Just a few hours after we published last week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, 2020 struck again.
That's when the news started to leak out that Ohio State was battling positive COVID-19 cases within the program, and by the end of the week, the Buckeyes had to cancel their road trip to Illinois, marking the second time in three weeks that Ohio State has had a game canceled.
So that's what where we start on this week's episode of RPW, as we discuss why Ohio State made the decision to cancel (7:50) – and why that might have, hopefully saved this week's trip to Michigan State – followed by how that could impact Ohio State's chances of making the College Football Playoff (18:00). Is Ohio State a sure bet to make the playoff if it plays the remainder of its three scheduled games and wins out, and do the Buckeyes need to play all three of those games to make the CFP? We discuss the various scenarios that could help or hurt the Buckeyes, whether they need to win impressively or just win out and why we're both putting Ohio State's chances of making the playoff at just over 60 percent right now (40:50).
With hopes that we will see the Buckeyes play the Spartans on Saturday, we briefly discuss our expectations for that game (43:00), how the absence of Ryan Day and players who tested positive could impact Ohio State in that game and why we're still both mostly confident Ohio State will win convincingly in East Lansing despite the uncertainties at play.
In Three Things We Think (50:00), Colin talks about why he's glad to see Larry Johnson finally get his head coaching opportunity and Tuf Borland finally getting some respect, and Dan rants about why the Big Ten shouldn't change the six-game minimum for the conference championship game, why the conspiracy theories about teams ducking out of games need to just stop and why we need to appreciate every game we get to watch Ohio State play this year.
Finally, we answer your questions (1:15:55) about who Ohio State's next recruiting commitments could be (with an assist from recruiting analyst Zack Carpenter), who impressed us most in the first two Ohio State basketball games and more.
Listen to this week's episode of Real Pod Wednesdays in the audio player above or click subscribe to listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or several other podcast platforms.
