Welcome to the Skull Session, and to the most beautiful time of the year.
Why is it so beautiful? Because today is the start of two beautiful things for sports junkies: One, the NCAA Tournament, and two, spring football practice.
For the first, North Carolina A&T/Liberty and St. Mary's/Middle Tennessee State is the doubleheader that begins the 68-team tournament. Even if these games have no real effect on Ohio State in the tournament, it's about the atmosphere and warming up to the real action which starts on Thursday.
For the latter, this isn't the first practice of the year for the 2013 team, but as the first practice after spring break, it counts as spring practice to me. It'll be fun to find out news besides Urban Meyer considering starting Aaron Craft at QB next season. Sure, Braxton Miller can "read defenses" and "throw 50-yard bombs" and "juke people out of their shoes". You won't find a more tenacious player than Craft, and isn't grit what college football is all about?
FREE TO BE DIVISION III. The first football game Ohio State ever played was against Ohio Wesleyan University in 1890. If Jim Delany is to be believed, Ohio State would rather drop to OWU's level in the near future than pay players.
You may be familiar with the lawsuit filed by former NCAA athletes like Ed O'Bannon to secure compensation for the NCAA's use of their likeness. It's had some success: by virtue of staying alive in the courts, it makes a settlement with the NCAA more likely and for greater money. In light of this, some form of payment for players has seemed inevitable. That is not the case for Jim Delany or apparently university leaders, who he claims are considering the drastic step of deemphasizing athletics in response to any payment system.
In an affidavit to the court, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany says that if the O'Bannon lawsuit is successful, the Big Ten schools may take their ball and go home:
Rather, it has been my longstanding belief that The Big Ten's schools would forgo the revenues in those circumstances and instead take steps to downsize the scope, breadth, and activity of their athletic programs. Several alternatives to a "pay for play" model exist, such as the Division III model, which does not offer any athletics-based grants-in-aid, and, among others, a need-based financial aid model. These alternatives would, in my view, be more consistent with The Big Ten's philosophy that the educational and lifetime economic benefits associated with a university education are the appropriate quid pro quo for its student-athletes.
Hmm. No.
Set aside the argument about what college players are owed by universities (and that's one heck of an argument to ignore). This is not the time to wax grandiloquence about the virtues of amateurism. This is the time to ask just what in the hell Jim Delany was thinking when he stated any of these beliefs publicly.
This statement does immediate harm to the Big Ten. It gives ammunition to anybody doing negative recruiting against Big Ten teams ("They aren't serious about athletics; heck, they won't even have a scholarship for you in a few years.") It alienates every conference member, all of whom would rather leave the athletic conference than go to Division III. It's seen as hot air by almost everyone outside of the conference, because Delany has a history of talking pompously and caving, so this big statement that would transform college sports if it were true is seen as some kind of political maneuvering.
Here are a few other problems with the supposed voluntary transition.
- Big-time college athletics improves a school's visibility and applicant test scores too. Without them, a school's academic reputation suffers.
- Schools with 100,000 seat stadiums are now stuck with them and whatever debt from them, with no way to make up the money.
- There would be just a few livid fans and donors if Ohio State administrators decided to deemphasize athletics. Ditto elsewhere.
- Even if the Big Ten Network isn't hamstrung by cable company charging changes, who's going to watch the equivalent of Oberlin vs. Wisconsin Whitewater each week?
- This would preclude any university that wants to stay Division I from joining the conference.
Most analysis of Jim Delany operate under the premise that he's a shrewd commissioner and all of his antagonism serves a larger overall plan. This gaffe challenges that.
He had to know when filing the affidavit that it would go public, and that fans would react badly to the notion of dropping out of Division I. If Delany truly believes any school in the Big Ten would, of their own volition, take their athletics program down to D-III level, he's horribly out of sync with the schools' administrators. If this is the state of Big Ten leadership, it might be time for a new commissioner.
WHO HATES IONA? We hate Iona!
The Iona Gaels are Ohio State's round of 64 opponent in the NCAA Tournament this Friday. We've covered them in depth, but there is a deeper connection between the schools than one may realize like... uh... never mind.
There actually isn't much of a history between these two schools, but Iona is solid for a low seed. Going by KenPom, they're 95th in the nation, making them the strongest 15 seed and on par with some 13 seeds. It's still a very likely win, but not a team to sleep on. Ask Duke or Missouri what happens to complacent 2 seeds.
Iona's claim to fame is something they're not proud of: blowing the largest NCAA tournament lead ever, 25 points, to BYU in last year's First Four. They also have nine transfers on the team, which is quite a lot. And if Iowa fans squint just right, they can imagine they're in the NCAA Tournament.
Congrats on the 1 seed. This calls for a T-shirt. FINAL POLLS. The final AP men's basketball poll of the year has been released, and a Big Ten Tournament victory propelled Ohio State to 7th. On the whole, not a bad result for a team who started the preseason ranked 4th.
Looking at the final poll and comparing it to the preseason poll produces some over and underachievers. Miami went from receiving votes to a top 5 squad, New Mexico and Georgetown made it into the top 10, and Gonzaga climbed from #21 all the way to the top spot.
On the flip side, North Carolina State and Missouri each finished unranked, but at least each made the NCAA Tournament. The biggest loser is Kentucky, which took a hard fall from preseason #3 to the NIT and a first-round game at Robert Morris *trombone noise*.
As validating as final polls feel, they don't mean a whole lot for the NCAA Tournament. Oddly enough, preseason polls do a better job than final polls at predicting tournament games. Preseason #1 Indiana is looking good by both polls and by Nate Silver's percentages, as are Florida and Louisville; they should get some net-cutting practice in before they depart.
ON TO THE JOE. Over the weekend, Ohio State hockey faced Ferris State in the quarterfinals of the CCHA tournament. After splitting the first two games, the series came down to Sunday evening's game. In a thrilling affair, Ohio State survived Ferris State, 3-2, advancing to the semifinals at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
Once again, Bradley Hjelle was the man of the hour, preserving a one-goal lead in spite of an onslaught from Ferris State, which outshot Ohio State, 48 to 27. In the four-team, single-elimination tournament, the teams are reseeded once again, so 3 seed Ohio State will face 2 seed Notre Dame while 1 seed Miami faces 4 seed Michigan. It's still championship or bust, but if Hjelle keeps playing like he did on Sunday the OSU's chances are solid.
LINK POUPOURRI. Regular season buzzer beater montage... Mumblety-peg is not for the faint-hearted... I want one... Deserved... Bring back the auroch!... How did Google get a car up there?
