It's hard for me to get too excited about the release of future conference schedules. 2016 and 2017 seem really far away and there's not too much rotation with a 9 game conference slate anyway.
I suppose it's interesting that the Buckeyes open up the 2017 season with a visit to Indiana – that's different, right? Apparently this is the first season-opening Big Ten conference game since 1976.
I'm much more interested in the out of conference matchups against Oklahoma both years and the game against North Carolina in 2017.
As an aside, it's kind of funny to imagine which of our conference brethren will be on a mini hot streak in 2016. Would you have predicted that Michigan State would go 11-2 and 11-3 in 2010 and 2011? Or that Iowa would hit 11-2 and a win over Georgia Tech in 2009? Who knows, maybe Indiana will regularly be beating the tar out of SEC schools by 2016.
Probably not.
TIRED OF MEYER BASHING? GO BACK TO GEE BASHING. File this one under #OffseasonComplaining.
In an important-sounding APNewsBreak, Welsh-Huggins details Gee's apology timeline. Let me summarize the article for you:
Although university trustees directed Gee in a March 11 letter to begin issuing personal apologies ''promptly,'' he didn't make the first of those apologies until May 20 during a previously scheduled meeting with the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus.
And that's it. Really – the rest of the article just repeats what we already knew Gee said. In fact, there's an accompanying timeline from AP Research. All of this research really just makes me miss actual football news stories that much more.
Also, who are we to interpret what the university trustees meant by "promptly?" That very well might have been a couple months, or it could have meant "when you're in the mood," or maybe just "as long as it's before Christmas." Jeez.
SIMULATION SEASON. I'm jealous of all of you who have been able to pick up the new NCAA '14. The NCAA games are really the only video games I still play in my old age, so I try and pick up a copy every few years.
Besides guiding the Buckeyes to back-to-back-to-back-to-back-etc. national championships and Heismans, the NCAA series is great for simulating upcoming matchups. The only one you'll need is by our Jordan Wagner, but if you're curious for some more simulation action, here are a couple more.
Besides Ohio State winning the national championship, the best thing about Tom Fornelli's simulation is that "Bret Bielema goes 1-7 in his first SEC season."
Jason Kirk gave us a few more data points, simulating the 2013 season ten times and sharing the results. The video game really likes both Ohio State and Braxton, who won the Heisman almost every simulated year.
Philly Brown is a TD scoring machine in NCAA 14 DEALING WITH DECOMMITS. Ohio State has been fortunate not to endure too many big decommitments lately besides Lawrence Marshall's flip to Michigan, but it has become somewhat of an epidemic across the country.
Rivals recently summarized the debate about early signing days and written offer dates, with the always-interesting Mike Farrell chiming in:
"Move the written offer date up to Sept. 1 of freshman year and I guarantee there will be a lot less kids with offers, and committing, and de-commiting," he said. "Kids are smarter than they are given credit for, and when the offers used to be in writing before their junior year, they would wait for Sept. 1. If they didn't get a written offer, they would be asking why not.
Earlier in the article Farrell dismisses a second signing day, preferring earlier written offers as a way to dissuade decommitments.
I don't see this changing anytime soon, so I'm glad that Urban only considers a verbal commitment as making the recruit's top 3.
BRINGING THE RADAR GUN TO THE GAME. As we've talked about multiple times, Saban and Bielema have advocated slowing football back down from its Oregonian pace. Much of the subsequent discussion hasn't been particularly well thought out in the football pundit world, but at least some medical researchers are beginning to take notes.
Some neurology professors such as Dr. Randall Benson believe that Saban and Bielema's theory may be valid: "When guys are fatigued they tend to use poorer technique, which can lead to having one's head in the wrong place, putting them at risk for concussions and subconcussive hits." Further, others have found that it's not just number of hits that might lead to long term brain damage, but the magnitude of those hits.
However, we are really lacking great data on offense type and injuries. That's why Dr. Collins from UPitt believes that, "Before we change football, and change the game, having science is really important. It sounds like a reasonable study can be done, to see if the incidence of concussions is higher in [hurry-up] offenses than more traditional offenses." That sounds like a great plan to me. Get to it, medical researchers.
LINKS FOR STOPPING BY. Stopping the spread at Ole Miss... Matt Damon visits the Huskers... No Heisman campaign for Murray... Is there any grass to eat at the water park?... No way would FSU win the SEC Championship... Elite 11 QB review with a little on Collier... Top 5 in Heisman buzz from this blog.
