A test for Ohio State

Meyer case is a chance for OSU to show its values

Urban Meyer is now suspended from his post as head football coach at Ohio State University— administrative leave with his very substantial pay. He is accused of turning a blind eye to repeated spousal-abuse accusations against one of his assistants and then lying about how much he knew and when.

Why is the first impulse of university officials who enable and ignore abuse, almost always, to lie?

Why is it virtually never to admit error and vow to learn and do better?

Not the initial error in judgment, but the lying and the arrogant denial of responsibility, is usually what brings people like Mr. Meyer down — as it almost surely will in this case, and should.

Mr. Meyer fired assistant coach Zach Smith, the grandson of former OSU coach Earle Bruce, after a journalist reported that Mr. Smith’s exwife sought a court protective order against him.

Also brought to light were details from a 2009 incident in which Mr. Smith grabbed his then-pregnant wife by her T-shirt and shoved her against a wall.

Mr. Meyer’s football teams — from his days at Bowling Green State University, to Utah and Florida and eventually Ohio State — operated with a set of core values, he has said. Among them: Respecting women. Really? Then where is Mr. Meyer’sshame and contrition?

Ohio State is now being tested. Will it disgrace itself like Penn State and Michigan State with buck-passing and cover-ups or immediately begin a processof self-examination and cleansing?

OSU has appointed a distinguished special board of inquiry to investigate the Smith case and Mr. Meyer’s and the athletic director’s handling of it. Maythat body not hold back.

May they be fearlessly honest about Mr. Meyer, the culture of the football program at OSU, the athletic departmentand the university as a whole.

May they ignore the fans. May Mr. Meyer, who has been dishonest and defiant, as if he is bigger than the university and exempt from culpability, be chastened.

The university has promised a verdict on Urban Meyer in two weeks. The deeper reckoning must also begin forthwith,but will take much longer.