The Weekender: Alabama Triggers an Ohio Betting Ban, Big Ten Saturday Night Set for Kickoff on NBC, and College Football Playoff Stadium Upgrades

By George Eisner on May 7, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Downtown Columbus with a sportsbook ad on the side of a building
Adam Cairns | Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY NETWORK
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Own the group chat with The Weekender, highlighting the biggest stories in college sports, standout writing from Eleven Warriors, and a glance at what's next.

Alabama Sparks a Sports Betting Ban in the State of Ohio

Not even half a year into Ohio's rollout of legal mobile sports betting, one college program has already found themselves sledged with an Ohio Casino Control Commission banhammer.

Last Monday, the state issued a halt on all wagers related to University of Alabama baseball games after discovering suspicious betting activity surrounding the Crimson Tide's matchup with LSU from the previous week.

According to ESPN, the OCCC alleges that an unidentified customer placed a pair of suspicious moneyline and parlay bets respectively from the sportsbook at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Surveillance video from the sportsbook would later correlate with communications the customer had at the time with then-Alabama head baseball coach Brad Bohannon. Bohannon scratched the starting pitcher that morning in favor of one that had not started a game in nearly two months.

The Crimson Tide dismissed Bohannon on Thursday, three days after the OCCC issued its directive.

Although no Alabama baseball players are considered to be directly involved in this controversy, the unique legislative ramifications of this story only add to recent legal scandals swirling around the University of Alabama Athletics Department.

B1G Saturday Night Kicks Off with PSU

A new era in primetime college football arrives soon.

Likely after the Buckeyes finish their pursuit of a 28th straight win over Indiana in the football season opener on September 2nd, Ohio State fans will have a worry-free debut of Big Ten Saturday Night to look forward to later on that evening.

The pilot episode will feature the West Virginia Mountaineers traveling across Appalachia towards Happy Valley to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions.

This will be the first time since 2017 that college football fans can enjoy a Penn State game without the concern of a Sean Clifford appearance, making it must-see TV.

College Football Playoff Prompts Schools to Upgrade Stadiums

As the College Football Playoff prepares to expand and welcome more teams next season, schools have begun planning ahead to host these primetime winter matchups by allocating funds towards stadium renovations.

Among the major players in the Playoff picture revving up for a revamp of their college football cathedral would be the aforementioned Nittany Lions and Beaver Stadium. This week, the university's Board of Trustees approved $29 million for fixes to drainage and water problems that the school's football stadium experiences during winter months that would otherwise render it unable to host a CFP game.

The Board of Trustees will also have a design firm develop an architectural plan that calls for a complete reconstruction on the west side of the stadium. The current renovation schedule runs through 2027 and has a total budget of $700 million.

For a stadium that already boasts iconic home field advantages in college athletics due to sheer volume in both crescendo and quantity of its fans, the move represents a desperate push for a big program to avoid missing out on a massive local revenue opportunity in the near future. It will be worth observing which other schools follow suit soon in their allocation of resources towards kinder confines.

ICYMI

Eleven Dubcast Has a New Co-Host

After 13 years, seven co-hosts, and countless guests — THE Eleven Dubcast is about to get better than ever before!

Follow The Dubcast on Twitter and tune in every Tuesday after 2:50 p.m. ET for new episodes of the site's flagship podcast with Johnny Ginter and now myself.

Last week, we covered the NFL Draft from all angles for Buckeye fans, and you can also ask questions you'd like discussed on the show — OSU athletics or otherwise — by writing us at dubcast@elevenwarriors.com for our Ask Us Anything segment!

Ohio State Athletics & Football Post Personal Best Academic Progress Rates 

Since the NCAA started the APR calendar average in the mid-2000s, the Ohio State athletic department and football team have never had more consistent progress towards graduating their entire classes. Additionally, 17 of the Buckeyes' 31 NCAA sports programs achieved perfect scores.

Donovan Jackson's Leadership Crucial For OL Next Season

Griffin Strom took a look ahead this week at Ohio State's needs and strengths up front from a team character and leader perspective, framing how the Buckeyes will look to Donovan Jackson for guidance in those areas as he returns for a third season.

What's Next?

  • Baseball: vs. UCF, 6 p.m. Tuesday at home
  • Men's and Women's Track and Field: Big Ten Championships, Friday-Sunday at Bloomington, IN
  • Women's Tennis: NCAA Tournament Super Regional vs. Stanford, 4 p.m. Friday at Palo Alto, CA
  • Women's Golf: NCAA Regional, Monday-Wednesday at University of Georgia GC in Athens, GA
  • Softball: Big Ten Tournament, Wednesday-Saturday at Champaign, IL
  • Rowing: Big Ten Championships, Next Sunday at Indianapolis, IN
  • 118 Days: Until Ohio State football kicks off the 2023 season against Indiana in Bloomington
  • 139 Days: Until Ohio State football invades Notre Dame Stadium to play the Fighting Irish
  • 202 Days: Until Ohio State football gets revenge against Michigan in Michigan Stadium
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