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E. Gordon Gee (President West Virginia U.)

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I remember reading last year that Ohio State generated around 450 million in grant money. It may have been for a few years prior but the idea that you are generating that kind of money per year from grants for research puts in perspective research dollars vs athletic dollars. I can not tell you how much good will dollars are generated due to athletics but it still does not match grant/research dollars.

What universities have to be carefull about is the view are they academic institutions or sports facilities. If outside sources (grantor's) start to view them differently it could have a major impact on their research/education.

If I remember rightly, the leaders in research dollars in the Big Ten are scUM, Wisconsin, Illinois, Penn State and then Ohio State.

Potentially down the road I can see a split in the NCAA with certain schools going one way and other schools going another way. The question that will be asked is - are we in the business of academics or athletics?
 
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SI.com - SI On Campus - Mark Bechtel: Vanderbilt has found greater sports success since losing its athletic department - Wednesday June 6, 2007 12:02PM
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A Process of Elimination
Vanderbilt has found greater sports success since losing its athletic department
Posted: Wednesday June 6, 2007 12:02PM; Updated: Wednesday June 6, 2007 12:04PM

By Mark Bechtel

On the list of desirable sports jobs, "Vanderbilt baseball ticket scalper" has historically ranked pretty low, usually somewhere down around "Rick Majerus's personal trainer" and "Pete Rose's accountant." But last Friday the hawkers were out in front of Hawkins Field, where the Commodores were hosting an NCAA regional, asking $50 for a $10 ticket. Yes, these are heady days at Vandy, and not just because the baseball team -- which not long ago considered 200 people a good draw -- was pulling in SRO crowds of 3,500 over the weekend. Vanderbilt is enjoying unprecedented success in every sport, a run made all the more remarkable by the fact that four years ago it eliminated its athletic department.

In a move that shocked students, alumni, fans and more than a few Vanderbilt coaches, the school's bow-tie-wearing chancellor, Gordon Gee, announced in the fall of 2003 that he was "declaring war on a culture that has isolated athletics from what the college experience is supposed to be about." No particular scandal -- at Vandy or any other school -- motivated him, only a sense that he didn't want his university to become the kind of place where the term student-athlete required quotation marks. And so AD Todd Turner was let go, and the school's intercollegiate programs were folded into the office of student life -- the same department that oversees intramurals.

Down South there's a saying about Vanderbilt: first in law, first in medicine, last in the SEC. When Gee made his announcement, even that seemed like a stretch. "We heard, 'They're getting out of the SEC! They're leaving Division I-A!'" says David Williams, vice chancellor for university affairs. Bruce Van de Velde, then the Iowa State A.D., said, "If this is the kind of vision they have for their athletic program, I question whether they belong in the SEC." Says Willy Daunic, a former VU baseball and basketball player who hosts a radio show in Nashville, "It was a doomsday mentality -- fans called in saying, What are they doing?"
 
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I interned in Athletics at Wright State this year while working on my Master's degree. At WSU athletics is a part of the Student Affairs division. Granted, WSU is not an SEC school and doesn't have football, but it's still a D-I program. I think it's the way to go. I think it aligns athletics better with the educational mission of the institution as well as brings it into closer alignment philosophically with the things that the NCAA is trying to accomplish under Myles Brand.
 
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Commodores succeed without a traditional athletic department[/FONT]

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Monday, June 11, 2007[/FONT] [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Huntsville Times [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The clannish, insular world of big-time intercollegiate sports gasped when Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee decided to disband the traditional structure of the university's athletic department nearly four years ago. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]First, they gasped. Then chuckled. Then guffawed. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Many onlookers, including a sizable percentage of Vandy alumni and supporters, thought it was the craziest idea they'd ever heard. Gee was called everything from an out-of-touch egghead to an outright nitwit. In the view of the critics, his vainglorious and impractical notions were as quaint and outlandish as his collection of bow ties.
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Cont...
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NEWS: Gee reportedly turns down offer from Ohio State



Chancellor Gordon Gee turned down an offer to return to Ohio State University as president, sources told The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.


The Dispatch reported that sources said Ohio State trustees thought they had convinced Gee to return. They had planned to announce the news Tuesday, but Gee said no, despite a huge compensation package. Joseph Alutto, dean of Ohio State?s Fisher College of Business and interim university president, told The Dispatch that his goal is to "move the university forward" and to "aggressively pursue the academic plan."
Gee led Ohio State from 1990 through 1997, and might not be out of the picture for the presidency, The Dispatch reported. Negotiations between the board and Gee are continuing, and he has accepted previous jobs after turning down schools more than once.

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However, Vanderbilt spokesperson Mike Schoenfeld told The Dispatch that Gee ?is not, nor has he ever been, a candidate for Ohio State or any other presidency."
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The Dispatch is not correct. Chancellor Gee is NOT negotiating with Ohio State. Here is the statement that Chancellor Gee provided to the Dispatch, the Tennessean and any one else who asks:
"My commitment to Vanderbilt is unwavering and unshakable. We have accomplished so much here since I arrived in 2000, and I look forward to the future with even greater excitement. I am honored to serve as Vanderbilt's chancellor and plan to do so for a long time to come."

Mike Schoenfeld
Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs
Click to expand...
 
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Buckeyedynasty;879885; said:
SWEET! Dude was a great president, supported the athletic coaches, and was a great fundraiser. This is really good news. GO BUCKS!
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yes he was a great fundraiser.. i've been told the trust account he built up is one of the worst managed ones around.. i think this is why he is back
 
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I have mixed emotions about his return. He is a good fundraiser and stresses academics, which I like. He is also a re-organization freak and loves to scale down everything, which I don't like. I hope if we lose to scUM he doesn't say it was a great game because it was close. I couldn't take any "tie" is a victory speech. I wonder how Gene Smith"really" feels about his coming to OSU. Gee is a micromanager to the umpth degree. As long as he stays away from the athletic departments, I have no problem with him. As a sidebar, the search committe got paid $175,000 to select a former OSU president? That's good work if you can get it, LOL.

News and Information - The Ohio State University
 
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Gordon Gee to Return

It looks as though Gee is leaving Vanderbilt after all to return to Ohio State. With all of the fundamental changes (and likely emergence of a real, rational unversity system) being championed by Strickland and the Republican leadership in the assembly, it can't help to have the most politically astute higher education leader that Ohio has ever seen back in Bricker Hall.
 
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