If you paid $75 to watch Ohio State beat Miami on Saturday, did you feel like you got your money’s worth? And if that cost $75, what would you pay this week when the play Michigan State?
Some Monday morning hindsight, given what we learned during this past weekend’s action.
One, that Miami University has no business playing Ohio State, regardless of what the Ohio legislature says. For years our wise state government has demanded that Ohio State redistribute the college football wealth by playing other state-funded schools and Saturday was the most poignant example of why I wish the legislators were out taking that beating instead of Miami. I couldn’t help but wonder after the game whether the state reps from Butler County (Sara Carruthers and George Lang) would still think it a good idea.
It might be interesting to pick Jena Powell’s brain on this (she’s the rep from Miami County), because don’t matters of sound judgment usually follow in a linear pattern? I know this. If you listen to Miami coach Chuck Martin, post-game, he sounded and looked like a man who had just made the Bataan death march. “We had fifteen good minutes in the first quarter,” said Martin. “But after that the only thing good was getting to play a lot of young guys in the second half. It was tough for them, but it was good.”
“My focus is on getting better, and making sure we get the check before we roll out of town ($1.4 million),” Martin was quoted in the Toledo Blade. “There’s a reason they’re called guarantee games. If they weren’t going to pay us an exorbitant amount of money, we wouldn’t be scheduling the Buckeyes. It doesn’t make sense from a competitive standpoint. They don’t recruit the same kids we recruit. But from a financial standpoint, it makes sense.”
He didn’t mention that the game was called in the fourth quarter due to thunder and lightning. It could have been done at halftime.
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It’s also interesting to note that two emails came Sunday from PPM readers asking why we chose to put our coverage of the Dayton-Duquesne game on the front page instead of the Buckeye game?
Duh! The Dayton game was a very entertaining contest, and it was local, the Flyers losing in the final minutes of the game, 35-31. It was back and forth all day, the atmosphere was great, the crowd was navigable, and the best part is…you can go see a good college football game at Welcome Stadium for $12.
Other points that make UD football so enjoyable to cover: 1) For a 1 pm game I got there about 12:15. The game ended at 3:30, and I was in my car and on I-75 heading north by 4:30. Fifteen minutes after the game was over Flyers coach Rick Chamberlin popped out of the Dayton locker room and talked to reporters one-on-one, without the presidential restraint orders that come with covering FBS schools. Every question is addressed and everyone in the locker room is available. And by the way, Chamberlin is a DELIGHT to interview. Everything is on the table and there are no pre-prepared answers. It’s like a Billy Joel song: Honesty is mostly what I need from you….! May they all be like Rick Chamberlin. I don’t ever remember Urban Meyer taking the time to say to reporters, “Thank you for coming.” Chamberlin does.
I read online this morning that tickets for Saturday’s Ohio State game with Michigan State are running from $139 (south bleachers) to $210 (upper C deck). Check your 401K at the door if you want to take the kids.
And this past Friday night went a long way toward establishing the pecking order in area high school football.
For instance, if anyone was surprised that Milton Union is 4-0, they shouldn’t be after the Bulldogs thrashed Bob Smith’s Northridge Polar Bears. We called this three weeks ago…that Milton, in Bret Pearce’s return to the sidelines, would be for real. They’re averaging 40 points a game, about 400 yards per game, and suddenly they don’t look so vulnerable against teams like Middletown Madison (2-2) this week, Waynesville (3-1) in two weeks, and Valley View (4-0) on October 18.
We know this now, after Loramie NARROWLY beat Covington, 19-14, for what’s surely the Cross County Conference crown (too bad this did come in Week 9 or 10). Covington will run the table against the rest of the CCC, finish 8-2, make the playoffs, and WILL NOT be an easy out come Week 11. They drove the ball to the Loramie one yard line and that’s where the game ended, for Loramie’s sake. I said in the Friday ‘Picks’ that Coldwater-Minster would be last week’s best area game? I was wrong. By far, it was Covington and Loramie.
We also saw the shakeout that took place in the MAC, as Coldwater predictably won on the road at Minster (38-2o)…as Anna showed again that it’s going to take more than St. Henry, Fenwick, and Brookville to test them. And Marion Local took another step towards being Marion Local with a tidy 24-0 win over Delphos St. John. Two games of note on this week’s schedule – Fort Recovery (1-3) puts its playoff hopes on the line at unbeaten Coldwater, and the league’s other two unbeatens, Marion and Anna, clash at Anna. Tickets are $7, and you don’t have to sit in the upper reaches of C Deck.
Finally, I didn’t watch the NFL on Sunday, but I really didn’t have to. You pretty much knew what the Bengals would do in the fourth quarter against Buffalo after they drove the length of the field and couldn’t score a touchdown with four minutes left. They, of course, kicked the field goal, and the Bills went down to score a touchdown – 21-17. The Bengals are 0-3.
Someone in the Ohio legislature should be working to set up a game with Miami or Youngstown State. Redistribute the wealth! Mike Brown could use the money.
