SOON.
No ad-libbing here. We stick to the Script. #GoBuckeyes pic.twitter.com/KfJqabFtp5
— The Ohio State University Marching Band (@TBDBITL) August 21, 2021
Word of the Day: Sojourn.
S.O.S. Noted football knower Bill Connelly shared his strength of schedule ratings for all 130 FBS teams yesterday. Ohio State's is a respectable No. 25 – a number which is always naturally lower simply because they *are* the best team in the conference and they don't get to *play* the best team in the conference.
2021 SP+ strength-of-schedule ratings for all 130 FBS teams: pic.twitter.com/hbkkcAN7WP
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) August 24, 2021
So, nothing really to write home about either way from the Buckeyes. However, there are two teams we really have to talk about.
Not that this should be shocking, but Clemson has a remarkably easy strength of schedule. They're sitting down that at No. 70, which by my eyes is the easiest schedule of any Power Five program. And that's *including* a game against the No. 5 team in the country, if that tells you how easy the rest of their schedule is.
Remember that when we're inevitably being sold Clemson as a one-loss playoff contender at the end of the year with the "but they only lost one game early in the season to a top-five team!!!" It's August and you already know damn well it's going to happen.
On the other end of that spectrum is Michigan.
Jim Harbaugh desperately needs to do *something* this year, and uh...
Michigan has quite the schedule on their hands
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 23, 2021
WK2 - #20 Washington
WK5 - #12 Wisconsin
WK9 - #17 Indiana
WK10 - #19 Penn State
WK12 - #4 Ohio State
Is this Jim Harbaugh's year? pic.twitter.com/dfk2Cu6nxw
It feels like 7-5 or even 8-4 would be a death sentence for Harbaugh at this point, and he's absolutely going to be an underdog in at least five games. Dude is basically coaching as a zombie at this point.
(Unless, of course, Michigan has simply accepted its fate as a middling Big Ten program with an overpaid head coach, which is both entirely possible and hilarious).
ALLIANCES ARE EXCITING. We got a press release and a press conference about this new "historic" alliance between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12, but to be honest, I am no more sure about what the hell it even is than I was two weeks ago when the vague "alliance" was rumored.
But at the very least, Gene Smith claims to be excited about it.
"I'm excited about it," Buckeyes athletic director Gene Smith told The Columbus Dispatch. "It has tremendous potential. Obviously there's a lot of details that have to be worked out. Today was more of announcement around the concept and the collaboration that we're going to have. But I'm excited about the details that eventually will be worked out that will allow us to actually function around all the different issues.
"There's a gravitational shift in what's happening in athletics and to know that you have partners who share your values and think like you, it's comforting that we'll be able to collaborate. So I'm excited about it."
Smith also addressed the possibility of the Big Ten moving to a nine-game football schedule as a result of the all. Not only did he think it was premature to speculate whether the league would make such a move, he thought it was too early for him to have an opinion on it.
"My opinion will evolve based upon my conversations with my colleagues," he said.
At least he clarified that the announcement wasn't intended to have any details, because uh... it sure didn't.
QB TO DB. Turns out, Ohio State's so good with quarterbacks that they can even turn them into elite D1 defensive backs.
Behold, former high school quarterback Cameron Martinez.
It's also very refreshing to know that if Ohio State happens to need a *checks notes* fifth capable quarterback on scholarship, Martinez is up for the job.
WHY NOT? Four-star tight end Benji Gosnell decomitted from Ohio State last month, and I think I might have just found his replacement.
If JR Smith can go play college golf, LeBron can play football and prove hes a real Buckeye
— Drive The Lane (@DriveTheLanePod) August 24, 2021
Lets make it happen @KingJames pic.twitter.com/w5ACgH1XVx
I mean, if we're talking legacies here, Michael Jordan proved he could at least somewhat play two sports at a high level.
Your move, LeBron...
SONG OF THE DAY. "When You're Around" by Dune Rats.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. How did a model employee manage to steal more than $17 million in untraceable cash?... Swedish authorities have to pay three convicted drug dealers $1.5 million after a ridiculous bureaucratic failure... Peep shows, porn theaters and sex workers of 1970s and 1980s Times Square... The shadowy business of international education...
