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Transcript of Andy Geiger's Statement at the November 9th Ohio State Football Press L

3yardsandacloud

Administrator Emeritus
Transcript of Andy Geiger's Statement at the November 9th Ohio State Football Press Luncheon - Ohio State Buckeyes

Nov. 9, 2004


GEIGER: I guess I'm part two. Greetings, everybody. Obviously many of you have seen and probably have in your possession the story that broke this morning on espn.com. We have known for a while that they were working on something. Every time they come to town, somebody calls me and says, so and so showed up at our place and wanted to interview us. So we're not shocked by the story, what was said, many of those kinds of things. I would like to set something of a context, if I may. I heard some of the questions that were asked of Coach Tressel and his responsibility and how he would respond to the allegations.

Let me remind everybody that there was an exhaustive, thorough investigation conducted by the department of athletics and the NCAA into Maurice*Clarett's career at Ohio State. It was thorough. I have full confidence in Coach Tressel. I think he's done a marvelous job leading our program. I believe in his values. I have tremendous confidence in our compliance program and the thoroughness of our compliance program and the values orientation that we have in our program.


The 2000 football team that played in the first Outback Bowl, if that game had been played in January, if it had been, for example, the BCS championship game, 23 players would have been ineligible to play. The chaos in the program in terms of the academic quality and other things caused us to bring Coach Tressel to Ohio State.

Compliance is a shared responsibility. It's shared by all of us that work at Ohio State and it's shared by the student-athletes, and all of us sign affidavits annually that we understand the rules, that we know the rules, and that we comply with the rules. That includes players and staff, and it includes academic and nonacademic activities.

Since Jim Tressel has been here, we have been through a two-year study of our program through the NCAA recertification process followed by a visit by a five-person peer review team. Faculty, staff, and students were all interviewed as part of that process and many participated in the process, and we got exemplary marks in that. In the wake of the story that appeared in the New York Times, an independent faculty investigation with an outside consultant was conducted and it took quite a bit of time. Because it involved academic issues and specific student records, much of that report had to be redacted, but I can assure you that it was thorough and complete and that, once again, our academic support unit and the conduct of our staff got exemplary marks.

As a result of that study, and as a result of the self-study that we did with the NCAA recertification program, we did change the reporting relationship of our student-athlete support services organization just to make sure that there is independence in our academic activity, and they now report to the provost in the office of academic affairs.

In the story, there's discussion of independent study. Let me tell you how independent study works. Some of you may have gotten degrees from Ohio State and in the course of going to school, may have taken an independent study course or two. If you take an independent study course, you have to go to a professor and apply for that professor to register you for an independent study course. An academic counselor cannot sign you up for one of those. You have to get that done through a faculty member. Mr. Clarett, in his first three quarters at Ohio State, took one independent study course.

Remedial courses, you'll hear more about that, I think, in subsequent reporting by ESPN. Remedial courses are not selected by the student or by any academic counselor. Students place themselves in remedial courses through placement testing. There are four remedial courses at Ohio State, a math course 050, a math course 075, and English 109A and English 109B, and the students are assigned to those if their scores on placement testing or writing samples warrant their placement in those courses.

In order to take the college level math and English courses, you have to pass the remedial courses. Usually -- well, always remedial courses don't transfer and remedial courses don't count towards degrees, but if you are registered in such a course, you have to work extra hard to maintain normal progress so that you can continue eligibility.

During the time that Coach Tressel has been here, we have seen steady increase in graduation rates. This year the overall athletic department graduation rate 63% as compared to the university's 58%. And football's up from a low of 16% to 50% and will continue to increase. We lead the Big Ten academically in academic Big Ten recognition and we have four players on our team nominated for academic nomination. I think the program is doing better on and off the field. In a climate where 28 players graduated from the program and three staff moved on to other pursuits, with that large a change in the program, we still have a record of 31-5 in the win/loss column over the last three years and much, much better academic and other conduct with regard to the team.

As I mentioned earlier, our compliance program is vigorous, and each team goes through a seminar session before practice can start. And one again all players and staff are required to sign affidavits as part of the application of bylaw 10 which is ethical conduct in the NCAA bylaws. Every summer job needs to be registered and every employer is called and read the rules and told what the players must do during their summer job program. They cannot be paid for doing nothing. Every car has to be registered with our compliance area, and every car dealer is called. Every loan is chased down. Every circumstance with regard to the transaction that caused the player to achieve that car is chased down as vigorously as we possibly can.

A particular allegation concerning a demonstration car is well known and all of this that I'm talking about was covered as part of the NCAA investigation. There is nothing new in any of this. If new allegations arise from coming stories that come out and things that former players have to say, we will always investigate, we will investigate thoroughly and we will be the first to admit if there's wrongdoing and we will certainly be the first to call the NCAA. I am extremely confident in the conduct of the football program and the rest of our athletic program. We will watch coming events with great interest. I'm sad that former student-athletes who had difficulty, much of it self-imposed, are choosing this way of exposing their issues. I would remind you that the lead individual involved in this story had 17 areas of violation of bylaw 10, which is ethical conduct, and clearly, that behavior continues. We have tried to support them while they were here and we do not really harbor ill will toward them in whatever they are currently pursuing, and there certainly was not any reduction of services to any individual whether they were eligible or ineligible, in fact, we went out of our way to do the opposite.

