TCU athletic director fires back at OSU: 'They must be jealous'

Published Nov. 24, 2010 9:06 p.m. ET

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By Mike Piellucci
FOXSportsSouthwest.com

TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte heard Ohio State President Gordon Gee take shots at small conference schools. Now, he's firing back with some bullets of his own.

""I sat back and just thought about our football program and our coach and realized that to start throwing stones at your house, they must be jealous," Del Conte said on KESN-103.3 in Dallas.

"We have a phenomenal football program. ... And someone now starts taking shots at TCU? That means we've arrived."

He's willing to prove it too.

"Anytime. Anyplace. Anywhere," he challenged. "Buckeyes against the Horned Frogs. Tee it up. Let's go."

The controversy began earlier Wednesday, when Gee gave an interview to the Associated Press defending the BCS and the exisiting bowl system in college football.

"I do know, having been both a Southeastern Conference president and a Big Ten president, that it's like murderer's row every week for these schools" said Gee, formerly president of three other BCS schools before coming to Columbus.

"We do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor."

That last comment referred specifically to TCU and Boise State, whom Gee believes do not play schedules difficult enough to merit a potential trip to the national championship game.

"I think until a university runs through that gantlet that there's some reason to believe that they not be the best teams to (be) in the big ballgame," he added.

"If they're not playing the Little Sisters of the Poor, they're playing the Little Brothers."

Unsurprisingly, Del Conte did not take those statements kindly.

"We go through the gantlet every single day," he retorted said.

Boise State President Bob Kustra also reacted to Gee's comments when speaking to the AP.

"[That is] the greatest exaggeration I think we've heard this year in college football," he said.