OSU: Winning school where everyone lost

Ohio State University does not care about the safety of women or the victims of domestic abuse. They only care about football.

On Wednesday night, the school suspended head football coach Urban Meyer without pay for the first three games of the season, and athletic director Gene Smith without pay for more than two weeks after a twoweek investigation discovered that Meyer and Smith mishandled the domestic abuse allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith.

A few weeks ago, the University of North Carolina suspended nine football players four games for selling their custom sneakers.

How is it that college students can get four games for shoes, but two grown men only get a few weeks for turning a blind eye to domestic abuse allegations, enabling an alleged abuser and possibly lying?

According to the investigation findings, Meyer was aware of the 2015 law enforcement investigation into domestic violence by Zach Smith. Meyer and Gene Smith also did not report Smith’s investigation to compliance.

The investigation also did not conclude that Meyer deliberately lied at Big Ten Media Day last month, as the people in charge in Columbus were impressed with Meyer’s sincere commitment to the respect of women and his core values.

Meyer’s sincerity was conveniently absent on Wednesday night. Throughout the night apologies were only made to Buckeye Nation. Meyer even talked about how the suspension would be “tough” for him.

I wonder what Courtney Smith thinks about that, as no one apologized to her, the only true victim in this situation. Dealing with a suspension isn’t tough, being an alleged survivor of domestic abuse is though.

“I did a poor job at Media Day and it’s a big reason why we’re here today,” Meyer said. “I was not being as complete and accurate as I should have been at Media Day afterward. But there was no intent to mislead.”

At Big Ten Media Day last month, Meyer’s only concerns were for his players and the school. The idea of wanting to remove a potential domestic abuser from his program because there simply should be no place for it should have been his motivation to fire Zach Smith, not just doing right by the school.

“I try to stay focused on what’s the most important thing. That’s our players and our team. But I do understand the value,” Meyer said then. “It’s the Ohio State University is bigger than all of us. So you have to do what’s right by them. And the timing. It wasn’t just my decision. It was a group effort on several people that I rely on.”

“Domestic issues are a lot of he said, she said. We care about people as they move forward,” Meyer continued.

If you’ve been paying attention to sports over the last decade you should have seen this slap on the wrist coming for Meyer and Smith. With the Buckeyes ranked in the Top 5 in almost every preseason poll, there was no way that a school with a track record like Ohio State’s was going to fire the highest-paid employee in the state who also happens to be the face of the university.

The school is currently dealing with another scandal as at least five former wrestlers have come forward and accused Dr. Richard Strauss, a former team doctor who committed suicide in 2005, of molesting them, and claimed that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) knew about it during his time as assistant head coach from 1986 to 1994.

The football program is just getting back into the public’s good graces after coming off a scandal that occurred under former head coach Jim Tressel. For years the program was involved in scandals that included players selling memorabilia for tattoos, as Tressel repeatedly lied over the years to keep his players eligible. Ohio State had to vacate all its wins from the 2010 season, serve a three-year probation, and were banned from postseason play in 2012.

Gene Smith was there for some of that too, by the way.

Time and time again, Ohio State has proven to use that winning is the only thing that matters at their “institution of higher learning.”

How do I know this?

Because in a time in which other Big Ten schools have dropped the ball on things like sexual assault and abuse (Penn State and Michigan State) and the death of a player (Maryland), the best program inside of arguably the most prestigious conference in college football history had a chance to do the right thing, and they didn’t.

Which is why I want to leave you with this.

If Urban Meyer didn’t have a 73-8 record and a national championship on his resume at Ohio State, would he still have a job?

I don’t think so.