OSU Compliance About to Get Overhauled in Operation "Maximum Objectivity"

Submitted by markusr2007 on

Ohio State compliance about to get overhauled.

"Perhaps consider moving towards a more centralized function for compliance while developing more checks and reporting within the system that ensure and promote maximum objectivity," Schottenstein said.

I don't know about "centralized".  The location is part of the problem. How do you hire anyone who is an Ohio native to live near Columbus and demonstrate maximum objectivity with respect to compliance and investigations?  Very hard to maintain objectivity with people making arson and death threats if you don't see things a certain way. Having an OSU degree, being a former player, or a fan does not exempt you (Herbstreit, Spielman) from such threats.

In this case, since "maximum objectivity" is the desired outcome, I think it's best to have the entire Ohio State compliance department fired and re-staffed with Nepalese Ghurkas.  They swear loyalty to no one but the government of Nepal and the Queen of England. They would be virtually impervious to bribery, free car deals, extortion, tats and local threats of violence.  The Ghurkas have a tough, physical consititution, they're great at all kinds of guerilla warfare and secret ops, and can live off of "things that would make a billy goat puke". 

psychomatt

June 23rd, 2011 at 7:00 PM ^

Not sure if this is what they mean by "centralized", but reports are they are considering moving Compliance out of the AD's office and into the University itself. Presumably, it would report directly to the President (yes, I'm serious ... and no giggling).

Yeoman

June 23rd, 2011 at 10:16 PM ^

I wondered at the time if Gee's performance at the presser was born out of frustration. Given his history at Vanderbilt I can imagine him being informed early on in his tenure at Ohio that the athletic department wasn't his concern--he should worry about fundraising and academics and let the athletic department take care of itself. If that were the history, the otherwise-inexplicable crack about being glad he wasn't fired by the coach suddenly makes sense.

If I'm right, he's in a stronger position now than he's ever been. They did it their way and it blew up. Now it's his turn.

Yeoman

June 24th, 2011 at 10:02 AM ^

One of the comments on that link crudely sums up some of the tensions in the Ohio community:

 

Classic political power grab by the geek. First step toward redirecting some funds and doing his "remake of OSU" (de-emphisizing athletics and trying to change OSU from a public school owned and identified with by all of Ohio into an elitist academic institution - read Harvard of the Midwest - where a huge percent of the Ohio population is not worthy of OSU). His is the attitude/snobbery that I (and many) have always hated in scUM.

 

Interesting stuff going on down there.

jmdblue

June 24th, 2011 at 2:32 PM ^

From the apparent illiteracy of Katzenmoyer, to the post NC apologists for Clarett, to the defense of cashing in the gold pants...They actually take pride in the fuckups.  They are "of the people" and so is their team.  They win and they like it that way.  Funny thing was their adoption of Tressel as all that was holy.  When they had a little of what they thought was class they loved it.  Odd.

I'd love it if we fielded a full team of Stephan Humphries's's's every year and our biggest scandal was a couple freshman caught with a keg in their dorm room.  It's not that way and it's not gonna be that way, but it would still be nice.  They actually like the way they got it (except for the getting caught part).

Deep Under Cover

June 23rd, 2011 at 7:10 PM ^

but since I work for tsio (IRONY?) I saw Schottenstein, Wexner, and Archie Griffin at their board meetings today.  Oh, and Gee wandered in and out every once in a while.  He looks older than I remember.  I heard nothing interesting all day, except a little about the Pelotonia bike race Griffin championed.

Fuzzy Navel

June 23rd, 2011 at 7:04 PM ^

With regard to the concept of having a more centralized compliance office, it's merely refering to a system where everything is hierarchical in nature. For example, I'm fairly sure the current system at OSU is an office that has a main office of compliance with branches for each sport (or something akin to that anyway). In the system being suggested in the article, there would be far more checks and balances in the form of bureaucratic rules and regulations.

In all honesty, a structure like that would make the entire compliance office incredibly difficult to work with; however, it would, in theory, make it infinitely more difficult to dupe the office.

Tater

June 23rd, 2011 at 7:29 PM ^

This might be the most laughable material to come from the Ohio administrative offices yet.  This is an extreme case of rolling a dog turd in powdered sugar and calling it a donut.

michelin

June 23rd, 2011 at 9:35 PM ^

But now there are allegations at the highest level---the board of trustees may have viiolated a state law when they recently held a closed meeting--just as announcements were being made about their planned investigation of AD compliance.

"discussions involving trustees in a closed meeting appear to be a violation of Ohio's public-meetings laws."

They denied discussing compliance but Gene Smith attended and no one will say what was discussed.

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/291813-osu-trustees-meet…

Blazefire

June 23rd, 2011 at 9:34 PM ^

they need to have Compliance report to the legal department. Except that all OSU lawyers are probably Chris Cicero, and may not be trustable.