Well, it’s the day that I’m certain you have all been anxiously awaiting, leading us to only one choice for today’s soundtrack. Well, Ok… two, and anything from these guys would also suffice.
Buckeye 411
- Turf to Surf- Well, it’s 9 days into 2013, and day two of Ohio State’s reign as National Champion… what are you going to do to celebrate? Coach Meyer seems to be interested in doing some fishing with his son, and will be doing a special edition of “Gridiron Outdoors“. According to the press release we got earlier, the episode will
provide viewers a unique look into his life away from the sidelines. Urban offers insight into why he came back to coach, the passion he has to coach college athletes and what it truly means to “get away.” The episode is about more than just fishing as a sport; it captures how the spirit of the outdoors brings families closer as Urban and his son Nate tackle shark, barracuda, black jack, grouper and tarpon.
Not to be left out, Coach Hoke will head over to Long John Silvers’ for their “Whitefish Wednesdays”. Hushpuppies, beware.
Coach Meyer’s episode will air on Saturday, July 12th at 7:00 PM ET on the Outdoor Channel. Consult your local blah blah blah
- Surf AND Turf? Following Ohio State’s third place finish in the AP poll (like anyone pays attention to that), Urban landed a $150K bonus as a part of his salary… enough to get some steak to go with the salmon he catches, I’m sure. There have been a number of articles written about the arbitrary nature of the final poll- why some people had the only undefeated team in the country ranked tenth, for instance- but when you realize that ending up one spot down the rung cost Urban an additional $100K, you can understand that your consternation is probably not anywhere close to what it could be.
- Target Practice- Tuesday saw the “unveiling” of the BCS Championship Logo for 2014, the final year of the current configuration (more later). That’s the goal for this Buckeye team… and if you follow any current members on twitter or facebook, you know that they’re fully aware of this fact. January 2014 will see the 100th Rose Bowl Game AND the BCS Championship hosted in Pasadena- tBBC is already working on tailgate options for either matchup should the Buckeyes head out to my backyard. ‘Cause last time was AMAZING.
- This Week In Slam Thompson- This happened
- N00B- We’ve got a “welcome” of sorts, as Charles will be joining us full time beginning this week. He’s been a huge part of our basketball coverage, particularly with Women’s hoops, and was a foundational member of the now defunct “Our Honor Defend” /pours out 40. We’ve loved his work thus far, and are working diligently to ensure he get’s comfy over here with us (and that Jason doesn’t haze him or anything). Be on the lookout for his work; and be sure to keep an eye on this space for further development in “Conference Realignment, Buckeye Blogger Edition”.
- Major Awards- Congrats go out to our friend BaconNinja, winning our Bowl Picks contest for this season! He ended in a tie with Kidner31, with both choosing the Irish to emerge victorious. However, Shakin’ Bacon managed to be closest to the total number of points in the final contest, and wins the tiebreaker. He gets the usual prize package– special thanks to The Buckeye Room and Easy Canvas Prints for helping us out this year!
- In Case You Forgot- Other than Eric’s great photo creation, Sammy Silverman from the OSU Graphic Design team puts the cherry on the icing on the cake for this amazing season:
Commentary– Times, They Are A Changin’
Monday’s game had a whole mess of familiarity involved in it… a repeat champion, a seventh title for an SEC school, another opportunity for the fan bases of about 10 southern schools to jump on the bandwagon of a team that kicked the stew out of them earlier in the year… there’s some comfort in constants.
It might also be a good time to take a look college football, since there are some enormous changes on the horizon. While some are obvious (conference realignment, coaching shuffles, eventual Division 1A playoff), there are others, though that might make some pretty significant adaptations to the game that we know.
