Monday Skull Session: Ohio State Most Valuable CFP Program, Basketbucks ruin Sullinger's Sunday and Clarett to Clear Air

Technically, Ohio State is still the reigning national champion.

So enjoy these precious last moments. If Alabama wins, let's pray it's Nick Saban's last title in Tuscaloosa. Saban departing the Tide could collapse the few tawdry threads of society Alabamans managed to tailor together over the last 196 years.

 CUTE FOOTBALL PROGRAMS YOU GOT THERE, AMERICA. Despite not winning a national title and suffering the humiliation of a 12-1 season, business is booming for the Ohio State #brand.

If programs could be bought and sold like professional sports teams, Ohio State would be the priciest program on the lot... for the second year in a row.

From wsj.com:

Ohio State’s football team leads the country with a value of $946.6 million, according to an annual study by Ryan Brewer, an assistant professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus. This is Ohio State’s second consecutive year atop the rankings after it overtook Texas, which places second at $885 million and has the nation’s largest revenue at $128 million. Michigan places a distant third at $811.3 million.

Brewer analyzed each major program’s revenues and expenses and made cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections to calculate what a college team would be worth on the open market, if it could be bought and sold like a professional franchise.

These are the possible highs when a historically dominant program hires a once-in-a-generation coach.

Tom Herman's agent will be the biggest anti-Texas fan in the country next year. If Texas A&M flames out too that'd be the biggest windfall this side of a mythical winning Powerball ticket.

 OSU LOSES, MILLIONAIRE GETS #MAD ONLINE. The 3-13 Cleveland Browns are out of my life until the draft, but the men's basketball team filled that traumatic void by getting tattooed on the road in a game that was never contested.

Though it's always embarrassing to get mugged by the preening Tom Crean, we're still talking about a young team losing an early-January game to a respectable team in a hostile environment. These things happen.

The loss, however, did not sit well with former Ohio State star (and current Boston Celtic) Jared Sullinger:

Cmon OState!!!!! That's not how you start off in IU..... That place is a bear to play in!!!! A lot of time left. We will be good

— Jared Sullinger (@Jared_Sully0) January 10, 2016

Trevor not ready man!!!!! Get him outttttttttAaaaaaaaa there

— Jared Sullinger (@Jared_Sully0) January 10, 2016

Let's pack up and go home!!!!!! These boys quit!!!

— Jared Sullinger (@Jared_Sully0) January 10, 2016

Hope the Buckeyes lose by 50. So they can see feel and experience how embarrassing this effort looks.

— Jared Sullinger (@Jared_Sully0) January 10, 2016

Sullinger needed a Bad Tweet Angel to descend from the skies before absconding with those last three tweets.

Nobody would bat an eye if they were coming from an agitated drunk sitting by himself at the end of a bar on a Sunday afternoon (not that I'd know anything about that), but it's a bad look coming from a former pillar of the program.

Someone could argue it's not as bad a look as losing by 25 to Indiana, but it's not like anybody in that locker room celebrated the loss. I fail to see anything worthwhile in calling out freshmen.

 CLARETT TO CLEAR THE AIR. The Ohio State Highway Patrol booked Maurice Clarett for suspicion of D.U.I. two Sundays ago outside Mt. Gilead.

Though Clarett's case has yet to reach a final verdict, he'll be speaking on it today during his radio show:

 

Please tune in tomorrow to my show. I'll be addressing some of the recent events that took place with myself over this past week. I appreciate everyone that reached out with their support. Please note that I'm well. I took a week to relax and readjust my focus. Now I'm back on the trail handling business like I set out to do back in 2010. I'm a man and I'm human. I go through real things and that's why so many ppl connect with me. I'm authentic, vulnerable and flawed. With that being said it doesn't stop me from moving forward in life. "The ground is no place for a CHAMPION" #YoungstownBoy #DDSD

A photo posted by Maurice Clarett (@mauriceclarett) on Jan 10, 2016 at 1:20pm PST

Drunkenness is a natural response to finding yourself in the vicinity of Mt. Gilead, a den of ill repute. Driving drunk, however, is never defensible. (Scorching #take, I know.)

Some people will undoubtedly use this arrest to drag Maurice as a hypocrite given his reformational speaking to various collegiate football programs. But Maurice never pitched himself as a finished product.

And people stumble. When that happens, some collapse and relapse to old habits and others use it as another building block in their life. Looks like Clarett is choosing the latter route, which is a testament to how far he's come.

 K.J. HILL COULD BE GOOD IN 2016. We've reached the part in the calendar where every returning player is going to be better next year. 

One such player is freshman receiver K.J. Hill, who narrowly managed to escape spending the best years of his life in servitude to Ozark shitlord Bert Bielema with a 2015 National Signing Day flip from Arkansas.

Hill turned some heads in camp. Urban Meyer said in September Hill would play in 2015. 

That didn't come to fruition, though, and Hill took a redshirt like 98% of his classmates. Much like Clarett, he's using the adversity to better himself.

From cleveland.com:

"I think I can have a major role next year, or have a role next year," Hill said. "Right now, I am just a freshman learning the ropes, learning to play still. I just need to work this offseason and push to be that guy." 

[...]

"It's good that things worked out this way [with the redshirt]," Hill said. "I remember the first day of camp, the plays were like Chinese to me. I didnt know what I was doing and it was happening so fast. But then it took me like two weeks to get adapted, so after camp, coming into regular practice, I think I was ready.

"And I had that three-week window that Coach Meyer always talks about, that I was this close to playing, but he kept me from playing so I could get better through the course of the year. ... I did that." 

People won't realize what a loss Noah Brown was to the 2015 team until Fall 2016... and if Hill can take another leap this offseason then consider me intrigued by a potential Brown/Hill tandem.

 TIDE CRACKED THE CODE? No Huddle offenses traditionally bamboozle Nick Saban defenses because they restrict their ability to swap personnel packages, a key cog in Saban's pattern-matching scheme. (A 350-pound defensive lineman isn't as intimidating when he's sucking wind while marooned on the field.)

After complaining didn't work, Saban did the next best thing: His job. 

From espn.com on how Alabama caught up to the hurry-up offense:

You saw it on the first play of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. Alabama had 15 players on the field before Michigan State brought its offense out. When coaches saw the personnel, they immediately pulled four linemen, including 300-pound tackle Daron Payne.

Fast forward to third down and Alabama again pulled their tackles in Payne andJarran Reed. In came pass-rush specialist Tim Williams, who has 10 sacks since October. Williams shot upfield, and Connor Cook found no room on a designed run and was brought down for a loss.

"As soon as second down is over, we have guys right on the field then and there," middle linebacker Reggie Ragland said. "[Linebackers coach Tosh Lupoi] and [defensive coordinator Kirby Smart] are doing a great job of getting in the guys they need to rush the passer."

The good news for Clemson is DeShaun Watson is a bit more elusive than Connor Cook.

 THOSE WMDs. Why we keep playing the lottery... Japan runs train station for one passenger... A lesson in healthy eating from the Swedish government... The death of Mexican news in the age of the cartel... New Montana ant species emerge from 46-million-year-old rock.