ESPN did offer an interview opportunity for the television program "Outside the Lines," I said that in order for me to participate in that program, I wanted to have some airing or understanding of what the allegations are, and I wanted their questions in writing beforehand. They refused to do that, so I declined to be interviewed. So if you read or see that we didn't wish to be interviewed, that's the context in which we chose not to be interviewed.

We don't duck. We're not afraid of what's coming. We're not afraid of what's here. Again, I have full confidence in our coaching staff and confidence in where all of this will head. I'd be pleased to take a few questions.

REPORTER: Andy, are you saying that Maurice*Clarett, in the interviews he did, lied about getting cars provided by the coach, a job that he didn't work at provided by the coach's brother, and cash from boosters, and why would he say these things?

GEIGER: Why has he done almost all of the things that he's done? I can't answer, you know, you'll have to ask him.

REPORTER: You're calling him, though, basically a liar?

GEIGER: I'm saying that I don't think those allegations are true.

REPORTER: Did he have a landscaping job?

GEIGER: He might have. I don't know that specifically. I read the article about half an hour ago so I haven't done quite all the research that perhaps I should, but he may have worked with somebody in the summer who had that sort of a job. It would not be unusual.

REPORTER: Andy, I think you said that nothing in here is new.

GEIGER: Very little is new.

REPORTER: I just wondered, in the extent that Maurice makes allegations that Coach Tressel lined him up with some loaner cars and things like that, is that new or is that something you guys have looked into?

GEIGER: Coach Tressel lined him up with a car from McDaniel Automotive in Marion, Ohio. It happens to be Jim Tressel's car dealer. He gets a car from that company and so do I, in fact. Maurice and his mother were supposed to show up at the car dealership or some place to make an arrangement to buy the car. They failed to show, and McDaniel, after eight or nine or 10 days, I forget what the date was, had to come down to the Woody Hayes facility and repossess the car. That's the only car that I know of that Coach Tressel had any hand in trying to arrange, and he took a hand in trying to arrange it because he knew the people at McDaniel would do it the right way, since he has a relationship with them, said to them, no favors. It has to be straight.

REPORTER: Is that okay for a coach to do that?

GEIGER: Sure. It was all part of the NCAA investigation, it was all part of what was disclosed and we disclosed it.

REPORTER: Has he done that with other players, Coach Tressel?

GEIGER: On occasion he or other members of the staff will refer him to people, if the guys come up and ask, where might I go to get, to talk to somebody about a car or what have you, the coach might give some recommendations, but any car dealer that we have any relationship with understands the rules because it's part of out compliance program that we check with all the car dealers that we know about.

REPORTER: Ohio State completed its investigation, you say, Andy, but what about the NCAA? Where does that stand?

GEIGER: As far as I know, it's complete. We never applied for reinstatement for Maurice, so it's a moot point.

REPORTER: Have they contacted you since this came out?

GEIGER: No.

REPORTER: They have not?

GEIGER: It's been out for, I don't know what the time is on this.

REPORTER: They haven't contacted you today?

GEIGER: No. And they won't. We will probably contact them.

REPORTER: Did they look at the landscaping job in the course of the NCAA investigation?

GEIGER: Yes. Yes, they did. All of his employment arrangements were looked at.

REPORTER: Who was the employer?

GEIGER: I can't disclose that right now.

REPORTER: Andy, you said that 23 players were ineligible from that 2000 team.

GEIGER: Academically. Would have been.

REPORTER: Would have been. You changed coaches, but you didn't change any academic counselors or anybody else. There's no complicity at all that they shouldn't have known that there was going to be academic casualties?

GEIGER: I think the climate in the program has changed dramatically, and I think the emphasis on class attendance and the responsibility of the student-athletes is probably the single thing that's changed the most.

REPORTER: But I think if I recall, when we asked Coach Tressel about class attendance during the New York Times thing, he said that they don't monitor class attendance because that's outside of their purview, they don't want to be caught doing somebody else's job or considering to be interfering. Are they getting credit for class attendance if they're not doing anything to really monitor class attendance?

GEIGER: We urge them very strongly to go to class and there is now much more strong class attendance monitoring, and that's done jointly by SASSO and the football staff but led by SASSO. But we regularly communicate with faculty members on progress of students in the classes.

REPORTER: Andy, if Jim Tressel specifically named in a magazine article, why is it the school's philosophy that he doesn't address that issue?

GEIGER: It's not the school's philosophy.

REPORTER: Why was that decision made then?

GEIGER: He decided to defer to me.

REPORTER: Andy, you said in subsequent articles, do you expect ESPN the magazine to also have something?

GEIGER: Yes.

REPORTER: Do you know for sure?

GEIGER: I'm told that they will have something.

REPORTER: Could I explore one other thing I asked you earlier?

GEIGER: Sure.

REPORTER: In this comment you made that nothing was new in here, I'm wondering, have you looked into allegations before that Maurice received money from boosters, is that a new thing?