Luke at LGHL addresses some of this in an article that talks about the proposed changes to recruiting regulations; the rules and “timelines” that most recruiting junkies are used to may be out the window in the near future. Some of this is an appropriate reflection of “modern” life- social media contact needed clarification and adjustment to be consistent with the ways that these have imbedded themselves in our lives. Other changes may actually make football recruiting more like that we see in basketball- good because it’s consistent between sports, but it might have some unexpected consequences. Luke theorizes that this might be one more way that the “haves” separate themselves from smaller programs.
However, changes in transfer regulations might actually bring opportunities for these “lesser” programs to gain some balance– the chance for a student to go to a new program and play immediately might just allow for schools to benefit from some of the decisions at the larger programs. Think about the oversigning phenomenon- if players who were “encouraged” to go elsewhere could immediately make a difference, it would certainly be interesting to see how some of the Sun Belt schools look once they’re able to effectively function with SEC rosters. Although, as we’ve seen at Wisconsin, playing the “free agent” market can be a bit of a risky proposition itself.
And that might also be complicated by the possibility that the NCAA would be comfortable with student athletes having agents to help their process and preparation for their professional endeavors (and, purportedly, their academic ones as well). Current proposals only target some of the non-revenue sports, but with the money involved in basketball and football, as well as the current challenges with monitoring “runners” and agents, it’s not too much of a stretch to see the need to make adjustments in these sports as well.
While these changes impact the students, other ideas target the teams and institutions, like Jim Delany’s recommendation that victories against FCS schools not count toward a team’s record as they are being considered for bowl games and the eventual playoff. Still others get to the very foundation of the game itself– doing away with kickoffs, three point stances, and other ideas aimed at minimizing the significant head injuries that we talked about last summer.
What will the future hold? As much as we talk about the innovative offenses and defenses that we see each Saturday, some of the ways that the game is what it is today- the forward pass, helmets, moving goal posts to the back of the end zone, were minor shifts with major impacts.
Which is part of the beauty of the game.
Across The NCAA
- Sounds familiar- It’s always great to hear someone in the national media echo what we’ve said in this space before, but what makes this next video so intriguing is that OH MY GOD THE CALLS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJwFS9wFm9Q?rel=0]
- The Man’s Called “The Pirate Captain”, For God’s Sake- Deadspin has a full teardown of the situation in Pullman; outlining some of the allegations by former Cougars and parents regarding Mike Leach’s idea of “discipline”. What’s interesting is that the PAC12 has done their own investigation and decided that there was no abuse present during the incidents in question. So, either people are covering something up, overreacting, or blind to what “excessive” might mean in an athletic context. Something to keep an eye on.
- Got To Have Balls To Cheat- Well, actually, if you’ve got balls you’re probably cheating, according to this equipment manager, downplaying the significance of Southern Cal’s actions against Oregon.
- When Does Ten Equal Twelve? When the B12 has ten members but still wants to have a championship game. While it’s safe to speculate that the B12 is nowhere near done with their expansion, it’s widely expected that winners of conference championship games will have the biggest seat at the upcoming playoff table; so those games can be easily perceived as the first round of this tournament.
- Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot- it’s ’cause we were watching the game; as the first round of the four team playoff will now be on December 31st with the finals at least a week later. Right now, the leader in the clubhouse to host the first games: Rose and Sugar for the semis in 2014/15, and the Cotton (read: Jerry Jones’ Money) hosting the final in the inaugural year.
- When Does Ten Equal Nine? When the B1G is looking at schedules that include 9 conference games, effectively eliminating one of the “cash cow” games that universities have grown to love… think Youngstown State. What’s yet to be seen is, if this happens, who fills their schedule with MAC schools and who chooses to follow Ohio State and TTUN in scheduling at least one major opponent out of conference. Given that the entry to the playoff seems to be less about rankings and records and more about conference titles, there’s nothing to lose with playing one of the big boys. Also under consideration for everyone’s favorite legendary leaders? Divisional readjustment that might just see Northwestern a more regular part of the Buckeye schedule.
- OK, Ducks… this was pretty cool– Here’s a great story about loyalty and friendship and all that stuff.
And Finally– Goodbye, Huell
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