With the investigation wrapped up and findings pending it appears OStU has decided they will fall on the sword and take the hit for multiple poor decisions made by Urban Meyer. Z Smith is a garbage individual and Meyer did everything within his power to keep him on staff until that became impossible once the cat was out of the bag.
Meyer knew about all of this and only fired him with great difficulty after he was exposed. Meyer would have been allowed to dismiss Smith at any time. In fact it is likely if not certain that Meyer was asked how he wanted to handle Smith's employment when it was reported.
Z Smith is garbage. Meyer would drop kick a nun of he felt it might get him ahead and now OStU is about to double down and cast their lot as well. The University deserves every bit of bad publicity they receive and if the world was just Meyer and OStU would dwell in the gutter of the conference for the next 30 years.