It's from ESPN so I hesitated. Then hesitated again. But I liked the cover photo with Day, the team, and the trophy, so I bought a copy.

The first sentence reads "maybe Ohio State fans will like coach Ryan Day now." "Fifty-one days after suffering..."
Ok, definitely not a great start for a celebration piece.

The second page continues referencing the November game, that it was the 4th in a row, and that OSU was 21-point favorites. Did I buy a commemorative national title edition or a windy lamentation focused solely on the loss in the Michigan game months ago?

On page 3 we get a reference to winning the National Championship, blanketed by reminding us that it was the second in a row for the Big Ten as Michigan won it in 2023.

Enough of that... on to the next chapter. "Winning the Offseason" is the title, followed by a subtitle that begins with a "Galvanized by rival Michigan..." The text itself starts with "Two days after Michigan paraded through Ann Arbor with the National Championship trophy..."

Sifting through the pages, the October photos are captioned by "An up and down October". This is in reference to the last-second loss at #1 Oregon and an otherwise perfect month, no?

And I get it. There is bound to be a Michigan game page when you're covering the season slate. I can even understand seeing "Ouch" printed boldly on that page. But the editor has the gall to chase that with 10 pages of an "Under Pressure" chapter which provides us a hideous two-page, centerfold-sprawling photo of the Michigan flag-plant attempt.

Each of the subsequent chapters on the four epic CFP games gets about half the coverage each as the Michigan game garnered in its own chapter. The piece ends with immortal Buckeyes, seven photos of fans (of course with Big Nut and Cowboy Guy).

Executive Editor - Scott Burton. Burton is a graduate of... well I gave away enough. I'll let you take a wild guess at that one. (thumbs down)

Don't buy it.