Gordon Gee had some fightin' words for Notre Dame, the SEC, the ACC, Catholics and the University of Louisville.
Gee, by the way, is the president of Ohio State University. So his words aren't going to go over well.
The Associated Press released statements Gee made last December at a meeting of Ohio State's athletic council. They were obtained by public records request, and they caught Gee sharing feelings on a variety of subjects.
"You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we're doing," he said in response to one question.
On his role in the Big Ten's longtime courtship of Notre Dame, Gee said, "The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they're holy hell on the rest of the week. You just can't trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that."
Gee apologized in a statement released to the AP. The AP reported that the university called the statements inappropriate and said Gee is undergoing a "remediation plan" because of the remarks.
"The comments I made were just plain wrong, and in no way do they reflect what the university stands for," Gee said. "They were a poor attempt at humor and entirely inappropriate."
Before things inside Ohio State's football program got really ugly in early 2011, Gee joked that he was just glad then-coach Jim Tressel didn't fire him. That attempt at a joke went over better than these did.
Gee will probably have an uncomfortable conversation at some point, too, with Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer, a former Notre Dame assistant who is Catholic.
Also in the released conversations, Gee said the top expansion priority of Big Ten presidents is to "make certain that we have institutions of like-minded academic integrity...so you won't see us adding Louisville." He later expanded that to include Kentucky.
Gee advocated trying to add Missouri and Kansas. He even took a swipe at Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney, saying "Jim is very aggressive, and we need to make certain he keeps his hands out of our pockets while we support him."
This is probably a story that won't go away quickly or quietly.
