Wednesday's Skull Session will offer some commentary on things happening in the world of college athletics. For Ohio State fans, the Buckeyes return to action from its second bye of the season to play the Illinois Fighting Illini in Champaign this Saturday. Are Ohio State fans getting too confident about the stretch run? Its three remaining opponents (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan) are a combined 4-11 in Big Ten play. The Illini have yet to win a Big Ten game with Tim Beckman at the helm of the program.
Maybe overconfidence is preferable to the alternative in Ann Arbor. Michiganders are getting so despondent over the team's offensive misfortunes of late that they have resorted to power drinking and blaming the extent to which they drink and soil themselves on Al Borges' play-calling.
I can't speak for the Michigan Man, and his noble tradition of urinating himself after a marathon session of binge drinking Labatt Blue. Still, don't drink and drive. That can't be in the Michigan Man's Code of Conduct.
Anyway, here are the latest happenings in the world of college athletics. We start with the new depth chart.
NEW DEPTH CHART RELEASED. Yesterday, Ohio State released its latest depth chart for the game against the Illini. As far as I can tell, there are zero changes to the depth chart from the depth chart for Purdue.
The immediate items of concern were the players that suffered minor injuries in the blowout win against Purdue. However, their positions as starters were not adversely affected. If they do not play against Illinois, it will be because they were eleventh hour scratches like Braxton Miller was against California and Florida A&M.
This includes Taylor Decker, Ohio State's starting right tackle who exited the Purdue game late with a sprained MCL. He is still listed as starting right tackle.
This also includes Curtis Grant, who has had a recent rash of dings during contests. He had a stinger against Penn State, and suffered what appeared to be a nagging ankle injury during the first half of the game against Purdue. He is still listed as Ohio State's starting middle linebacker.
Finally, Michael Bennett left the Purdue contest with a stinger himself. He has a recurring issue with his arm that he broke in the 2011 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. It's why you see one of his arms heavily braced during games. Right now, he does not appear any worse for the wear and will start the game against Illinois.
Kenny Guiton is still the first team holder.
RUTGERS TO HIKE FOOTBALL TICKET PRICES. ...from $3 to $5. No, that's not a misprint.
The Rutgers athletics director doesn’t want to see High Point Solutions Stadium next season filled with Penn State blue or Michigan’s blue and maize. Hermann hopes to see scarlet red.
And, in turn, she wants to see those red numbers in the accounting sheets go away, too.
“It is absolute go-time for our football program and our entire athletics department,” Hermann said Monday, shortly after announcing a plan that will see football season tickets increase by $3 to $5 per game, as well as a hike in donation requirements by $25 to $100 per seat, depending on location.
If it seems like an odd announcement for Rutgers' athletic director to make, it's really not. However, I think the article is a bit misleading as to why Rutgers' athletic department is doing this.
The lede of the article frames it in reference to not wanting Michigan and Penn State fans to occupy these seats because they are invitingly cheap. Raising ticket prices from $3 to $5 will not solve this. Cheap ticket prices are one such reason why Ohio State fans, for example, can occupy Ryan Field in Evanston, or Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette.
However, raising it to $50, or maybe even $100, would not dissuade these fan bases. It would make it prohibitively expensive for Rutgers' own fans to consume these tickets, but the Michigan and Penn State fans are likely invested in taking over The State University of New Jersey next year to let their voices be heard. It will happen. It can not unhappen.
Raising the ticket prices does little, and says little, of Rutgers' interest to make sure its own fans are attending these games. This is about the public subsidy. Rutgers needs a way to generate revenue within itself to wean itself off the public subsidy it gets from tuition.
Whereas public subsidies for athletics is almost alien in the Big Ten (Minnesota and Wisconsin being the exceptions), Rutgers' public subsidy is somewhere in the ballpark of 43%. This is beyond problematic politically in its own state, though the reasons why will not be belabored here.
Further, it's an eyesore for the Big Ten, which adopted Rutgers and, for that matter, Maryland, as almost a fixer-upper. Delany and the rest of the Big Ten appear to be confident, perhaps overly so, in its ability to use its brand to make Maryland and Rutgers self-sustaining. Right now, neither program is. I'm not sure they will be in the near future. Maryland, for example, had to slash several athletic programs to dig itself from a fiscal hole, for which it currently believes the influx of B1G money can help it get back these programs.
