Buckeye football is back, baby!
I apologize for anyone hoping this will be anything but a sports conversation. From the time this workweek started, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ohio State’s first game of the season! Football season just hasn’t been the same without the Bucks. So much so that I haven’t watched one minute of College Gameday. All of that changes this weekend! I’ve already canceled our last fall baseball practice on Saturday, and the Bloody Mary mix is sitting out on the counter. My kids both have their Justin Fields jerseys sitting out, and all of my OSU Homage gear is clean.
Let’s not ignore the elephant in the room. How many years have all of you naysayers across the country whined about Ohio State’s schedule being too easy? Well, COVID-friendly college football has proven it can actually get easier. A whopping two games against actual college football teams…humor me really quickly:
- October 24th: Home vs. Lincoln Central High School
- October 31st: At Penn State University, legit always a great atmosphere
- November 7th: Home against a team that has never been competitive in the conference
- November 14th: At a stadium that hasn’t had anything to cheer about since their soccer team raised enough money to play on their own field
- November 21st: Home against a team that Pick Central (my alma mater) could potentially beat
- November 28th: At poor Illinois, a club Rugby team, at best
- December 5th: At post-Dantonio era Sparty, who doesn’t know if they’ll have enough eligible players to fill both sides of the ball
- December 12th: Home against TTUN…fine, at least they’re ranked as of the writing of this blog
Please, no one call me out and tell me it can get easier than that. Particularly, you SEC folks; I’ve admitted it, and you all should be happy. And Tennessee fans (because I know a couple of you are reading), please don’t even get me started. Only Tennessee is capable of making Kentucky look like a varsity football team.
Ok, rant over. However, there have been a number of recent professional sports leagues that have ended or are currently ending. The Lighting, can you believe it? Here’s a stat I need someone to confirm for me – every team that has knocked the Blue Jackets out of the playoffs has played in the Stanley Cup Finals that same year. And I think four of them have won it?
Lakers, fine whatever. There was far more entertaining news coming out of the NBA bubble than whoever the Lakers beat to win it this year. But I give it to Lebron, he’s inching closer and closer to becoming the 3rd best NBA player of all time. Yeah, I said it.
Baseball! Obviously, I’m biased, but two Game 7s in the Championship Series, are you kidding me? The Rays’ pitching, those sweet left-handed swings in the Dodgers’ lineup, this week will be great for the diehard baseball fan.
Ahhhh, doesn’t that feel good? Doesn’t that feel normal? It’s been so long to think about that many sports at one time. And the NFL season has been absolutely perfect in this imperfect world.
Let’s get this show on the road. College football season officially starts Saturday. Eight weeks and the Big Ten Championship Game will be here before we know it. And come January, we’ll revisit this discussion when Ohio State once again gives the conference their only fighting chance at securing a spot in the national semifinal. Until then, Go Bucks!
