• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

2026 College Football Playoff Discussion

"Okay - the season is over. Let's get behind a closed door and figure out which 4 teams we want to send to the playoff." That doesn't seem awesome.

I mean - that's kind of what we have now, isn't it?
I just would prefer Greg Sankey and Co. making the determination over Ward Manuel, the retired ND AD, some jerk-off from the Big 12 and Cal's women's tennis coach.

I believe it returns a bit of the regionality to the decision making. More specifically, conferences get to dictate how valuable OOC matchups are and reward teams accordingly.
Upvote 0

LGHL Ava Watson earns Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor

Ava Watson earns Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor
ThomasCostello
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The first year Buckeye shot perfectly from deep against Minnesota to earn the first award of her NCAA career

Soon after Ohio State women’s basketball picked up a Monday afternoon overtime win over the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Big Ten announced their weekly awards, honoring a top player and top freshman of the week. For the first time, Buckeye guard Ava Watson won Freshman of the Week, the second freshman this season to earn the honor for the Scarlet and Gray.

Watson entered Thursday’s game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on a cold streak, scoring six points in the previous eight games. The guard out of Georgia shot 2-of-13 from beyond the arc in that stretch.

Against the Golden Gophers though, Watson showed her potential as a member of Ohio State and came up big to help the Buckeyes beat Minnesota. When the freshman joined the game, the Golden Gophers were on a five-point run and the Buckeyes needed a spark of offense.

“She made shots and she gave us a huge boost in the first quarter,” said head coach Kevin McGuff. “We haven’t been shooting it very well.”

The freshman shooting guard delivered and after missing her first shot, Watson scored the next 11 points for the Buckeyes. Watson scored five points in the second half on another deep three and two free throws, scoring 16 points and eclipsing her previous single game Big Ten scoring high of 15 points against the Northwestern Wildcats back on Jan. 5.

In the victory, Watson went 4-of-4 from beyond the arc, her second best deep shooting day of the season after hitting six against the Bowling Green Falcons. However, the four three-point shots made is a conference high for the freshman guard.

However, it wasn’t all good for the freshman and early in the fourth quarter, Watson sprained her ankle. The injury took the guard out of the game, a matchup where the Buckeyes gave up a 14-point lead with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Watson watched from the bench as fellow freshman Elsa Lemmilä and junior forward Cotie McMahon led Ohio State to an overtime victory. In addition, Watson missed Monday’s game against the Iowa Hawkeyes, wearing a boot on her foot.

It’s unclear if Watson will suit up Thursday when the Buckeyes head to Bloomington, Indiana to face the Indiana Hoosiers in the always loud Assembly Hall.

“She’s rehabbing and it’s, it’s not like a long, long term issue,” said McGuff. “I do not know about Thursday yet, but hopefully we can get her back sooner rather than later.”

While it’s the first Freshman of the Week award for Watson, it’s not the first Freshman of the Week honor for a Buckeye this season. Watson’s former AAU teammate Jaloni Cambridge won the award twice, in consecutive weeks in January.

This is the first time since the 2019-20 season that two Buckeyes earned the honor in the same season, with guards Jacy Sheldon, Madison Greene and one-year Buckeye Kierstan Bell winning a combined five Freshman of the Week awards.

McMahon owns the most Freshman of the Week awards in program history, earning the honor six times during the 22-23 season, on her way to the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award.

Continue reading...

2026 College Football Playoff Discussion

My $.02 - let the leagues with Autobids submit their participants. I don't want them allocated by committees.

Committee is certainly welcome to coordinate rankings in the postseason tournament - it's their competition and as such, their prerogative.
But if you're telling me SEC it gets four in, I think we should submit the four.

From what I have read so far, the 2026 and beyond CFP is whatever the SEC and B1G want it to be so I don't anticipate any issues on things like this but it's a good point.
Upvote 0

2026 College Football Playoff Discussion

I think the only way I'd get behind letting the conferences choose their teams is if there's a set of rules that they have to follow to get those teams in. For instance, the champion is automatically in, plus the team that lost in the championship game. Plus next 2 highest ranked teams. Something like that. But it sounds like you might be in favor of saying, "Okay - the season is over. Let's get behind a closed door and figure out which 4 teams we want to send to the playoff." That doesn't seem awesome.
If they just pick the top 4 teams however the conference has in their "bylaws", that's fine with me. The problem, though, is it makes all out-of-conference games meaningless. And they already are kinda meaningless. But I think teams should have some incentive to play the tough game or two out-of-conference.
Sounds like a recipe to get a 5 loss Bama team into the playoffs. (j/k, or am I?)
Upvote 0

CB Aaron Scott (National Champion)

"We Feed Off Each Other": Aaron Scott and Bryce West Still Relishing Playing Alongside Each Other As Both Prepare for Crucial Year Two​

