By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ohio State University is using football to promote academics with a new marketing campaign called Champions, Both On and Off the Field.

SENATE LAUDS OSU

WASHINGTON - The Senate honored the Ohio State Buckeyes for winning college football's national championship. A resolution offered by Ohio Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich - a 1961 OSU Law School graduate - commended the Buckeyes for becoming the first Big Ten team to win the Bowl Championship Series. The resolution, passed unanimously, praised the team for beating five ranked opponents and the University of Michigan "With a gutsy win over the enormously talented Hurricanes, Ohio State brought the season of dreams to a victorious conclusion," Mr. DeWine said.

Even before defeating the Miami Hurricanes for the national championship, school officials had capitalized on the Buckeyes' 13-0 regular season with a Web page called "13 & Oh!" touting 13 facts about OSU's academic reputation.

For example, the school ranks among the top five universities in the nation in industry-funded research, and among the top schools in the number of PhDs granted to African-Americans.

Brochures and buttons with the "13 & Oh!" slogan were taken to Tempe, Ariz.

With a national title under its belt, more boasting is to come:

Updates to the Point of Pride Web page on the official school site at www.osu.edu.

Increased attention to the research done with $426 million in funding during the 2001-02 fiscal year.

Themed recruiting materials.

A bigger push to steer undergraduates and graduate students to Ohio's largest public institution (55,000).

"We intend to capitalize on (this)," OSU President Karen Holbrook said Tuesday in Cincinnati. "We are in the national spotlight right now. We will use the experience to get out other messages."

E-mail kgoetz@enquirer.com