interested in and very concerned about the culture on his football team and where they live is an important part of that.
REPORTER: Can you tell us the difference?
GEIGER: I don't know the difference.
REPORTER: As you look back on the Maurice Clarett situation, was he given too much rope as a first-year guy? I mean, have you reassessed that, looked at that?
GEIGER: I think Jim Tressel spent more time with him by quadruple as an individual than any other player he's ever coached, certainly any player he's ever coached at Ohio State on the dos and the don'ts and all those kinds of things, Jim spent an extraordinary amount of time in counseling Maurice and working with him on a whole variety of issues. How to deal with media, how to deal with college, how to move into this culture as compared to the culture that he came from. I don't know that Maurice had any more or less rope than anybody else has. It's a team that has over a hundred individuals on it when you count walk-ons, 85 grant and aid recipients and I don't know that the treatment necessarily or as a regular practice is uneven in terms of who has more rope or who has less rope. Todd?
REPORTER: You mentioned that when people are left on ticket lists, they're called and looked into. Has the NCAA asked the school or is this an issue that you're worried about that they'll ask you about, if that's the case, why wasn't the school aware of the nature of the relationship between Maurice and Bobby?
GEIGER: I think that we became aware of the relationship and did something about it. I think we pursued it. Yes, Doug?
REPORTER: One of the perceptions, I think, is that Jim may not have been as vigilant as he needed to be with Maurice, as you mentioned, he had many cars. Is that a fair charge, do you feel?
GEIGER: I think that we're a lot more vigilant now. I don't know how much is enough. I want to emphasize something, folks. A clear orientation is given as to what you can and cannot do. The rules are spelled out and the young people sign a statement that they understand them and that they will obey and that they have obeyed. It isn't different on Tuesday than it is on Monday and it doesn't change by Thursday.
REPORTER: Andy, do you foresee any circumstances which the National Championship will be jeopardized and often the argument is made that it is under the aegis of the BCS, do you feel if it had been an NCAA championship that it would stand the same?
GEIGER: Unless and until there would be found an institutional violation, I don't think there's any jeopardy.
REPORTER: Concerning the way this has all come out, you were talking about the time Jim spent with Maurice and all that, what did you guys do wrong or do you think you did anything? To have thing going on as it has.
GEIGER: I play the overs game all the time, if I had it to do all over or if Jim had it to do all over, from everything, whether you go ahead and recruit or not and second-guessing is what you pay for it, I guess, whether you second-guess or I second-guess or Jim second-guesses, we all have something to think about at 3:00 a.m. when we're staring at the ceiling and this may be one I think about.
REPORTER: The NCAA has found no institution wrongdoing. Is there any individual wrongdoing on any level on either side that doesn't amount to institution wrongdoing?
GEIGER: Well, we suspended Maurice for what amounted to a whole season.
REPORTER: Is there any amount that can be on Ohio State's side that wouldn't involve --
GEIGER: Jeff, I'm going to try to do it again. The NCAA participated in every step of that. They know everything that we know. They found no institutional wrongdoing. I don't know how to make it clearer. I don't know how to do that. I mean, do you see what I'm saying?
REPORTER: I do. I didn't know if there was a difference in the verbiage.
GEIGER: There is.
REPORTER: Regarding the summer job you mentioned that athletes need to fill out proper forms, you have record of them, and then you said, I believe, that there's something inconsistent with what Maurice said to the records that you have. Are you saying he didn't -- do you have records --
GEIGER: I can't go to specific record. I can tell you it was inconsistent. That's as close as they'll let me come. She's sitting back here and she'll go like this if I say the wrong thing.
REPORTER: It was reported that Maurice told ESPN that Coach Tressel told him to get involved in reinstatement he'd have to do two months worth of 6:00 a.m. workouts and have a 3.5 grade point average and all these things, can you corroborate that in any way or were you ever brought into a discussion where Jim said this is what I want to do to merge Maurice back in or --
GEIGER: Jim Tressel has his own penalty systems. He has his own way of dealing with team issues and you'd have to ask him specifically what his standards were for Maurice Clarett, but I think he felt that Maurice had not contributed very much to the team over a period of time and that he wanted to see a demonstration of earnestness and willingness to be part of it and those may be the kinds of things he talked about.
REPORTER: There was a quote in the second ESPN story from Ray Isaac to ESPN that has proved to be a big fan of Jim, the quote said, Jim told him, I don't want to know what you know, just tell the truth and it kind of left the impression that Jim didn't want to be guilty of knowing, so instead he elected not to know anything at all. Are you at all concerned that this could be the exact same situation with Maurice?
GEIGER: I am not concerned about that at all.
REPORTER: Why not?
GEIGER: Because I think Jim runs an honest program and tells me the truth. I believe in what he says and what he tells others.
REPORTER: Did ESPN request to have game day here this week and did you decline to the extent that you're a Big Ten member and they're a partner with Big Ten, your feelings towards them reporting things, how can you exercise decisions in those kinds of regards that you may want to do in the future and still be collegial with your Big Ten partners?
GEIGER: The last I heard from Steve was ESPN called and said that we were on their radar screen for ESPN Gameday. To my knowledge, we'd never heard further than that. SNAPP: That's correct, it never went any farther than that.
