Welcome to the Skull Session.
Jack Nicklaus can still be as good once as he ever was — especially as an honorary starter at the 90th Masters.
Some of the best who've ever done it. #themasters pic.twitter.com/hn9T3sIIFd
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 9, 2026
Have a good Friday.
OHIO STATE’S BEST JERSEYS? I’ll return to the Cam Heyward podcast a final time this week to share Ryan Day’s answer to the following question: What is Coach Day’s favorite Ohio State uniform?
“I like the grays. I like the grays. Yeah, I do,” Day answered. “The whites are good. I like going on the road. All the recruits like the black ones, but, like, nah, I like the grays man. There’s just something about those. They’re just sharp. I’d go with those.”
“I like those, too,” Heyward responded. “I’ve always been jealous, like, ‘Damn, I wish I had those black jerseys. I wish I had those grays.’ Those are sharp. I am very jealous when it comes to those.”
Thoughts?
I like all of the alternates. The all-blacks. The all-scarlets. The all-whites. But I’m a uniform traditionalist when it comes to the Buckeyes. I love the “standard” scarlet home uniforms. The scarlet jersey, the gray pants and the chrome helmets with Buckeye leaves are an iconic, timeless look.
KEVIN! NBC wanted the Big Ten Championship Game — until it didn’t.
According to The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint, NBC is set to sell its rights to the game back to FOX for somewhere between $45 million and $55 million. As part of the deal, NBC will receive additional regular-season games.
In doing so, NBC quietly cleans up a mess that never should have existed in the first place — one created by former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren.
Back in 2023, Warren awarded NBC the conference title game without FOX’s approval, despite FOX holding the conference’s primary rights. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported at the time that the Big Ten had to pay FOX $40 million to smooth things over.
Now, FOX is reacquiring the championship game it arguably never should have lost — though it will still have to shell out an extra $5 million to $15 million to get it back.
Whether NBC ever paid FOX as part of the original blunder remains unclear, per Sports Media Watch’s Jon Lewis. But if it did, this deal more than makes up for it. As Lewis noted, “At the high end, selling that single Big Ten football game could pay back a full quarter of NBC’s annual Major League Baseball rights fee.”
That said, NBC can thank its lucky stars for Warren.
The rest of us?
Not so much.
ROAD WORK AHEAD. Jake Diebler has a massive offseason ahead of him.
Yes, Diebler needs to respond after Dusty May led Michigan to a national title. But the Wolverines’ success shouldn’t be his only source of urgency — the entire Big Ten should be.
ESPN and The Athletic both released way-too-early top 25 polls for 2026-27 after Michigan beat UConn on Monday. Neither included Ohio State, but they did include many other Big Ten teams.
Note: These rankings are largely based on returning talent and incoming 2026 recruiting classes. The transfer portal will inevitably reshape the picture.
ESPN
- No. 1 Michigan
- No. 6 Michigan State
- No. 8 Illinois
- No. 14 Purdue
- No. 17 USC
- No. 18 Nebraska
- No. 25 Iowa
The Athletic
- No. 1 Illinois
- No. 2 Michigan
- No. 7 Michigan State
- No. 10 Nebraska
- No. 11 Iowa
- No. 13 Purdue
Take the ESPN poll, and Ohio State is no better than eighth in the conference entering next season. Take The Athletic poll, and the Buckeyes are no better than seventh.
But (!) Diebler and his staff have an opportunity to change that narrative with a strong offseason in the transfer portal.
Point guard.
Center (preferably over 250 pounds!).
Depth.
Get the job done, Coach.
THE BIG TEN’S BEST. Ohio State has the Big Ten’s top athletics program.
You don’t need convincing — but here’s the proof anyway.
The Buckeyes sit at No. 5 in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings following the winter season, the highest mark of any Big Ten school.
Top Five
- North Carolina — 781.5 points
- Stanford — 746.25 points
- Virginia — 696.75 points
- Princeton — 679.5 points
- Ohio State — 664 points
Ohio State piled up points across the board: 50 from women’s basketball, 25 from men’s basketball, 69 from women’s fencing, 60 from men’s fencing, 90 from women’s hockey, 64.5 from women’s swimming, 63 from men’s swimming, 21 from men’s indoor track and field and 75 from wrestling.
And yet, somehow, that total doesn’t include pistol — where Ohio State just won its sixth straight national title.
Why?
Because pistol doesn’t have an NCAA-sponsored championship.
Yes, really.
That’s a chunk of points left on the table, and it still didn’t matter. Ohio State leads the Big Ten with Penn State (No. 6) and Michigan (No. 9) trailing behind.
The rest of the conference? A step further back: Minnesota (No. 18), Nebraska (No. 20), UCLA (No. 22), Oregon (No. 23) and Indiana (No. 26).
In short: top five nationally, No. 1 in the conference — and still room to argue the Buckeyes deserve even more.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Georgia On My Mind" - Ray Charles.
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