Probably won’t see much of @AustinWard @Bill Landis or myself on the boards here until Monday as an FYI.

Austin and I will be driving to Atlanta on Sunday and we’re all going to do our best to be attentive husbands, dads, stepdads and father to be this weekend.

I Sincerely hope that everyone has a safe and joyous Christmas with as many family and friends around as you can stand. We appreciate so, so much the community here and don’t take for granted that choose to be here when there are so many great options for coverage in the Ohio State market.

its the best lot to tailgate and closest to the stadium. If interested, text me at 404-275-1756

Birminology: Ohio State signee Lincoln Kienholz on decision, potential change in enrollment plans
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These communities keep showing up, their elected officials keep declaring an emergency for the federal aid.

Their generosity and kindness is what you vote for instead of these grotesque, human trafficking conservatives which are doing this on Christmas specifically to provoke outrage and cause chaos.


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Has offers from Boston College and most of the MAC reported.

Merry Christmas you filthy animals! @Birm, @AustinWard safe travels to Ga. @Bill Landis enjoy the last of the quiet moments, and the last Christmas where you matter to the families(kidding). Next year will be a whole new experience, and one I wouldn’t trade for the world, as mine traverse to the more grown up side of the holiday.

I feel this topic is not getting enough attention given all the frustration surrounding NIL. Regardless of anyone's opinions about the rightness/wrongness of amateurism and professionalism in college sports, I feel professionalization is inevitable given the unsustainable path the sport is on.

The transition from NIL to employment is going to happen just as fast as the shift to NIL happened, and imo it is not going to have anything at all to do with the NCAA. No one expected NIL to happen so quickly, it was going to be gradual and via the NCAA. Then, seemingly randomly, a few years ago California's state legislature put forth a bill that would allow athletes to earn NIL money, and the rest is history. Everyone else caught up, and that is the moment the NCAA lost all their power.

The NLRB is investigating USC with the potential of classifying their football players as employees. I do not understand why everyone is not talking about this. Just like with NIL, if USC football players are classified as employees, it is going to take about five minutes for the rest of college football to frantically pursue law changes to make it work and maintain competitiveness. Voila, NIL is solved. The schools pay the players, and companies/individuals get to endorse CFB players as they do for every other sport.

As SCOTUS arguments against the NCAA last year demonstrated, outside of college sports, people think this system is utterly insane. Imo, a fresh pair of eyes looking at the situation would say to the NCAA "They look like employees, they smell like employees, what the heck is wrong with all of you?"

Ohio State, Alabama, and Texas make the most money, and it is a virtual tie (All spend ~$170 million per year, yet they need all of us to donate to collectives lol, and I understand why, but the whole system is nonsensical), so there are your three future recruiting juggernauts. Add in the B1G and SEC media deals, and it is going to look a lot like minor league football, with other conferences falling far behind and getting incorporated into the P2.

While NIL is the most pressing matter right now, this is not the end game, we are in the middle of a transition, and everyone in positions of power in college sports will be caught off guard by how quickly non-sports institutions (probably legal/government institutions) shift the sport because school, conference, and NCAA bureaucrats sat on their hands for decades while the situation became untenable.

Everyone familiar with SCLA from LR/11W knows he chooses his words very carefully. And these are the words he chose to describe the main guy spearheading our NIL efforts.

“Brian Schottenstein causes Gene Smith to cringe as reliably as he does anyone involved with high-level college athletics. There is not a more discordant NIL union in the P5 than Brian Schottenstein and Ohio State. It is functionally impossible to have a more esteemed program aligned with a less respected individual. I work with client brands who simply refuse to do business with Brian Schottenstein. They do not trust him, and they do not want to be affiliated with him in any form or fashion. There is no half-measured, polite, coy way to otherwise articulate this: He is a known loser. There is no benefit to any association with him, and he does Ohio State an enormous disservice by continuing to place his insecurities and ego over the strategic priorities of the program”

I doubt this is particularly surprising to most people, but blunt nonetheless. Clearly we are going to have to adapt moving forward and I’m curious how that is going to look. Is this a situation where the university and staff truly dislike Brian that much but feel they have no choice but to work with him??

I know we also have The Cohesion Foundation who seem to have a better reputation but couldn’t be more invisible if they tried. They have 350 followers on Twitter and certainly don’t seem to have any interest in letting people know they exist. If I donate any more money it will likely be going to them. I just wish they would be a little more vocal and maybe drown out The Foundation’s embarrassing twitter meltdowns.

I imagine for us to be competitive it will have to involve more big time boosters coming to the table and not just crowdsourcing donations. I think we are all hoping this will be “figured out” by the next cycle so we don’t have a repeat of this year.

Woke up this morning and read through the signing day thread. People, the world is not ending, yes, we lost to Michigan for the second year, and yes, we lost a few recruits this year. I, for one, am happy we have Day as HC; sure, there are some things I would like to see change with his play calling. Let's get a grip here folks!

Appreciate all the hard work Austin, Birm, and Bill.

I thought it would be interesting to hear the person in this class people on this board are most excited about (this was inspired by a post in a previous thread, not an original idea)

For me, it’s Kayden McDonald. Everything I hear / read about him is how impactful he is. He sounds like a wrecking ball - and we’ve all seen how “disruptive Mike Hall” changed the equation for the defense. Really excited to see how he impacts the team over the next three to four years.

I have a couple of extra parking passes in the Home Depot Backyard Lot (steps from the stadium) for the peach bowl.

Asking $270 apiece OBO.

If interested, text 404-725-3426

Been told that Bonsu has signed with Ohio State.

Don't know if there will be an official tweet from the Buckeyes tonight, wouldn't expect there to be but it seems the situation has been resolved. Was told by one source that Ohio State "hadn't changed their stance" but also heard from other side that things were getting closer, which is why I posted about an hour and a half ago that I felt it could be trending in Buckeyes direction.

Whatever it is, the "crisis" appears to have been averted.

I'm going to bed. Good grief.

One of my favorite stories to write every year.

I'm just wondering if either of you guys @Birm @AEllis have any insight of what the Qb big board looks like rn. Is Dylan still the #1 Target. Are we going to try to flip Colin Hurley? Or is it someone else?