Before last year's spring game, I summarized the game's history: its origins as a carnival sideshow in the early 20th century, its growing popularity over the decades and its current status as the major spring event for Buckeye athletics. Thinking more about its origin, I now see that it relates closely to another event: WrestleMania.
Spare your dirty looks. Yes, I enjoy watching choreographed fighting between men wearing too little spandex. Like Ohio State's spring game, professional wrestling began as a sideshow for traveling circuses, meant to captivate audiences. The biggest event of the year in professional wrestling is WrestleMania, which is now held yearly in football stadiums. This year, 76,976 fans flocked to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. to see WrestleMania 31.
Ohio State football has outgrown the fairgrounds as well. 61,058 fans showed up to last year's spring game at Ohio Stadium, even though tickets cost an exorbitant $12 and $20 dollars until 48 hours before the game. This year, with five dollar tickets, good weather (the current forecast is partly cloudy with a high of 74) and a national championship team to cheer on, attendance should be much higher.
At a minimum, the Buckeyes will try to attract more than 76,881 fans, the spring game attendance mark for this season set by Nebraska. Ideally, the Buckeyes could break their national attendance record of 95,722, set at the 2009 spring game. I think the Buckeyes would gladly settle for 80,000.
The only downside to attendance will be injuries. Three of the top offensive stars on the team – Braxton Miller, Ezekiel Elliott and J.T. Barrett – will be out of action, no doubt hindering attendance. Even so, Cardale Jones and redshirt freshman Stephen Collier will lead the Scarlet and Gray offenses. With so many other exciting players returning – Joey Bosa, Darron Lee, Vonn Bell, Joshua Perry, Dontre Wilson, Curtis Samuel and Raekwon McMillan to name a few – there's plenty of reason to expect a monster turnout.
Much like WrestleMania, Ohio State will have all kinds of acts to entertain the fans. WWE brings older, massively popular wrestlers out of retirement for one last showing – this year, Sting and the Undertaker – and Troy Smith will be throwing passes in Ohio Stadium for the first time in nearly a decade, in a skills competition with fan favorites Jones and Barrett.
Instead of a 20-man battle royal, all of the talent listed above will compete to be the game MVP. Stephen Collier will try to displace the Miller/Barrett/Jones quarterback hydra, just as a young grappler would challenge for a veteran's championship title. On the undercard, we'll see all kinds of position battles and surprising performances. The only thing missing will be a ladder match – although come to think of it, doesn't the band director stand on one?
Anyone who goes to the spring game is going to see an approximation of football, much like WWE mimics wrestling or the Harlem Globetrotters mimic a basketball game. Fans know that going in; that's why they pay far less for a spring ticket than a fall ticket ($65 and up for gimme games against Hawaii and Western Michigan).
The spring game is an expresson of whimsy. The people in charge of OSU football promote competition through winners and losers, but the only consequence of losing hte spriing game is having to take care of Buckeye Grove. It's a spring excursion to get one last taste of football before the summer, and even we notoriously intense Ohio State fans are happy to mellow out and enjoy the melodrama.
