Photo says it all…Kent State had this much chance in Saturday’s loss to Ohio State, and it didn’t matter. They went home with $1.9 million. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Many Kool-Aiders were euphoric – relieved – over Ohio State’s recovery win against Kent State. Others saw it for what it was…a game with no pressure against a team that can’t defend itself against Akron, much less weaker Big Ten teams.
Columbus, OH – If you are a member of the contemporary sports culture…Saturday was your kind of Ohio State football game.
One, there was absolutely no chance that Ohio State would even be threatened, much less lose. And that delights people like my wife. She watches Buckeye football to avoid stress, not the competitive excitement that comes with it.
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Two, there were no losers in Saturday’s game, despite Ohio State winning on the scoreboard by a margin of 56 points…59-3.
Translation: Kent State boarded the buss with a fat $1.9 million dollar payout for getting their brains handed to them. That’s the deal when Ohio State plays the other, smaller state schools in football – Bowling Green, Kent, Toledo, Youngstown – for the sake of spreading the wealth among other, less-solvent state school athletic budgets. And while no one admits it, it almost has a legislative feel about it – a feel-good mandate.
And Ohio State is not alone.
According to the Akron Beacon-Journal, Kent State will get paid paid $1.3 million for their opening 57-0 loss at South Carolina.
And the Golden Flashes will get another $1.2 million in October when they go to south to play South Forida.
So that’s $4.3 million lose three football games, and they’ll barely score in any of them. Good money if you can get it, but by no means is it reason to feel good Saturday about winning 59-3.
“I’m not worried about the Buckeyes winning today,” said a woman with her three small children snapping pictures in the south end zone during pre-game warmups. She scored a Ryan Day pic, and one with a sideline reporter who was more excited for the moment than the kids. “Who’s she?” one asked.
“I just love this atmosphere,” Mom gushed. “Go Bucks.”
OSU’s Ja’Kobi Jackson powers over the goal line in Saturday’s 59-3 win over out-manned Kent State.
“Just seeing the band perform is worth the price,” one fan added. “We live for this.”
As many do. But you can buy a band CD with all their biggest hits for $20, and watch Script Ohio on YouTube all day long without the stress of losing to Texas, or Alabama, who they play next year!
But the financial reality of Ohio State football must be noted, along with the marketing of opponents even as predictable as Ball State and Kent. Saturdays at the Horseshoe are worth in the neighborhood of $10 million dollars to the athletic budget, and that’s just tickets, concessions, and gear sold to remember the occasion…in case you can’t afford to come back in the future.
That figure doesn’t include broadcast rights and a myriad of other dollar drops, including the $17 million from JP Morgan Chase to put the bank’s logo on Buckeye uniforms. So there’s really no incentive to play better football teams when you have such a captive market, and everybody in FBS football does it. It all pays the same, win or lose, through a system known as dynamic pricing – supply and demand. It costs more to watch them play good teams than bad (marginally), and it doesn’t seem to matter.
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But others saw it in other terms on Saturday, as they saw it during the second half of the Texas game.
“No way they should have lost that game,” said a fan in the first row of A deck.
“That’s the football we saw in those four losses to Michigan,” another added.
“Arthur Smith, my a–,” added a more vocal, well-hydrated respondent. “All that talk about NFL offense. How hard they’d be to defend. Where was it?”
“You have to play good teams to beat good teams,” someone else chimed in, offering a Miller Lite along with his opinion. “They get nothing out of playing Kent State.”
Ah, but Kent State does, and that delights those who come to games to feel good about the atmosphere and everyone going home with a trophy. In Kent’s case the trophy goes to 7 17 Credit Union, the banking partner of the Golden Flashes.
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And next Saturday the stakes go up, if only a little bit. The Buckeyes host Illinois, and coach Bret Bielema, who beat the University of Southern Illinois Salukis yesterday, 48-10 – another money drop in the Land of Lincoln. The Illini are 2-1, have a history of playing Ohio State tough when they least expect it, but have not beaten the Buckeyes since 2007, when they stole one in Columbus, 28-21.
And prior to last year’s Ohio State win in Champaign (34-16), the two schools had not played in eight years. For the record, Bielema’s coaching record against Ohio State is just 1-6, his only win coming when he was at Wisconsin, in 2010.
This will be more physical, and it has to be a bigger challenge as Illinois returns a solid core of players who finished 9-4 last year and beat Tennessee in the Music City Bowl Game, 30-28.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with players,” said a security man working the sideline. “Who has anyone better than Jeremiah Smith? They just have to play to win…put the pedal down. At Texas they played not to lose.”
Sadly, that’s part of the reason they play teams like Kent State. No one loses!
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