Big Muckety at Ohio State and LSU

Ohio State plays Louisiana State for the college football national championship tonight.

What better time to look at the powerful connections of the two people who head the schools?

E. Gordon Gee is the president of Ohio State University and Sean O’Keefe is the chancellor of Louisiana State University. Gee has held several university presidencies, including Brown and Vanderbilt, and is in his second stint at Ohio State. O’Keefe is a former Administrator of NASA and Secretary of the Navy.

In addition to their shared interest in tonight’s outcome, the two are members of the Council on Competitiveness, the coalition of corporate, university and labor leaders trying to keep America competitive in the global economy.

Big business, big universities and big money. They go together.

Each school in tonight’s game earns $17 million for its respective conference, the Big Ten and Southeastern.

Gee is one of the few college presidents whose compensation actually rivals that of big-time coaches. He earns more than $1 million a year. O’Keefe earns $425,000, but his job security may be in jeopardy.

Even Gee’s pay doesn’t come close to the top tier of football coaches. Ohio State’s Jim Tressel earned about $2.3 million in 2007, with maximum bonuses, according to USA Today. LSU’s Les Miles earned about $1.8 million.

Both Gee and O’Keefe are active in the corporate world. O’Keefe is a director of Dupont and Sensis Corporation, a privately held air traffic control and defense firm. Dupont paid O’Keefe $280,135 in cash and stock compensation for 2006, according to the company’s most recent proxy statement.

Gee currently sits on the boards of Limited Brands, Hasbro, Gaylord Entertainment and Massey Energy. Until it went private last year, he also was a director at Dollar General, the discount store operator.

Combined, Gee earned about $900,000 from his directorships at public companies in 2006, according to company filings.

Gee’s board duties put him in contact with many types of businesses including toys, theme parks, resort hotels, and coal mining. At Limited, he also gets to learn about women’s underwear. Victoria’s Secret is a large subsidiary.

Does that have anything to do with football or higher education?

Tweet This! Share on Facebook

Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter

• College presidents may be wearing too many hats - January 30, 2009
• Wexner’s prize, Victoria’s Secret - January 27, 2008
• Making lots of hay at Deere & Company - January 23, 2008
• BofA Chairman Walter Massey is past supporter of Lewis - April 30, 2009
• Peter Pace and Ed Giambastiani go corporate - January 23, 2008
• Torre should have looked over the fence - November 3, 2007
• Streep, Kudrow and other big names on campus - December 12, 2007
• Henry Cisneros, Madonna and the Big O - October 19, 2007
• Some mayors collect second paycheck as corporate directors - March 2, 2009
• Gupta picks home-grown board members - July 16, 2007