If you're craving Buckeye sports today, the men's basketball team hosts William & Mary at noon on BTN+.

ICYMI:

• Buckeyes played in four of the seven most watched games in 2017.
• Winning the Rimington Trophy cements Billy Price's legacy.
• Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.

If football is your persuasion, the country's most historic football rivalry takes the field in the middle of the afternoon:

I enlisted for like a month (wild time in my life) back in 2005. So, as always, go Black Knights! The Coast Guard's JV team don't want it this year, baby.

Word of the Day: Cardsharp.

 KEEP HONKING, CLOWN; WE'RE RELOADING. Though Ohio State's seniors will get one last ride against USC in the Cotton Bowl, eyes in the WHAC have already shifted to the 2018 season.

Yes, the Buckeyes will suffer another NFL exodus. And yes, there is another generation waiting in the depths. It's those players that benefit most from the extra bowl practices.

Here are the top three beneficiaries from Tony Gerdeman of The Ozone:

1. CB Jeffrey Okudah: "Okudah should be able to get some reps that Denzel Ward no longer needs."
2. LB Baron Browning: "I don’t know where Baron Browning will play next year, but any increase in reps that he can get in bowl practice will be beneficial for 2018."
3. DE Chase Young: "Larry Johnson doesn’t need to go crazy with reps for Tyquan Lewis, Jalyn Holmes, and Sam Hubbard, which will leave plenty for Young and sophomore Jonathon Cooper."

I'm highest on Okudah and Young. Okudah because of his special teams success and Chase Young because he already looks like an NFL defensive lineman. Young still can use every rep with Larry Johnson, too, with the legendary defensive line coach purportedly set to retire after the season.

 SCOUTING A BROWNIE? Unless the Browns are content to dwell in the NFL gutters for the rest of their putrid existence (not out of the realm of possibility), they'll draft either UCLA's Josh Rosen or USC's Sam Darnold with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 draft.

As Browns fan who watched a combined 10 minutes of YouTube highlights on each prospect, I am on the #ChosenRosen swag-wagon. 

Darnold, however, is no slouch. Ohio State fans will need to get familiar before the Cotton Bowl, as he possesses the talent to scorch an unprepared defense.

From landgrantholyland.com:

Standing at 6’4, 240 lbs, Darnold already looks the part of a future NFL stud. Then when you add in his quick release, his ability to make all the throws and his mobility to extend plays, one can easily acknowledge that Darnold will be a top three pick if he declares for the 2018 NFL Draft -- with the potential to go No. 1 overall.

After struggling earlier in the year when he threw nine interceptions in his first six games, Darnold has settled down and has thrown only three interceptions in his final seven games.

The redshirt sophomore possesses more NFL traits than a guy like Baker Mayfield, making him the best quarterback that the Ohio State secondary has faced all season. 

Can't wait for the Browns to draft Darnold No. 1 overall after he completes 61% for 137 yards and 1 touchdown in a 17-point loss to Ohio State. 

 LUCKY VOLS. After Tennessee caved to the demented bad faith campaign staged by its preposterous fanbase, hope remained a signed memorandum of understanding between the university and Greg Schiano would leave the Volunteers liable for millions of dollars.

Unfortunately, because we live in a broken and fraudulent world, the incompetency of the Volunteer bureaucracy saved the university's pocketbook. 

From WMNL in Knoxville:

The memorandum of understanding Greg Schiano signed to be Tennessee’s next football coach is invalid, based on UT’s contract policy bylaws.

Schiano and then-UT athletic director John Currie are the only ones who signed the MOU Nov. 26, according to sources.

The agreement was for six years and would have paid Schiano an average of about $4.5 million per year.

Nothing personal against new coach Jeremy Pruitt. But I hope he fails miserably. Then I hope Schiano takes the Vanderbilt job (because let's be honest, he'll eventually leave) and owns the Vols for the next decade.

 TALK ABOUT A RIVALRY TROPHY. I want to read the definitive book on college football during World War II. I know probably 0.0000000001% about it, but that shred fascinates me.

Imagine sitting in the Horseshoe during a global war and watching the local team make light work of that team up north while the government trotted a captured enemy submarine around the sidelines. That was actually a scene in Los Angeles.

From The Los Angeles Times:

A captured Japanese midget submarine was paraded around the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during USC-UCLA football game Dec. 12, 1942.

The sub, Ha-19, was one of five Japanese midget submarines that participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 7, 1941, Ha-19 ran aground on a reef outside Pearl Harbor. The damaged sub was captured after it ran aground again on the east side of Oahu.

Upon rumination, I will settle for watching Army-Navy in high definition from the confines of my climate-controlled house.

 THOSE WMDs. I used to see myself in Goodwill Hunting... Ghostly boats carry North Korean crews, dead or alive, to Japan... Licensing board admits it can't silence red light camera critic... No one makes a living on Patreon... What happens when an Ohio town loses its only grocery store?