The Program

One of Smith?s chief duties is protecting the program?s integrity, a challenge he tackles with the help of a nine-person NCAA-rules-compliance staff and an acute awareness of Ohio State?s past embarrassments. Smith assumed his job in 2005 after his predecessor, Andy Geiger, retired following a string of scandals and bad press, including allegations by running back Maurice Clarett, a star on the Buckeyes? 2002 national championship team, that he had received improper academic help and thousands of dollars in special benefits from boosters. Nothing if not a realist, Smith knows the temptations that can lure in a player and ruin a program; even before the Duke case, his department had begun to focus on steering athletes away from trouble. ?When a student-athlete makes a bad decision,? he says, ?it?s like we?ve provided bad customer service.?

Smith also believes that, far from being used by colleges, athletes benefit in extraordinary ways from their time in big-time sports. Having grown up in a poor Cleveland neighborhood and earned his way to Notre Dame on a football scholarship, Smith speaks with authenticity when he invokes the ?teachable moments? and ?character building? of athletics. ?I?m a strong believer that sports participation and competition challenge you,? he says. ?You?re the field goal kicker, and the score?s 31?30 with a few seconds on the clock. There are 105,000 fans. That?s pressure. Once that kicker graduates and interviews with IBM, and they say, ?Here?s your territory and sales quota, can you handle it?? what?s he going to say?

?My goal is to give as many kids as possible that experience. Not just the football and basketball players.?

THE STUDENT FAN | Megan Conroy
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?Native of Gaithersburg, Md.

?Majoring in biomedical sciences (premed)

? A regular at OSU's Recreation & Physical Activities Center (RPAC), the largest student workout facility in the country, replete with a virtual driving range, 10 racquetball courts and a massage service

WHEN MEGAN CONROY applied to Ohio State, athletics had no bearing on her plans. "My decision was totally about college life and academics," she says. "I wasn't that into sports."

It didn't take long for Conroy, now a sophomore, to feel the rapture. A member of Block O, the official student cheering section, she attends 15 to 25 athletic events a year. (She gets in free at nonrevenue sports; she pays $13 per game for men's basketball and $120 for a football season pass.) She also is active in the OSU Sportsmanship Council and Ohio Staters, Inc., a student organization that helps preserve campus traditions and build school spirit. "You can't not be a sports fan here," she says. "It's hard to describe if you're not on campus, but there's an amazing pride in being a Buckeye."

One of the Sportsmanship Council's aims is to foster support for Buckeyes athletics without discrediting the school. With an eye toward preventing a repeat of the drunken on-campus riots that marred the celebration of OSU's 2002 BCS title, Conroy spent the night of this year's game against Florida helping coordinate a "viewing party" at the swanky Jerome Schottenstein Arena, home to the Buckeyes' basketball teams. Students were admitted for free and given vouchers for drinks, popcorn and hot dogs, but alcohol was prohibited. More than 3,000 came.