Charmin Soft = 4 Big Ten Teams in CBS Top 25

That’s it. I’ve quit my day job. I’ve been hired by CBSSportsline to come up with articles that provide no insight and inspire a myriad of message board comments.

Dennis Dodd and I on the same team will be quite a force to reckon with. He can piss off the Big Ten and I’ll piss of the SEC. The rest of the conferences will get so sick of the Big Ten and SEC, like they aren’t already, and then CBS will be the first site to reach 1 billion posts.

I’ve been inspired by Dennis Dodd. He is mentor. Why? Because he ranks the Buckeyes #1 in this Top 25 poll, one spot above SEC favorite Georgia. Why the change of heart from Dodd, who rags on the Buckeyes as choke artists and hammers the Big Ten for being a horrible conference? Dodd says:

“Mix in the roll of baby-soft Charmin known as the Big Ten schedule and this is the team to beat.”

While the whole slate of the Big Ten may be a tad easier than the SEC, Dodd proceeds to include 3 other Big Ten teams in the Top 25 (Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan State). I could see Dodd’s issue, except for the fact that Ohio State plays all 3 teams ON THE ROAD. Dodd also just dropped out Penn State from the list Post Spring, meaning 5 total Big Ten teams would have been on the list. Ohio State would play all 4. How many SEC teams? 5 of them. In my life, 5=5.

What does this mean? Nothing, because these beat writers write each story with a clean slate, as if they never had a prior opinion or a prior thought (yet all of which can be found in their archive).

He also puts 5 Big 12 teams in the top 11. Using previous logic, none of those five play each other during the season? I’d say his top 6 is logical in some order. The sad part is that Dennis Dodd’s opinion counts. His baseless opinions actually lead into the real rankings once the season starts.

It’s cool to hate on Ohio State’s schedule, and it sucks we have to start out with Youngstown State but we do, but Troy was second in the Sun Belt (ask the SEC about the Sun Belt) and Ohio University at least contends in the MAC. Uh, uh, okay bad arguments…but we play USC in Southern California.

And that can’t get here soon enough.

The No Win Argument: College Football Playoffs

Just so you know, Gordon Gee is looking out for you. He doesn’t want college football to become too professional; he doesn’t want to cross that line "down a slippery slope". Thanks buddy. Luckily for Ohio State, Gordon Gee is normally right. He states we don’t want to get into an "arms race".

Poe will be the first to tell you that Gee’s argument is pretty weak.

Ohio State is big time college football. Big time college football is professional football without the payroll. Ohio State football has Ohio Stadium (105,000 people), The Woody Hayes Athletic Center ($24 million), ABC primetime games, the Big Ten Network, merchandising deals, sponsorships, and BCS million dollar paydays. This isn’t some two-bit operation that relies on good luck. All that and a playoff pushes us off a slippery slope? Maybe Gee will do away with the athletic department next (ha, Vanderbilt! Seriously though, the real people that run Ohio State would never allow it). Next thing you know, we’ll be talking about paying student-athletes!*

*That’s a whole other topic, but lets just say Poe made $23/hr working during a co-op during college. The school sent applications to the employer, employer hired student, student did work, student was paid, and the employer made profit. Sounds like the academics of a university are professional, but we can’t take our sports there?

Gee has drawn the ire talk show hosts and sports writers alike. Mike Wilbon of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, graduate of Northwestern, crossed his own slippery slope and called Gee "a fraud". Meanwhile, Jim Tressel backs the Ohio State/Big Ten/Pac-10 position on playoffs, probably hoping not to stir the pot and go against the conference and its bowl tie-in (Rose Bowl). Never mind the fact that Tressel won 4 of his 5 national championships in the D-1AA playoff system. It’s a lot like when Wilbon (ESPN) and Dennis Dodd (CBS) take shots at Ohio State and the Big Ten, because it’s the culture created by the network. It’s easy to take shots since the collective memory of our society is 2.5 days, and these guys sit in meetings all day discussing how to make controversy. SportingNews says Jim Delaney is the sports most powerful comissioner, but they are the weakest BCS conference. But if there were a playoff, ESPN would likely have to go off air or play more Texas Hold ’em because they won’t get to "debate" as much.

The only reason ESPN/ABC/Disney is likely to be pushing for a playoff system is that ESPN/ABC/Disney is likely to make a bid the next time the TV deals expire.

The outside view is that the Big Ten doesn’t want a playoff system because then Ohio State wouldn’t get free rides into the championship game. Somehow they figure that Ohio State wouldn’t get an advantage by playing the fourth ranked team (since they have been #1 the past 2 years) and actually playing a game during the 40-day layoff. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sure doesn’t help Ohio State when they lose the national championship game. And what would become of the team if they win the Rose Bowl, but lose in the championship? Hey congrats, you won the Granddaddy of Them All, but you are still overrated!