GEIGER: So I was not, no. Now, I had a conversation with Dave Brown of ESPN, I think it was early last week, and he understands how I feel about ESPN and the inconsistency that we see in their behavior. We have been a very, very good partner of ESPN. I go back long enough to Bill Rasmusen coming around to all the conferences in the early 1980s with hat in hand talking to us about ESPN, this new concept that he had with his partners and would we please provide games for them, and we have all grown up together in that. ESPN Gameday and all of the commentating and all of the really intelligent things that are said on the air in those presentations can often be difficult to live with, just in normal times. ESPN Gameday, when it comes to your campus at a time when two years ago we had riots, we had all kinds of issues, ESPN Gameday requires a great deal of security on its own. We have homeland security here. This is on the watch list federally for potential problems. We use state police. We use city police. We use police from other jurisdictions around to try to manage the crowd and have a common sense peaceful quiet day. Given some of the emotion around ESPN in this community, and given the required security, it probably would have been our judgment, had we been asked, to ask them to go someplace else on this particular day. I understand that one of the stars of ESPN Gameday went off on us a bit last night on the air. I didn't hear it myself. This is secondhand, that we think we're getting bigger than college football. This is the same individual who, four weeks ago after we lost three straight games said on the air that he didn't see how he could recommend Ohio State to a young man who wants to play offensive football. I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about that. And the juxtaposition of that and some of the kinds of things I've heard on and off the air with regard to that. So our welcome mat is perhaps not as thick as it once was with regard to some of those kinds of things. I don't know who is thinking that they're bigger than the game of football in this particular instance and it bothers me and I'm pretty outspoken about it and I'm pretty outspoken with the Big Ten about it and I talked with the commissioner about it today. I have talked to my colleague athletic directors and I'm not alone in my concern.
REPORTER: To the extent that we're still a ways away from next football season but you have a game early next season that might appeal to them, are these feelings that you envision could be sued by then or --
GEIGER: We'll do what's best for Ohio State football.
REPORTER: The fact that when Clarett had his car broken into and he asked Coach Tressel what to do and the Coach recommended that he call campus police, does that kind of maybe strengthen your claim that everything with the car was on the up and up or else why would Tressel say he should report that publicly?
GEIGER: Say that again. Ask your question again.
REPORTER: The fact when Maurice Clarett's car was broken into, he asked Coach Tressel what to do and Coach told him to report it to campus police. The fact that Coach Tressel told him to report it, does that kind of support your contention that things were on the up and up in terms of how he acquired the car?
GEIGER: How he acquired that car?
REPORTER: Yes.
GEIGER: That car is an interesting story in itself and I recommend that you investigate that further. It's an interesting issue. But I think he had legitimately had the car. You'd have to go to the folks at The Car Store and ask them.
REPORTER: My point was the fact that Coach Tressel recommended that he report the break-in to campus police, if Coach Tressel felt like he had something to hide, wouldn't a coach say, don't worry, we'll take care of it, you know what I'm saying, doesn't that support your claim?
GEIGER: Yeah, it does. It's consistent with how he behaves, absolutely.
REPORTER: Andy, with respect to the basketball program, I know you can't comment directly on Jim O'Brien's lawsuit --
GEIGER: I cannot.
REPORTER: -- but his lawyer has said that --
GEIGER: Why are you going forward if I've said that I can't comment?
REPORTER: Do you still stand by the way you've characterized the events that led to his firing?
GEIGER: I can't comment on pending litigation, okay? If I could, I would.
REPORTER: Will that investigation conclude if and until the lawsuit goes to trial?
GEIGER: Yeah, I think so. I don't think the lawsuit is part of the investigation necessarily, it's its own thing.
REPORTER: Andy, you said that Maurice had many, many cars. Is there a question -- do you understand how he obtained them or --
GEIGER: Yes, we know pretty much about all of them. Todd?
REPORTER: In the end, when this is concluded, is it your feeling that when the facts are all found by the NCAA that you guys are not guilty of anything and that's the confidence that the school has in this matter, that no matter what is played out in public relations or who has what agenda or so forth, the fact of the matter is, when the facts come out in the end, you guys are going to be okay, is that your feeling?
GEIGER: It's my hope. It's my belief.
REPORTER: Is it your certainty, though?
GEIGER: I think I said hope and belief, I'll stand by those.
REPORTER: You've talked about many, many cars Maurice Clarett had. I'm just curious how it got to be many, many, why there wasn't somebody who said, boy, Maurice is driving a different car than he was last week?
GEIGER: Somebody did. Brothers and cousins and girlfriends and all kinds of things.
REPORTER: You indicated on Saturday to some reporters that this relook at the Maurice thing could cost a lot of resources, et cetera. After yesterday, are you backing off the assessment of what it might cost?
GEIGER: I've spent all day on it. My salary was in the paper Sunday along with the cars that I drive and my wife drives. So you can assess the cost today. Those are resources.
REPORTER: I'm saying the cost of reopening the investigation. I mean, do you think this thing will be over sooner than later?
GEIGER: Yes, I think it will be over sooner or later, I guess I should say.
REPORTER: Seriously, what I'm saying, did you get any indication yesterday that this thing.
GEIGER: No, no. John?
REPORTER: Who would have the authority to take away a National Championship? You mentioned the National Championship earlier. Would it be a BCS governing board?
GEIGER: I don't know.
REPORTER: Have they approached you?
GEIGER: I don't know. If we get to that place, we'll find out, won't we? I don't think we will. Anything else? Thank you all very much.
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