Most of the assembly didn't know Roethlisberger was coming. When he suddenly appeared in the lineup with his class, the cell phones quickly came out and the texting began.
"I'm going to be sitting there thinking, 'When I was in college, this person (next to him) was probably in middle school,' " Roethlisberger said before the ceremony. "I'm going to be the old man out there, but it's worth it.' "
Worth it, because he promised his parents in 2003, when he left Miami four credits short for the NFL, that one day he would graduate.