GEIGER: That's not a new thing in terms of our asking him about those kinds of things, it's new that he's now saying this, but it's not new that the subject was brought up.

REPORTER: I wonder, because he's changed his answer here that he gave, like a different answer, I guess, to the NCAA, do you feel now that he's changed his answer that this is something you guys need to investigate?

GEIGER: We are sad that he would do something like this, we're not surprised at all, he said something was going to happen, so here we are.

REPORTER: I wonder, you have to frame what he said before, which you can take as a threat or a promise or whatever you want to say and evaluate the context of what he's saying now, if you feel like his quote, end quote, threat completely neutralizes what he's saying now and it's not worth looking into it.

GEIGER: Oh, I didn't say we wouldn't look into it. We look into things hourly and in this community, with the hysteria that goes with at least hysteria when we lose three in a row, that goes with Ohio State football, we are ever vigilant with regard to the program and in some ways, we'll be starting over on this case again.

REPORTER: That's what I wondered. In the sense of, can you give us a statement, I guess, on what you do with what is in this story at this point in time?

GEIGER: I work at it. I work at it as hard as I can. I look at all the people in this room, many of whom live and work in this community and some of this may or may not be news to you. I don't know how you would not know if some of these kinds of things were happening in our program. I frankly don't know how you would not know, but it's our responsibility, not yours, to find out about it and we will. Although I fully expect that many of you will start digging diligently and that's fine. George?

REPORTER: You mentioned earlier that you would probably be contacting the NCAA. Could you amplify on that, please?

GEIGER: I will dial their number and talk to Bill Solm or David Price or somebody in the compliance department and tell them that, here we go again, and if they want to assign somebody to work with us on this, they are more than welcome. We are partners with them. We try to do as many of these kind of things as partners with them as much as we can, as much as we are doing with the basketball situation and we will continue to operate in that way. Again, I don't mean to sound Nixondian, but I think we run an honest ship and intend to run an honest ship and will intend to do so in an open and participate I have kind of way so we'll work with the NCAA as much as we can if that's what it comes to.

REPORTER: What do you think of Maurice's comments that he lied the first time or didn't tell the truth the first time to protect the university and others, teammates, others, in compliance or whomever, thoughts on that?

GEIGER: I don't have any thoughts on that. I don't have any comment on that.

REPORTER: Does it trouble you that more than one player --

GEIGER: I can only do one at a time.

REPORTER: If the allegations against Coach Tressel are false, they would be actionable because they defame him and cast him in a very bad light nationally, would you encourage him to file a lawsuit over this where he would be --

GEIGER: I can't comment on that. That wouldn't be really any of my business. But usually a person in a public position is not eligible for such action, can't take such action, political figures, football players, athletic directors, folks like that. Because I've thought about it before and the lawyers have said, forget it, you don't qualify buddy, you're a public person.

REPORTER: Was there ever a time when Maurice said to you in so many words that as you've said, that he vowed that he would get you or get the university?

GEIGER: You know, in moments of frustration during investigations, he might say something like, I can blow this whole program up or something like that, and so we would then say, okay, blow it up. Tell us what you know.

REPORTER: What do you make of the fact that it's not just Maurice, it's more than one player that's kind of making these charges?

GEIGER: Well, I know who the players are and what their experience was at Ohio State. I know Marco*Cooper and Sammy* Maldanado are mentioned in the story. You guys can look up their activities.

REPORTER: Given you were blindsided I know earlier with Jim*O'Brien and some of those allegations, obviously you'd always been very -- believed in him. Is there any emotional concern here that there's something out there that's going to come out with Jim Tressel similarly?

GEIGER: I don't really believe there is anything, either emotionally or intellectually, I don't think so. Okay, one more.

REPORTER: Did he make a good faith effort after September of last year to stay in school? I mean, I think that's one of the allegations he's making that he didn't get help with stuff. What can you tell us about that?

GEIGER: It's simply not true.

REPORTER: What's not true, that he didn't --

GEIGER: He got lots of support and help and advice from the appropriate people at the university.

REPORTER: You said you were convinced the program is getting better on and off the field. In the last year off the field, you've had instances with Louis*Irizarry, Ira*Guilford, Lydell Ross --

GEIGER: I thought Lydell Ross was cleared of wrongdoing.

REPORTER: Is that improvement?

GEIGER: That he was cleared? Is that improvement? What's your question? I think that the program has vastly improved, and I know what I know and believe what I believe because I'm there every day and there is no comparison.

REPORTER: Will the university have any future relationship with Maurice*Clarett?

GEIGER: Sure. If he wants to come back and start to school again, he'd be more than welcome, I'm sure. I don't know what his standing is academically right now because of work that wasn't completed, but I'm sure that could be worked out. At least I hope it would. Thank you all very much.
 
The only thing that bothers me in this whole thing is at first AG didn't know for sure if MoC had a landscaping job. Then another reporter asked him if the landscaping job was covered in the NCAA investigation and AG said yes but could not disclose who the employer was. Am I reading too much into this or is AG hiding something?
 
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