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Andy Geiger- Retired Athletic Director (Merged all relevant threads)

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MistriBuck said:
well, it would be hard to be "right" about anything since i asked a simple question, and didn't make a statement of any kind.........i don't remember stating that the other sports should play in shitty facilities, and i'm not sure how you infer any kind of a statement from my question.......i just find it odd that the swim facility costs 1/4 of the Schott, which holds 20K people and will essentially pay for itself, while the swim facility i'm sure isn't nearly the size, and won't generate revenue.........just sounds kind of extreme in relation to the cost for the Schott..........was that project that much more important than the WHAC renovation??..............just a thought/observation
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Maybe as AD, Geiger has a different perspective than you. Maybe he cares about ALL the sports-not just football. It is well known that he was obsessed w/ OSU winning the Director's Cup-the "All Sports" trophy-which Stanford basically owns-and realizes that OSU's swimming program needs to kick it up a notch in terms of facilities to compete w/ the national powers. The old facility at Larkins was a joke. I love football, and I coach football at the HS i teach at, but I also realize that football needs to share the wealth. I don't personally care about swimming much, but a school should support all of its sports as much as is financially possible.
 
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osugrad21 said:
"It's not just sports," Geiger said. "I'm dismayed with where the American culture is going, the dumbing down of the American culture. ... So, private life is for me."

He is particularly incensed at ESPN, which, he believes, adds to the back-and-forth with its opinion shows. Geiger cited an example of where Doug Gottlieb, an ESPN basketball commentator, wondered aloud on the air recently if Rick Hartzell, a men's basketball referee who is also athletic director at Northern Iowa, would be fair to Big Ten schools whose games he worked given that the Panthers, who got into the NCAA field, were a bubble team.

"I got to a point where I said, 'Look, I'm 66 years old. I don't need this. I don't want to do this anymore,' " said Geiger.

"They [ESPN commentators] are wannabes, never-weres, failures. They just throw stuff out. They are supposedly our partners, supposedly people that you are doing business with, that the conferences do business with."
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i gain more and more respect for geiger daily. he's a very intelligent and perceptive man.

Geiger will leave the massive Buckeyes athletic program, the nation's largest with 35 varsity sports and a $91 million budget, in decent financial shape. The department has $7 million in reserve, Geiger said, and within the past seven years, the school has built and opened a $115 million, 19,500-seat basketball/hockey arena and renovated and upgraded Ohio Stadium, the home of the football team, which now seats more than 100,000.

In May, a $26 million swimming facility will open to stand alongside new facilities for lacrosse, baseball, soccer and track and field.
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thats not impressive. that is jaw droping increadible.

:cheers: well done geiger, good luck.
 
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Larkins Hall ,will be used by the students as well as students athletes.It will have golf driving ranges,numerous pools and basketball courts along with other areas sports related ,very nice facility. I worked on the project and it is state of the art ,unlike the old one which was very outdated, it was much needed for students as well as the athletes.Every penny well spent. Just another building block for our awesome university and its future.
 
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LloydSev said:
You pay $26 million ($26,000,000 for those who want to see the numbers) because we are THE Ohio State University. We have THE largest Athletic department in America. We have THE most varsity sports in America. *WE* are not just mearly a football powerhouse, or a large athletic school, we ARE the largest public college in America. Ohio State pays $26 million to have better facilities than everyone else because our students deserve it. Remember that we don't take money away from the school to run our athletic department, as it is self sustaining (even if it has some debt).
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I would be inclined to agree with you LS if it weren't for the fact that $26 million projects are going on at Miami, OU, BGSU, KSU and virtually every major campus in Ohio and the rest of the United States... and if I thought that the new swimming facility was being paid for out of chump change from the Michigan game proceeds... or if I thought that there were no connection between new facilities and higher tuition, or if I thought that some of the money was going to pay a living wage to GTAs, or to lure new faculty, or to pay for more research... (groups which are not as politically connected as are contractors and trade unionists)

At the end of WWII OSU was a school of 5,000 with two dorms, Baker (men) and Canfield (women). By 1964 it had grown to a school of 44,000 and added a ton of dorms, yet the amount of class space (the buildings around the oval) remained virtually the same as it had been in the 1930s. My point is that facilites are often seen as more important than faculties. My concern is that we then loose site of what is going on at our universities, you see new buildings and you think progress, but it is not necessarily a corollary.
 
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MistriBuck said:
well, it would be hard to be "right" about anything since i asked a simple question, and didn't make a statement of any kind.........i don't remember stating that the other sports should play in shitty facilities, and i'm not sure how you infer any kind of a statement from my question.......i just find it odd that the swim facility costs 1/4 of the Schott, which holds 20K people and will essentially pay for itself, while the swim facility i'm sure isn't nearly the size, and won't generate revenue.........just sounds kind of extreme in relation to the cost for the Schott..........was that project that much more important than the WHAC renovation??..............just a thought/observation
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MistriBuck,

I have to assume that the swim facility renovation they're talking about is Larkins Hall. If so, I have to say that the renovation was likely a terrific investment. Larkins is much more than just swimming facility - there's a small gym for intramural basketball, a workout room for wrestling, I think the gymnastics team would practice there, as well as workout rooms available to the entire student body. When I was a student I would go there to lift and workout - these facilities at that time were very sub-par for a school that prides itself on its athletic program. Larkins probably gets utilized by a much larger majority of students than any of the other recent construction projects of the athletic department, this renovation was a long time coming and I for one am ecstatic that Larkins has gotten a much needed facelift..
 
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Re: Swim Facility

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">"a $26 million swimming facility will open to stand alongside new facilities for lacrosse, baseball, soccer and track and field. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>curious, why would you put so much money into a facility for a sport that hardly generates any revenue?"


Must I also point out that the OSU Synchronized swim team is BY FAR the most successful athlettic program at Ohio State. Something like 20 National Championships since 1975. We also have a very competetive Men's and Women's swim teams. We nned these types of programs if we want to compete for the Sears Trophy year in and year out.
 
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potto0704 said:
Must I also point out that the OSU Synchronized swim team is BY FAR the most successful athlettic program at Ohio State. Something like 20 National Championships since 1975. We also have a very competetive Men's and Women's swim teams. We nned these types of programs if we want to compete for the Sears Trophy year in and year out.
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Too bad syncho swimming is not a part of the Sears (or whatever it's called now) Trophy.
 
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Personally, I don't give a smelly pile of pumpkins for the sears trophy. But I do like that tOSU isn't taking the money generated mostly by football and using it only for football, but it's really only for PR reasons. tOSU should strive to have the best facilities (both academically and athletically) in the world. tOSU is more than a business - Holbrook should be interested in more than just the +/- of the school's profit. And that means spending the money for the swim team and the track and field teams and synchronized swimming and tennis and chess and Amish Rake Fighting, if there were such a sport.
 
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Andy Geiger will be remembered for his achievements. Those who attacked him, knowing that he could not respond to their lies because of student privacy issues, will all eventually find their careers in the same toilet where Trev Alberts now floats.

Andy, wherever you are, :osu:
 
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Gieger was what every AD should be like. He committed to his job with his whole heart. Though our Football program is huge, he helped out all 36 varsity sports equally and help to form a larger and much more expanded Athletic department. He will always be a Buckeye after the contributions he has made here at Old Ohio State....

Good luck Gieger, you are always loved in Columbus.:oh::io:
 
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