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Big Ten coaches anonymously speak about each other
Ah, it's that time of year. With only a few months before the 2025 football season gets underway, summer football preview magazines are set to hit the shelves in stores in the near future. In a yearly tradition, Athlon Sports always gives free rein for coaches in a conference to give their thoughts about each other anonymously, and it's usually filled with some juicy tidbits.
This year's version has been published, with each of the Big Ten's 18 programs having either three or four thoughts from other coaches in the league. Considering this is an Ohio State-centered website, we've pulled two of the most interesting thoughts from opposing coaches surrounding OSU.
Quote one: “Year in and year out, this is the most talented program in the league and one of the most talented in the nation. The question every season is just if they can arrange that talent the right way.”
Quote two: “The resilience of [Ryan] Day and his staff is really, really remarkable. I don’t think they get enough credit from the public for how they managed the playoff run after losing to Michigan. The calls for his job were absolutely ludicrous. Do they need to beat Michigan? Yeah, sure. But this program is at the very top of the sport because of the head coach.”
The rest of the opinions on OSU and the league's other 17 programs are certainly worth checking out.
Notre Dame and USC rivalry is reportedly in danger
There's been no shortage of sweeping changes to college football over the past decade or so. Some good, some not so good.
If what's being reported about the Notre Dame and USC rivalry comes to fruition, consider it a development in the latter category. Earlier this week, Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde reported that the longtime rivalry between Notre Dame and USC is on the brink of ending, with each of the schools viewing the situation very differently.
Currently, a contract for the two schools to continue playing expires after this season's contest in South Bend. Per the report, USC is open to extending the rivalry by at least one year, so long as the Fighting Irish come to California in 2026. Notre Dame, meanwhile, prefers a longer extension.
“I think Southern Cal and Notre Dame should play every year for as long as college football is played, and SC knows that’s how we feel,” Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua told Sports Illustrated.
“We want the USC–Notre Dame rivalry to continue, which is why we offered an extension of our agreement,” USC associate athletic director Cody Worsham told Sports Illustrated. “It’s a special game to our fans and our institution. We will continue to work with Notre Dame on scheduling future games.”
Essentially, USC is the school with a reluctance to enter a long-term agreement to keep the rivalry afloat amid uncertainty of the future College Football Playoff format, weighing the demands of more travel already as part of the school's move to the Big Ten. The Trojans have discussed the idea of moving the game as the school's season opener.
Hopefully, the schools can figure something out, since college football needs more marquee matchups with big brands, not fewer.
Ohio State No. 1 in ESPN's SP+ rankings
In case you missed it in the Skull Session, the computers are still high on the Buckeyes entering 2025.
ESPN’s Bill Connelly released an updated SP+ of college football's best rosters based on production and OSU sits as No. 1.
A quick review of Connelly's formula.
Returning production. The returning production numbers are based on rosters I have updated as much as humanly possible to account for transfers and attrition. The combination of last year's SP+ ratings and adjustments based on returning production makes up about two-thirds of the projections formula.
Recent recruiting. This piece informs us of the caliber of a team's potential replacements (and/or new stars) in the lineup. It is determined by the past few years of recruiting rankings in diminishing order (meaning the most recent class carries the most weight). This is also impacted by the recruiting rankings of incoming transfers, an acknowledgment that the art of roster management is now heavily dictated by the transfer portal.
Recent history. Using a sliver of information from the previous four seasons or so gives us a good measure of overall program health.
(One other reminder: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and along those lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the season. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather.)
OSU came in at No. 1 with a score of 29.5, 39.6 on offense, 10.1 on defense, and 0.3 on special teams. Alabama was No. 2 and Penn State was No. 3 in the rankings.
ICYMI
Texas Reportedly Blocked Ohio State's Attempt to Move the Buckeyes' Premier Week 1 Matchup to Prime Time on Sunday, Aug. 31
Ohio State's season-opening game against Texas could have been played on Sunday evening in prime time, but the Longhorns had other ideas.
College Football Playoff Executives Unanimously Vote to Adopt a Straight-Seeding Model for the 2025 Playoff
The playoff format changed again! This one should be for the better, though.
Season Savers, Play-Calling Geniuses and Dirty Dogs: Fifteen Superlatives From Ohio State's CFP Championship Run
We hand out some well-deserved superlatives from Ohio State's national title run.
What's next
- 97 Days: Buckeye football season opener vs. Texas
- 160 Days: Jim Knowles returns to Columbus
- 188 Days: The Game