Rutgers, though? I'm less convinced that these changes will matter. Bilking an additional $2 per visiting Michigan and Penn State fan is petty cash in the broad scheme of things. What will matter is its receipt of Big Ten money and, more than that, the interest in its programs it can cultivate organically. Alumni and local business interests matter.
Combining things like this, and Maryland recently revealing it had to go on the PR offensive to convince its own fans to not hate the move from the ACC, and I'm begrudging the Big Ten's expansion to 14 more and more.
Well, if it'll save us from further "Legends and Leaders" embarrassment...
Evan Spencer wishes he can unsay some things.INTO THE DOGHOUSE FOR EVAN SPENCER. To be honest, Evan Spencer may have been the last pick of the wide receivers to make it to Urban Meyer's doghouse. First guess would have been Devin Smith. Then: maybe Philly Brown, or Dontre Wilson making a freshman mistake. That it's Evan Spencer, the son of a long-time former Ohio State assistant coach, is rather interesting.
By now you're aware of what Evan Spencer did. It's nothing that serious. It won't cost him playing time, or get him a suspension. Nonetheless, he gave Alabama and Florida State bulletin board material. He also opened the door for national media outlets to further ridicule Ohio State for its conference affiliation.
Yes, we know Evan Spencer's comments were greatly exaggerated and twisted in order to create a story. Still, Spencer could have avoided the issue, and maybe should have.
That, more than anything, is what appeared to trigger Urban Meyer's rage. Spencer will apparently be barred from talking with the media for some time.
“I’m very disappointed,” Meyer said. “I can’t stand that. Our players are taught (not to do that). I know Evan well enough. I talked to him briefly. He was kind of smiling when he said it. No, I can’t stand it. He’s certainly not the spokesman for our team. As a result, Evan won’t talk to the media for a long, long time. You don’t do that.
Maybe it's easy for Ohio State fans to bemoan that Spencer is being unfairly targeted, or that he is being made an example for the sake of being made an example. While I can't speak about Meyer's rage about disrespecting other teams, I think what may have triggered Meyer's rage may have been that Spencer was talking about Alabama and Florida State in the first place. We don't play either, and may not this season.
For reference, here's the full exchange in question.
Reporter: So you did watch the Alabama game, and the Oklahoma-Baylor game and Stanford-Oregon. How do you think you guys would do against those teams.
Spencer: "I guess I'm a little biased, but I think we'd, uh, we'd wipe the field with both of them. But that's just my bias speaking." (laughs)
Reporter: That's Alabama and who's the other team?
Spencer: "Whoever. Whoever."
Let's isolate that first response and rephrase it, such that the exchange is as follows:
Reporter: So you did watch the Alabama game, and the Oklahoma-Baylor game and Stanford-Oregon. How do you think you guys would do against those teams.
Spencer: "I think we would match up very well with all those teams, and believe our record to this point says as much. I know how good we are, and I know how we practice. I believe we could execute against those teams, much like I believe we match up very well with Illinois this Saturday. I have confidence in our ability to execute our game plan against Illinois as well."
If phrased like that, I'm not sure there's a story. Further, I don't think Spencer gets Meyer to flash white with rage either. Perhaps as much of what Spencer said, for Meyer, was what he didn't say. Illinois is higher priority than Alabama right now. Next week, Indiana will be higher priority than Alabama. The process, and the job at hand, matter more than the overall goal. Spencer may have lost focus, even when being tongue-in-cheek as he was.
MISCELLANY. Burbs... Atlanta plans to demolish Turner Field after 2017... Cleveland Indians' manager Terry Francona wins AL Manager of the Year... The history of the World Wrestling Federation, in one poster... OMG, Darren Rovell... On the mess that is Florida Gators football... Speaking of messes: Virginia football... University of Utah and the Ute tribe to meet and discuss continued use of the Utes nickname... "Should Gators consider Bobby Petrino?"... Kansas State is coming on strong... Should the Pac-12 have a league-wide injury report?... Hawaii is going retro this Saturday with its uniforms... Basketball scores of interest: no.2 Michigan State beat no.1 Kentucky, Virginia Tech beat West Virginia, Cincinnati beat NC State, UMass beat LSU (#SECbasketballfever), Baylor beat South Carolina...
