OSU President E. Gordon Gee
Ohio State's Mormon president E. Gordon Gee. (Joe Robbins / Getty Images / May 30, 2013)
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4:03 p.m. CDT, May 30, 2013
Controversial Ohio State president Gordon Gee is once again apologizing for inappropriate remarks that this time took shots at Notre Dame, Catholics, the Southeastern Conference and the University of Louisville during a meeting of the school's Athletic Council in December.
"The comments I made were just plain wrong, and in no way do they reflect what the university stands for," Gee told The Associated Press, which unearthed the recordings under a public records request and reported the quotes Thursday.
"They were a poor attempt at humor and entirely inappropriate," Gee added.
The university apparently agreed, calling the statements inappropriate and said Gee is undergoing a "remediation plan" because of the remarks, according to AP.
"The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they're holy hell the rest of the week," Gee said during the Dec. 5 meeting attended by Athletic Director Gene Smith and other athletic department members, professors and students.
"You just can't trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that," said Gee, a Mormon.
His comment to the athletic council addressed teams worthy of joining the Big Ten, in Gee's opinion, and included questioning the academic integrity of SEC schools and the University of Louisville, according to AP reports.
He said the goal 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," a Big East conference school. He also said the Big Ten wouldn't add the University of Kentucky.
Gee reportedly said it was a mistake not to include Missouri and Kansas in previous Big Ten expansion plans. Missouri eventually joined the SEC.
"You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we're doing," Gee reportedly said in response to a question that asked how to respond to SEC fans who say the Big Ten can't count because it now has 14 members.
Gee has been in hot water several times for remarks you wouldn't expect from the president of a major university.
In 2010 he commented about Ohio State not scheduling the "Little Sisters of the Poor."
He later apologized to the actual Little Sisters of the Poor in northwest Ohio. Gee also angered Polish-Americans last year when he compared the problem of organizing Ohio State's many divisions to the Polish army.