The Cincinnati Bengals are hosting the Ohio State football spring scrimmage this year. Well, the Bengals stadium is anyway. I don’t know if disgraced former Captain of the Cincinnati Bengals cheerleaders (pictured above) Sarah Jones will be there. Probably not. But possibly.
The Ohio State football “game” will actually be an intras-quad scrimmage consisting of four quarters. Saturday, April 13 at 1 p.m. at Paul Brown Stadium. More than 26,000 tickets ($12 a pop) have been sold so far. There is no live broadcast. The Big Ten Network will televise the scrimmage on a tape delay basis at 7 p.m. Saturday evening, April 13. Eric Collins and Glen Mason on the call. Mason is usually funny and entertaining. So it might be worth enduring watching guys you’ve never heard do contact drills to listen to him.
To say that Ohio State football is a religion is to understate 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 practice drills where they play with themselves, it’s more of a big deal than the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team in the NCAA Tournament. 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 and 4th stringers, drew over 80,000 fans despite a $15 entry fee. The Buckeyes drew even more fans than any of the Bible Belt powerhouse programs in SEC country last year. Alabama, Georgia, Florida, LSU…nope, Ohio State football drew more.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, a Google News site generating millions of visitors. He’s an author who also contributes regularly 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)