Buckeye Blogger NetworkIt’s your regularly scheduled look around the world of college sports- a bit more in depth than the tidbits we’ve got after practice. Following Tuesday’s notes, be sure to check the latest on “reform” from the NCAA and thoughts on Penn State’s constant appeals processes.
Buckeye 411
Always. Forever.
Not So Fast… Any speculation about Roby playing offense and defense was shut down by the coaches today. He made a spectacular play on an overthrow today, though- he’s going to be special. However, Corey Brown said that Roby wasn’t the fastest guy on the team, and called him out saying that he (Corey) wasn’t able to run during testing but that he could beat Roby in a race.
To most people, including myself, the term APR is a banking term used to confuse people what their actual rate is. To college sports fans, the term APR stands for Academic Progress Rate. The NCAA uses this formula to measure Universities’ eligibility and retention for Division student athletes. It is used as an early indicator of eventual graduation rates. The actual APR is calculated on a term by term basis and spreads over the most recent four year span. Recently the NCAA revealed their most recent findings and the Ohio State Tennis and Volleyball teams received high marks.
The Men and Women squads in both Tennis and Volleyball placed in the top 10% in the nation in their respective sports. Of the 954 teams that were on the NCAA’s award list, only five of those teams had won the National Championship of their sport. One of those teams was the Ohio State Men’s Volleyball team.
This does not take away from the other Buckeye teams receiving honors. The Women’s Volleyball team finished in the top 25 in the nation, while the Men’s Tennis team finished 4th in the nation.
Ohio State Professor, and faculty athletics representative, John P. Bruno said in a released statement, “Each of Ohio State’s 36 teams continued to improve it Academic Performance Rates over the most recent four year average (2010-2011). This indicates our student-athletes are successfully completing the academic benchmarks associated with eligibility to compete.” He continued by saying “This strong performance speaks to the commitment of our student-athletes to their academic progress and to the support they receive from coaches and our terrific academic support staff.”
These four teams, in addition to the high profile football team, have brought some needed good news from the NCAA who has beat up the University lately with bad news. What it has also done is proven that not only can you perform at a high level on the field, court, or whatever playing surface you choose, but you can do it the classroom as well where it matters most. Congrats to the Ohio State teams as well as all the other teams in the nation that was named to APR award list.
A couple of quick news stories from the OSU Athletic Department today we wanted to bring to your attention. Think of it as “Silver BBs”.
First, APR Scores are out, and OSU football is number three in the country, behind only Northwestern and Duke/SISU. The 988 score is better than Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Vandy.
As for “The Harvard Of The West”- tied for next to last in the B1G (thank you, Minnesota!) with their “little brother” in East Lansing.
Second, there’s a possibility that the 2013 Spring Game might be played in Cincinnati. From the press release:
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State Department of Athletics officials and those from the Cincinnati Bengals and Hamilton County are in discussions regarding the 2013 Ohio State LiFE Sports Spring Game, presented by Nationwide, being played at 65,535-seat Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Ohio Stadium will be under renovation next year, prompting the move to another location.
“We are very appreciative to be in discussions with the Cincinnati Bengals,” Director of Athletics Gene Smith said. “We look forward to continuing our discussions and look forward to an opportunity to bring the Buckeyes into Cincinnati and closer to our Southern Ohio fans.”
The work on Ohio Stadium includes stripping and replacing 1922-era coating and concrete off portions of A and C decks. These are areas that were not restored as part of the Ohio Stadium upgrades project between 1998-2001. Sand and water blasting will commence this December with the resurfacing portion of the project scheduled for the warmer spring and summer months next year.
While this is certainly a move due to the logistics of renovation, it should be remembered that the 2oo1 Spring Game stayed in Columbus, and was in Crew Stadium. This possible relocation to Cincinnati may be the start of a larger outreach to that area; I wouldn’t be surprised if future Spring Games would also include Cleveland as a locale, to connect deeper with the state’s fan and recruiting bases.
Rumors- Things to be watching for in the coming days… Huge camp weekend in Columbus; we’ll keep you up to date on that as the events warrant. Also, there’s some buzz regarding B12 Expansion news being released this weekend, including Florida State and Clemson heading to the conference in all sports, with Notre Dame (!) joining for their Olympic events (similar to the agreement they had previously with the Big lEast).
Stay Tuned!
