OSU AD says they would rather play home playoff game indoors than at Ohio Stadium

Submitted by RogueRage on February 16th, 2022 at 3:34 PM

Thee Ohio Soft University: "Gene Smith said that if Ohio State is selected to host a College Football Playoff game in the future, he would recommend playing indoors in Indianapolis rather than playing in Ohio Stadium. Thinks it would be better for the team not to have to play in bad weather."

42-27 in the "blizzard" broke them

https://twitter.com/Dan_Hope/status/1493992439647899649?s=20&t=GdUbN5EboWgN72vizPUuqg

Buy Bushwood

February 16th, 2022 at 4:16 PM ^

OSU football resembles a video game more and more each day.  Why have weather?  

Weather would not have changed 42-27, despite their fantasies. Unless there is a multiverse version in which hitting human bodies is no longer a part of football, 42-27 would always have been the end result of that game. One team came to hit, the other came to collect the prize.  

UM85

February 16th, 2022 at 6:17 PM ^

Gene Smith joins the list of OSU AD's saying stupid things. This inanity puts him right there with HOF idiot OSU AD Gordon Gee who called a tie vs Michigan one of OSU's "greatest wins ever".  Gee doubled-down several years later when he was asked if he was going to fire the cheater Jim Tressel.  Gee responded, "No. Are you kidding?  Let me just be very clear. I'm just hopeful the coach doesn't dismiss me."

Congrats, Gene Smith, on your fine accomplishment in being mentioned with Gordon Gee. You do your alma mater proud.

NittanyFan

February 16th, 2022 at 8:02 PM ^

Yep!  As much as Gene Smith has made some strange comments over the years (I remember when Gene was the head of the NCAA Basketball Selection Committee, OMG) --- Gordon Gee is even 5 times more of a character. 

Gee has been President at 4 different schools and he's said some bizarre things at each of them (those schools include the likes of Brown & Vanderbilt, upper-crust academic schools!).

 

Grampy

February 17th, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^

Gene Smith isn’t just some clown show, he’s the vile and corrupt leader of a $100M+/year organization.  Look how he handled the Urban Meyer/Zack Smith fiasco in 2018, or Tatgate with Terrel Pryor, or OSU’s suppression of reporting criminal behavior on the part of student athletes.  He hired Meyer’s after his woeful leadership at Florida (other than winning championships).  Smith is a common thread in their checkered past and is yet to be held accountable.  Fuck him.

mfan_in_ohio

February 16th, 2022 at 8:23 PM ^

I was introduced to a 70s-era OSU football player about 10 years ago, in the midst of Dave Brandon’s implosion. I made a crack like “well, at least you have a better athletic director than we do,” and he said “yeah, I don’t think we do.” We spent about 5 minutes roasting our own ADs to each other. 
 

At the end of the day, we were basically arguing about dogshit vs. catshit.

Sllepy81

February 16th, 2022 at 3:41 PM ^

They remind me of the greatest show on turf. Put them outside in weather/grass and theyre just an average team that can lose to any average team. Hated those rams eventually for making it look easy but they were not the same team outside in elements. 

DogTown

February 16th, 2022 at 3:42 PM ^

If you want to be an SEC team so badly, just go already. Now they can't even play outdoors because there's weather? Sure sounds like an SEC team to me.

Soft.

NittanyFan

February 16th, 2022 at 3:42 PM ^

Gene Smith filling his quota of "saying at least one weird thing every 6 months."

Besides, Columbus has more days in December/January where it is "40 degrees with no snow on the ground" versus "20 degrees with snow on the ground."  Columbus doesn't have a Florida climate, but neither is it the frozen snow-swept tundra.

KC Wolve

February 16th, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^

This is def an old man post, but man college football sucks right now. This quote and everything else about the game right now is about money. That is all he is thinking about when he made this comment. Any AD that would take away a home game, a home playoff game!!!, is only thinking about how much more money he can make by doing so. It sucks and is only going to get worse when the new TV deal is made. Yep, schools will get more money, but we will get longer games, more stoppages, etc. 

oldmanyellingatclouds.gif

#getoffmylawn

TruBluMich

February 16th, 2022 at 4:07 PM ^

So, Gene Smith is inadvertently telling Green Bay, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Washington DC, Cincinnati, New England, Denver, Chicago and I'm sure there are a few more I'm forgetting, do not draft OSU players they are soft and can't play in the cold.

1VaBlue1

February 16th, 2022 at 4:14 PM ^

This is a really sad statement.  Moving to a non-home stadium (ie: moving from The Toilet Seat to Indianapolis) gives up 30K seats and all of the home field advantage.  I mean, you give up your home team routine for an away game.  You make your fans travel, and in the process open up FAR more seats to road fans because you can't easily swap tickets 1 for 1.  You give up any home field advantage that might be turf or weather related.  You give up all of that, and essentially even the playing field, to a really good team you have to play.  

In the process, you tell your players that the home they earned doesn't mean anything to you.

Fuck Ohio.

njvictor

February 16th, 2022 at 4:19 PM ^

I mean... I agree? If it's the Final Four of football, I'd much rather have the games played in close to perfect conditions as possible instead of a game potentially turning into a turnover and running the ball fest in the snow

bluebyyou

February 16th, 2022 at 5:36 PM ^

That egg could also have been us and may well be if JJ progresses to the level we think he might and we get clobbered with really crappy weather.  On a cold, windy day QB and WR play is easily compromised.  Smith is talking about a January playoff game where weather could be much worse than what we typically get in November.

I was at the most recent OSU game and while it was a bit snowy and a bit on the cold side for the last Saturday in November, conditions could have been a lot worse and in January, they likely would be.

 

Tex_Ind_Blue

February 16th, 2022 at 6:35 PM ^

When the CFP expands, southern teams will try to avoid coming up north at all cost. They might push the expanded rounds to January. But do they really want to compete with the NFL playoffs on TV? So the chances of a January game in Maddison or UND or Buffalo is probably very low. 

OTOH, my assumption is if that really happens, a playoff team laying an egg due to snow in their own house is much lower. Remember the probable opponent is coming from a much warmer climate, so the chances of them screwing up are higher. 

 

oriental andrew

February 16th, 2022 at 6:23 PM ^

Nah, this has to be a reference to playoff expansion. No way the NCAA gives up neutral sites for CFP Semis. It would be for an expanded probably 8 team playoff, where the first/quarterfinal round would be played at home venues. Except osu. They'll be anywhere other than c'bus if they make an expanded CFP.

For fun, this is how the 8 team playoffs would've shaken out this past season:

  1. Alabama hosts 8 Mississippi
  2. Michigan hosts 7 Baylor
  3. Georgia hosts 6 ohio state
  4. Cincinnati hosts 5 notre dame

1v8 is a rematch and boring

4v5 is a rematch and boring, although it would be cool if they played at Paul Brown Stadium, which is much bigger than Nippert. 

2v7 and 3v6 are the interesting ones.