I’m all for the Plus One, if the BCS guys can all sit down at a table and come up with something clever and logical. I’m just not sure they can (oh well, there’s always congress!). The more football the better, for me at least. Maybe the players can all take a vote, after all they are the ones playing. If they are happy, then who cares? Too many times these ruling committees look out for their own interests while forgetting about the players that make of the teams whether it be the NCAA, NFL, NBA, or MLB (sorry NHL).

Gordon Gee is smarter than we are. In fact, he might even be a bigger Buckeye than we are (any man that wears Buckeye pants is a hero, in my book). We know Gee is all for keeping athletic departments in check and raising academic standards. I’m all for it too. But Ohio State is not Vanderbilt in background, budget, or admissions. I haven’t personally seen a Plus One or playoff system that makes sense logically, but I wouldn’t dare claim college football (and basketball) are separate entities from their professional counterparts.

Besides, the decision-makers already made their decision.

Head Shots from 2/14/2008

Joe Tiller Doesn't Like Himself Any Rich Rodriguez : Not unless Joe Tiller likes guys in wizard hats selling snake oil. By wizard hats he meant leather jackets, and by snake oil he meant playing time at running back.

"If we had an early signing date, you wouldn't have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil get a guy at the last minute, but that's what happened."

Joe Tiller's crazy old man comments concern a WR, Roy Roundtree, who had been a Purdue verbal before pulling the hip thing to do this year and signing his letter of intent with Michigan. Roundtree joins two other recruits who had verballed to Florida and Penn State, respectively.

We know nothing about Rodriguez and his sales techniques. Let's just say that no other coach has drawn comparisons to wizards nor snake oil salesmen. We do know he's going to have to put out a PO to Nike for all new uniforms with 6'2" 180lbs Darryl Stonum being the "big guy" at WR. Roy Roundtree checks in at 6'0" 154lbs, Martavious Odoms at 5'8" 164lbs, and a couple ATHs under 6'0" 190lbs.

Penn State ('s Blogs) Really Wants Terrelle Pryor : As you know the superest recruit of all time, Terrelle Pryor, has 4 options on where to play his college ball (Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, and Oregon) and will most likely pick one of these 4, unless North Carolina makes a late surge (ha!). Ohio State was supposedly the leader, and that makes other schools on his list jealous. The folks at the Black Shoe Diaries think that ESPN said it best in November 2004 concerning a Cooper recruit:

The conventional wisdom for the past several months was that Pryor was Ohio State's to lose. If that is indeed the case, then I would suggest he read this.

That embedded link will take you to the story about Sammy "The Bull" Maldonado, who took remedial math and reading at Ohio State and wondered why he couldn't get it to transfer. Summary of the story is: "I was a prized recruit", "I carried 22 times for 50 yards in 2000", and "I was third on the depth chart behind Jonathan Wells and Lydell Ross" (Even I can't explain him being behind Ross).

His other statement that "I think Tressel wanted the guys he recruited" really sums up the 2002 National Championship season. What it boils down to is Maldonado expecting to get by on football the rest of his life and his remedial math and reading was fine, but when football didn't pan out at Ohio State he realized his classes weren't that hard.

Antonio Smith, cornerback of the 2006 Buckeye defense, would like to argue with actions and not words. After his final season, he won the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. 2008 recruit Keith Wells from Georgia says:

“They’ve got a top 20 engineering program, their football team is thriving, definitely excelling the last few years, and I definitely feel I have an opportunity to get in there and play early.”

Oh Keith, so you're going to major in Engineering? Good for you. You mean you can pick which classes you want to take? That doesn't sound anything like that ESPN article. But it does sound a lot like my time at Ohio State, and mechanical engineering was a load of work in itself. I'm sure we all remember Craig Krenzel and every announcers' obsession with saying "molecular genetics". College, for football players and laypeople, is what you make it.

SEC Sports Calls Jim Tressel a Dirty Recruiter : Did I say SEC Sports? I really meant CBS Sports, but what's the different? Gregg Doyel goes reaching with a special gem discussing Rich Rodriguez, Bobby Petrino, Urban Meyer...and you guessed it...Jim Tressel. Any story with the demand "Connect the dots" is obviously reaching but Doyel and his editors have no shame, dedicating a full page to "An Evening with Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel".

Ohio State's Jim Tressel blatantly skated up to the edge of ethical badness last week, acting with such audacity that even the newspaper that broke the news had no idea it was breaking anything at all. And still won't unless it reads this here story.

What I like about Internet articles is that they have no facts and would never be touched by print or television media. The newspaper didn't even know it was breaking news? Hmm, maybe it really isn't then. Facts are that Posey was the #3 recruit to verbal to Jim Tressel back on 3/13/07 (almost 1 year prior to the fundraiser) and that Ohio State has never secured a recruit for the football factory of Walsh University, which will be holding it's own "An Evening with Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel".

Some people are born Buckeyes, and I would be interested to hear was Devier and his mom think of this story.