I'm delighted to welcome you to another day on this spinning rock.
Word of the Day: Abide.
FANS IN THE STANDS? I'm going to be honest, the whole no crowd thing has felt quite a bit weirder than I anticipated, especially with the weird artificial crowd noise.
But it's looking like there's still a small chance we see fans in the stands in the Big Ten this fall, after all.
Another B1G football item: Received a heads-up MON the league plans to revisit having limited fans in the stands. Remember, however, the #Badgers worked w/local health officials + decided no parents/only "essential" personnel for the opener.
— Jeff Potrykus (@jaypo1961) November 3, 2020
At the very least, we've got to be able to get TBDBITL through the gates.
Buckeye football without the marching band has been like having nachos and cheese without the actual chips – technically doable and it'll fill you up, but just plain sad on every front.
I'LL TAKE IT. Ken Pomeroy picked an absolutely hilarious time – just after midnight following election day – to drop his preseason college basketball ratings.
And I have to say... I'll take it.
Significant data news just landed. Breaking: 2020-21 KenPom rankings are live. Heres the top 30. pic.twitter.com/aOvNu73kzx
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) November 4, 2020
No. 10 in the country and second-best in the big ten? Damn, KenPom, you're killing Chris Holtmann's ability to play the #disrespekt card and sandbag expectations.
“CLEMSON OF THE BIG TEN.” I admire precisely one thing about the Clemson Tigers and it's their ability to run their conference like a damn mob boss year after year without getting prison shivved by a team like Purdue or Iowa.
But under Ryan Day, Ohio State's getting there, too.
In recent years, there hasn’t been a team more dominant against its own conference competition than Clemson in the ACC.
Ohio State under Ryan Day is beginning to infringe on that territory.
Clemson has won 28 consecutive games against conference opponents dating back to the 2017 season. And that includes its wins in the ACC title game. Ohio State is approaching that level of dominance in the Big Ten. After Saturday night’s road win over Penn State, Ohio State is up to 16 straight victories over Big Ten foes, a winning streak like we’ve only seen in the last few years from Dabo Swinney’s Clemson teams and Nick Saban’s Alabama teams.
Under Urban Meyer, it was an expectation that the Buckeyes would slip up once along the way during its Big Ten schedule. It happened every year between 2015 and 2018, including surprise blowout losses to teams like Iowa and Purdue. With Day leading the program, though, the Buckeyes have avoided those lapses while widening the gap between themselves and the rest of the Big Ten. The win over the Nittany Lions was the latest example of that.
Soon it's going to get to the point that we could just go ahead and play the playoff in week one with Ohio State, Clemson and Alabama just getting automatic bids and you can roll a dice for the last team's right to lose in the first round.
The regular season is basically just a formality these days, anyway.
REMEMBER WHEN. Here's a little throwback for you to when Ohio State wasn't actually sure it was going to land this delightful pair of five-stars.
Two years ago today back when I was hoping both of these Buckeyes were ours for keeps @zacharrison_ @Fabs2069 @ParisJohnsonJr @MonicaCLJohnson pic.twitter.com/ojIoMyP0FI
— Tori Magers (@torilyn_m) November 3, 2020
This is a fun reflective exercise because of course, the Buckeyes did land both of them. But here's a live look at the Penn State and Michigan fans looking on with heartbreaking jealousy:
SONG OF THE DAY. "Alabama" by John Coltrane.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. The nameless hiker and the case the internet can't crack... A trucker admits to hauling nearly $2 million in cash for the cartel... The world's most unlikely spy... A man pleads guilty over cocaine found in someone else's butt... How different species choose – or depose – a leader... He did not commit the crime, yet he served 44 years in prison...
