To say that Ohio State football is a religion is to undermine both college football and organized religion. Most churches envy both the size and devotion of the Ohio State football flock. In the Buckeye state Ohio State football is bigger than Jesus, Allah, Buddah, Moses, Pope Francis, Vishnu, Martin Luther, Joseph Smith, Zoroaster and L. Ron Hubbard COMBINED.
And even spring college football is a big deal in Columbus. Although, it’s nothing but scrimmages with themselves, it’s more a big deal than the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team in the NCAA Tournament. Even though Buckeyes hoops reached the Final Four last season, THE Ohio State University DOMINATES the Big Ten conference tournament, and OSU reached the Elite 8 last night, bucknuts are still more interested in Ohio State football in the spring.
Even the polarizing figure of Aaron Craft isn’t enough to move the needle when it comes to hoops. Yesterday’s football scrimmage was attended by Big Ten Network, Eddie George and Notre Dame Public Relations Manager Lou Holtz. Uhm, wasn’t there a basketball game or something on yesterday?
The approximate two-hour session featured an abundance of third-down passing plays. Afterward Ohio State football players quarterbacks Braxton Miller and Kenny Guiton, along with All-American cornerback Bradley Roby and junior cornerback Doran Grant, met with the media.
Braxton Miller on his play this spring: “My consistency is better. I’m better at knowing where my guys are going to be on the field, and I’m not second-guessing myself as much.”
Roby on staying at Ohio State: “It was most important for me to stay at Ohio State. The NFL isn’t going anywhere and I’m not in a rush. It was a tough decision [not to enter the NFL Draft] and it took a while to decide, but I made the right one.”
Remember, last spring 3,100 people showed up to watch Ohio State football DRILLS. To quote Allen Iverson, “PRACTICE. We’re talking about practice”
And the Ohio State football spring “game,” featuring mostly 3rd-stringers, drew over 80,000 despite a $15 entry fee. The Buckeyes drew even more fans than any of the Bible Belt powerhouse programs in SEC country last year.
It’s annoying because even though Ohio State is a really, really good basketball program, with a very rich hardwood history, their fans just don’t care enough. At least not online. OSU fans don’t search for their college basketball team and don’t read about them on the internet. They seem to be much more concerned with spring football I guess. Now that gets the page views! I find it annoying that OSU fans don’t “deserve” the hoops team they have.
Although it’s still nowhere near as bad as the annoyance of football-school-with-solid-hoops-program-but-basketball apathy that is Notre Dame.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an author and regular contributor to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, Walter Football.com and Yardbarker. Banks has appeared on Comcast SportsNet and the History Channel, as well as Clear Channel, ESPN and CBS radio all over the world. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@PaulMBanks)