The news that captivated all Buckeye fans is true: Scott McMullen, the quarterback from Granville, Ohio has pledged to Ohio State's 1999 class, backing up Austin Moherman – oh, you said Raekwon McMillan. Um. This is awkward. Let's try that again.
As the culmination of two solid years of recruiting, Raekwon McMillan committed to Ohio State yesterday. The hat dance before he picked the Buckeyes was unfortunate, but at least he kept it and the announcement short and sweet.
Aside from all the things that make McMillan important on the field – he's the No. 1 ILB prospect in the class, he has great speed and size and instincts, he could be the starting MLB in 2014, he'll enroll a semester early -- the role reversal is just as important. For once, it’s not a southern school nabbing the best recruits from the Midwest; Ohio State has shown that it can nab jewels from the south as well.
Beyond McMillan, there's a chance that Ohio State double-dips today. Four-star Fla. WR Johnnie Dixon will announce his school this afternoon, and OSU is one of the front runners along with Miami and Alabama.
To head off the inevitable question: yes, there will be innumerable Wu-Tang Clan jokes over the next four years. You'd best start getting used to their discography.
HOOPS CHECKUP. Ohio State men's basketball is off to a strong start: the Buckeyes have the nation's top defense and a rapidly improving offense, good enough for second in the Coaches Poll and third in the AP Poll. Joe Lunardi released his first Bracketology of the regular season, and the Buckeyes are a one seed. All is well, but how much of OSU's strong start is because of an easy schedule?
Garry Parrish of CBSSports.com asked this question in reference to Kentucky, which has started the year 8-3 despite bringing in the most heralded recruiting class of all time. His argument was that if Kentucky played Ohio State's schedule instead of its more difficult schedule, the Wildcats would be undefeated and No. 1 in the country.
It's an interesting hypothetical. However, Parrish may be overstating Kentucky's chances against Ohio State's schedule. Kentucky is the youngest team in the country, and the inexperience shows. When a team has trouble executing, middling opponents like Wyoming and Delaware pose a threat and respectable opponents like Maryland and Marquette and Notre Dame are tough. Ohio State has won every game by double digits, and it's not like the schedules are polar opposites; the Buckeyes currently have the 262nd hardest nonconference schedule per Kenpom, while Kentucky's is 120th.
Parrish isn't making light of the Buckeyes; he goes on to argue that the Buckeyes should be second in the polls in spite of the easy schedule. It's more a function of praising Kentucky and similar schools like Duke, Michigan, and Kansas with several losses against top teams. Still, you win the games on the schedule, and I can't help but think Ohio State would be undefeated or close to it with Kentucky's schedule.
PLAYOFF PUZZLEMENT. When the BCS was abolished in favor of the College Football Playoff, the hope was that the new system would transcend the old system's many flaws. Though it is better, the announcement of Glendale and Tampa in 2016-17 as the site of the finals is a reminder that it is built on the muck of the BCS.
The championship rotation now consists of Pasadena, New Orleans, Miami, Phoenix, and Dallas, with Tampa now in the mix and Atlanta rumored as another host city. It is an irksome reminder that the game is grounded in the bowl system, grounded in Sun Belt tourism at the expense of Midwest schools, and that the postseason games are glorified exhibitions.
The only system where a Big Ten could play a home game is one where the higher ranked team hosts a semifinal. Jim Delany refused to negotiate for this. Now every game in the new system is a de facto road game. Argh.
Coming to a silver screen near you. SPANNER IN THE WORKS. Southeastern Conference, you had a good run. Auburn's two miracles and Ohio State's loss to keep the championship streak alive were all for naught. It's well and truly over now; Big Ten officials will referee the national title game, and as everyone knows, Big Ten officials make Tim Donaghy look like a boy scout.
Sarcasm aside, the Big Ten might have the best officials of all the power conferences. Big Ten officials call fewer penalties than any of the major conferences, averaging 4.8 penalties a game, nearly a penalty less than the next conference.
If any conference's officials are corrupt (they're not), it's the Pac-12's, whose nincompoop officials screwed Wisconsin and Oklahoma out of wins against Pac-12 teams in incomprehensible fashion. Even then, the idea that they are corrupt is laughable.
Hanlon's razor says never to attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. More people need to apply it when complaining about the officiating.
JESSE OWENS AT THE MOVIES. One of Ohio State's most famous athletes is getting top treatment, as Disney is developing a biopic about Jesse Owens.
The movie is an adaptation of ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap's book Triumph, a fine biography of Owens in its own right. With the screenwriter of The King's Speech on staff, it looks like the movie will receive lots of attention. From the Hollywood Reporter:
Triumph recounts Owens’ rise from a poor childhood in 1920s Cleveland to his ascendance in running and the long jump. At Berlin, he won four gold medals, a direct affront to Adolf Hitler's ideas of Aryan superiority.
Part of Owens' myth is that Hitler snubbed him at the Games after his wins, but Triumph claims that while it is true Hitler didn’t shake hands with Owens, that was because of other factors. The book depicts Owens complaining more about being snubbed by Franklin D. Roosevelt than by the Nazi leader.
Here's the question: will Disney be faithful to the book and the events of his career, or will it trade historicity for a more digestible story like it did with Remember the Titans? Jesse Owens never had the opportunity to stare down Hitler like everyone would have hoped; that doesn't lessen what he did, it's just less fun for a movie and it must be hard for a biopic to avoid that visual image.
If they need any additional drama that happened in real life, they could reach back to cover Owens' time at the 1935 Big Ten Championships, where he broke three world records and tied a fourth with a bad back in less than two hours. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
FLY WISCONSIN. Wisconsin is practicing for the Capital One Bowl and had a very special guest, whom they treated with class, dignity, and breakdancing moves:
Ho ho ho. Scotty 2 Hotty approves.
LINKS AHOY. ESPN will have a SEC-only pregame show for the SEC Network next year... The Big Ten was second in average attendance for college football in 2013 at 70,483 ... Behold, a hand grafted onto an ankle... Which basketball coaches regress during the season... Gus Malzahn wins the FWAA's Coach of the Year award... Devin Gardner may be out for the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl... Why are ACL injuries increasing?... Look Around You explains sports like they truly are... this is what happens when you forget </big>... an Oklahoma fan's reasonable hotel request is denied... and if you can read only one of these, read Holly Anderson's college football dictionary.
