Welcome to the calm before the storm… unless you’re an NIT junkie, then your Madness has already started.  In honor of Coach Calipari’s fantastic coaching job on Tuesday night, today’s soundtrack channels the thoughts of Wildcat fans as they get to watch the rest of the tournament. Hey… you think they’ll have time to join our Bracket Challenge?

It’s What We Do

Buckeye 411

• We Talkin’ About Practice? Tuesday was a return to the WHAC for the Buckeyes after Spring Break, and it sounds as if it was a bit of a “rusty day” for the Scarlet and Gray. No need to panic, though- this is typical for teams the first time they put the pads on in the spring or in the fall.
• Injury Update- Barrett, Shazier, Wood, and Bogard were in “orange” jerseys today, although JT was taking mental reps behind Braxton as the practice went along. Jordan Hall had a hamstring strain as well, but Coach Meyer said that there was nothing to be overly concerned about with his progress.
• TP Again- Tyvis Powell seems to, at least for now, locked in on the #1 Star position, with Roby and Doran Grant at corner.
• Committee- Rod Smith and Warren Ball ran the ball really well Tuesday, although Smith caught the ire of Coach Drayton with his nonchalant flip of the ball in the endzone.  Anything to help break the fumble-itis, right?
• Caffeinated- Apparently Kerry Coombs is in mid-season form, screaming at what he perceived to be a horrible call by an official helping monitor the scrimmages.
• los ‘Los- After practice, Carlos Hyde talked about his decision to return, and his desire to help Coach Meyer get his first 1K yard runner. He also was honest about the fact that he had some work to do in order to be NFL ready, a sentiment that his coach agreed with.
• Mr. Smith- We continue to hear great things about Devin Smith… his speed, his route running all point to a big year, particularly if Braxton’s passing continues to develop.
• For Kicks- Seems as if Basil and Epitropoulos are still splitting the punting duties. Also, they worked on punt team coverage today, hopefully to prevent some of the mental lapses that cost them points last year.  No word on longsnappers, though. Hooray, special teams.
• Captain, My Captain- Urban said earlier this week that Jack Mewhort will be one of the captains this season.
• Hall, Yes- In spite of his hammy, big things are being expected of Jordan this year- and he’s ready. He talked Tuesday about being excited about the possibility of only having to make two people miss (from the slot formation) rather than trying to burst through the defensive front.
• The Future- If you’re excited about Hall this season, be sure to check out this video of Dontre Wilson’s senior season… this is what is meant by “Ohio State doesn’t rebuild, it reloads.”

Musical Interlude

Hey! It’s basketball season!! And our friend Mekka Don worked with the Buckeye Nuthouse to revision his “Let’s Go!” just in time for the March To Atlanta… the song that inspired a shirt!

Buckeye News, Cont

• Farewell, Coach- On Monday, Ohio State’s women’s team decided to decline a bid to the WNIT after a valiant but short run in the B1G Tournament. Tuesday, Jim Foster was relieved of his responsibilities as head coach, with a national search to start immediately.  Our two Women’s Basketball experts, Charles and WVa will have reflections on this decision this week and next.
• Crafty- Another great article by Ramzy today was followed by Urban talking about his desire to get Aaron on the football field for the Buckeyes following his basketball eligilibity. While Coach Meyer was probably kidding, you’ve got to wonder if something like that had ever happened before. Hmmmmmm…
• Fighting The Irish- Ohio State’s run to the CCHA Championship has reached the Frozen Four, where they’ll face Notre Dame on Saturday.
• Getting Geographical- ESPN is reporting that the B1G is finally considering East/West alignment for their divisions, putting Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State in the same region. It’s a good time to be a Husker/Badger fan, don’t you think? Gene Smith confirmed this in an radio interview on Tuesday, but it wasn’t in a YouTube video, so it probably means it’s not happening.

Commentary- Jim Delany Translated

Three connected stories to look at this week. First, the Ed O’Bannon case continues, and the pressure (legal, and in the court of public opinion) to ensure that college athletes receive a portion of the funding that they generate for the University Athletic Departments. Again, the heart of this is the NCAA’s decision to license athlete’s likenesses for video games, but it goes well beyond that in terms of implications.

Second, Jim Delany responded by saying that the B1G Conference would explore other options, including a Division 3 (non-scholarship) option.

