COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee has told the institution’s largest graduating class that a scandal in its celebrated football program is “a temporary condition.”
Gee spoke to 9,700 graduates and about 40,000 family and friends during Sunday’s commencement and made a veiled reference to the controversy inside Ohio Stadium.
The university is grappling with the departure of football coach Jim Tressel and star quarterback Terrelle Pryor amid an NCAA investigation into players’ trading of signed equipment, championship rings and other memorabilia to a tattoo-parlor owner for cash and discounted tattoos.
Opening the graduation ceremony, Gee said the tens of thousands of alumni and supporters of the university should have no doubt that its history is enduring and sustaining.
The event’s guest speaker was U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur).