“…it has been my longstanding belief that The Big Ten’s schools would forgo the revenues in those circumstances and instead take steps to downsize the scope, breadth and activity of their athletic programs,” Delany wrote. “Several alternatives to a ‘pay for play’ model exist, such as the Division III model, which does not offer any athletics-based grants-in-aid, and, among others, a need-based financial model. These alternatives would, in my view, be more consistent with The Big Ten’s philosophy that the educational and lifetime economic benefits associated with a university education are the appropriate quid pro quo for its student athletes.”

Underestimate At Your Own Peril

In the worst vote of confidence ever, Ohio State’s Gene Smith said that he agreed with Delany’s position. And, of course, the response from the internet was predictable- Delaney is an idiot, There’s no way that OSU would go D3, How dare he sacrifice even more support for athletics in order to maintain status quo… etc., etc.

My take is mixed. First, I appreciate Delaney’s position that college sports, ALL college sports, should not be a semi-pro endeavor, but part of the academic mission of an institution. This may, in many ways, be a difference between the B1G and other conferences: for many reasons, it’s more than just athletics. It also resonates, in its purest form, with my personal philosophy of collegiate athletics- something that regular readers will know is a conflict I’ve been trying to rectify for a while now.

Second, I also think that there’s no way that Jim Delany has spent the last several years building a television network and expansion plans that reach well beyond the B1G’s traditional footprint in order to step away from the impact that those have by trivializing the available product. His commentary was more than likely grandstanding.

Third, I believe that Delany is a smart individual, and has certainly worked with others in major conferences to create a contingency should the O’Bannon case impact the future of their constituencies. That could be any number of things; creating a separate division for football and basketball that would allow this type of student reimbursement; moving to a model that would allow for student athletes to receive payment in the form of sponsorship (the “Olympic model” that many advocate), having all non-revenue sports also be non-scholarship (which might be problematic given federal Title IX requirements), or even officially moving basketball and football to a “semi-pro” model that’s only barely connected to their historic academic institutions.

I don’t know which, or even any, of these they might end up with… all I know is that Jim Delany started this with the move to the BTN and conference expansion, there’s no way that he or Scott or Slive will see their clients left high and dry by this situation, no matter how seismic it may seem to the future of college sports as fans know it.

What might catch them unaware, though, is our other news story of the week. As you remember, TV revenue is a huge driving factor for expansion, with the idea of bigger media markets being among the reasons that the SEC reached out to aTm and the B1G is in conversations with ACC schools. Heck, do you think that Rutgers and Maryland are joining the conference on athletic prowess or academic reputation alone?

The challenge, though, is that there are significant challenges to the current “bundling” model that cable television currently uses to provide content to their subscribers. Verizon is exploring a “pay per view” option for their channels- users would have tons of options, but would pay based on what they actually watched. Instead of the BTN being a required part of a cable package no matter what the viewer watches, it would only make revenue when the channel was on. From another take on the matter-

If providers tried to adopt a similar model on a larger scale, sports channels would likely be among the hardest hit, since their fees are so high relative to other kinds of programming when controlling for the number of viewers.

The ala-carte model makes sense for me personally (since I don’t watch more TV other than sports and whatever god-awful shows my kids have on), it certainly wouldn’t be advisable for the revenue generation numbers that the athletic departments are now looking forward to for their survival and expansion.

Which, if the O’Bannon case goes through, might make things very interesting- loss of revenue stream from cable bundling, expectations for outlay to student athletes.  I’m not an economist, but that don’t sound good.

At any rate, it’ll continue to be an interesting off-season.

Elsewhere across the NCAA

• FSWho? Rumor du jour: Florida State presented their academic plan to the B1G, with AAU admittance as a short term goal. However, Michigan and Wisconsin are blocking the move for reasons that they have not revealed. Again, off season fun, right?
• Need Another Bracket Idea? Here’s the annual “Academic Performance Tournament“, based on schools’ APR scores and NCAA Graduation rates. They’ve got Belmont winning it all, so take it for what it’s worth.
• This Is Beautiful- Mostly because he’s not in scarlet and gray.
• Michigan Man-Must explain the soulful moves.

And Finally The truth can be told… I still blame Jar Jar, though.

Tags: Aaron Craft, B1G Conference, Carlos Hyde, Devin Smith, Dontre Wilson, Frank Epitropoulos, Jack Mewhort, Jim Delany, Jim Foster, Jordan Hall, Kerry Coombs, Mekka Don, Men's Hockey, Rod Smith, SBP, Spring Practice, Tyvis Powell, Warren Ball
Categories: College Football, Ohio State Basketball, Ohio State Football