By Garrick Hodge on February 18, 2025 at 11:35 am @garrick_hodge
Bryce West

Email this ArticleShare on RedditShare on TwitterShare on Facebook
6 Comments
Cornerbacks Bryce West and Aaron Scott Jr. made no secret about their desire to play alongside each other at the collegiate level.
Throughout their recruiting process, both of them continuously publicly praised the other. The pair became close friends as both ascended to top-ranked recruits in the state of Ohio for the 2024 recruiting class. Both committed to Ohio State in the same summer, though Scott’s commitment had a little more flair attached considering he used a smoke machine to trick Michigan fans.
Aaron Scott had one of the more entertaining Ohio State commitment announcements I can remember, complete with smoke effects and faking out the room he was going to Michigan. pic.twitter.com/Xdg4jRKRnd
— Garrick Hodge (@Garrick_Hodge) July 30, 2023
Year One for both players has come and gone, though the excitement of playing with the other hasn’t waned.
“It’s always good because in practice, he’s on the opposite side of me, so every time we make a play, we huddle up together and celebrate the other’s success,” West told Eleven Warriors before the Rose Bowl. “We watch film together. We do everything together. That’s my guy. It’s good to compete with him, we don’t let the other slack and help each other out when we make a mistake, it’s no issue for us.”
Scott and West are sometimes practically attached to the hip together at practice, with each reminding the other of the goals they set for themselves.
“We just tell each other we have to keep going,” Scott said. “We both know we’re trying to be the two players from Ohio and keep standing on everything we were saying we were going to do. We feed off each other, we’re both trying to compete but we both know we’re in it together.”
West and Scott spent their freshman seasons primarily in reserve roles for the Buckeyes at cornerback, but both occasionally saw the field when Ohio State built large leads over opponents. Scott played in seven games and recorded two tackles and one pass breakup, while West appeared in seven contests for OSU, making one tackle and one pass breakup.
“I’ve improved a lot on my off-man coverage,” Scott said of the biggest takeaway for him in Year One. “I feel like I got more patient. I didn’t play a lot of off-man in high school, but I’m doing that now, so that’s the main thing I feel like I needed to work on.
West also played in seven contests, including on special teams. The highlight of his first year came in Ohio State’s College Football Playoff victory against Tennessee as he made a pass breakup late in the contest, something he said he wasn’t expecting to get a chance to do considering his role on the team and the stakes surrounding the game.

Upvote 0

CB Bryce West (National Champion)

"We Feed Off Each Other": Aaron Scott and Bryce West Still Relishing Playing Alongside Each Other As Both Prepare for Crucial Year Two​

By Garrick Hodge on February 18, 2025 at 11:35 am @garrick_hodge
Bryce West

Email this ArticleShare on RedditShare on TwitterShare on Facebook
6 Comments
Cornerbacks Bryce West and Aaron Scott Jr. made no secret about their desire to play alongside each other at the collegiate level.
Throughout their recruiting process, both of them continuously publicly praised the other. The pair became close friends as both ascended to top-ranked recruits in the state of Ohio for the 2024 recruiting class. Both committed to Ohio State in the same summer, though Scott’s commitment had a little more flair attached considering he used a smoke machine to trick Michigan fans.
Aaron Scott had one of the more entertaining Ohio State commitment announcements I can remember, complete with smoke effects and faking out the room he was going to Michigan. pic.twitter.com/Xdg4jRKRnd
— Garrick Hodge (@Garrick_Hodge) July 30, 2023
Year One for both players has come and gone, though the excitement of playing with the other hasn’t waned.
“It’s always good because in practice, he’s on the opposite side of me, so every time we make a play, we huddle up together and celebrate the other’s success,” West told Eleven Warriors before the Rose Bowl. “We watch film together. We do everything together. That’s my guy. It’s good to compete with him, we don’t let the other slack and help each other out when we make a mistake, it’s no issue for us.”
Scott and West are sometimes practically attached to the hip together at practice, with each reminding the other of the goals they set for themselves.
“We just tell each other we have to keep going,” Scott said. “We both know we’re trying to be the two players from Ohio and keep standing on everything we were saying we were going to do. We feed off each other, we’re both trying to compete but we both know we’re in it together.”
West and Scott spent their freshman seasons primarily in reserve roles for the Buckeyes at cornerback, but both occasionally saw the field when Ohio State built large leads over opponents. Scott played in seven games and recorded two tackles and one pass breakup, while West appeared in seven contests for OSU, making one tackle and one pass breakup.
“I’ve improved a lot on my off-man coverage,” Scott said of the biggest takeaway for him in Year One. “I feel like I got more patient. I didn’t play a lot of off-man in high school, but I’m doing that now, so that’s the main thing I feel like I needed to work on.
West also played in seven contests, including on special teams. The highlight of his first year came in Ohio State’s College Football Playoff victory against Tennessee as he made a pass breakup late in the contest, something he said he wasn’t expecting to get a chance to do considering his role on the team and the stakes surrounding the game.

Upvote 0

2026 College Football Playoff Discussion

My $.02 - let the leagues with Autobids submit their participants. I don't want them allocated by committees.

Committee is certainly welcome to coordinate rankings in the postseason tournament - it's their competition and as such, their prerogative.
But if you're telling me SEC it gets four in, I think we should submit the four.
I foresee the conferences just going top 4 teams with whatever tiebreakers they have for conference teams. So not sure it matters.

They aren't going to have Georgia or bama as the 5th team and snub Vanderbilt or whatever
I think the only way I'd get behind letting the conferences choose their teams is if there's a set of rules that they have to follow to get those teams in. For instance, the champion is automatically in, plus the team that lost in the championship game. Plus next 2 highest ranked teams. Something like that. But it sounds like you might be in favor of saying, "Okay - the season is over. Let's get behind a closed door and figure out which 4 teams we want to send to the playoff." That doesn't seem awesome.
If they just pick the top 4 teams however the conference has in their "bylaws", that's fine with me. The problem, though, is it makes all out-of-conference games meaningless. And they already are kinda meaningless. But I think teams should have some incentive to play the tough game or two out-of-conference.
Upvote 0

More impressive tOSU true freshman performance leading to a national title?

Kinda how I see it, we never saw this year's O without JS but there were enough playmakers where I think they still could've put points up.

Lose Clarett for a few games and the 02 offense looked damn near incompetent.
We beat Texas with Smith only getting one touch. A lot of the other receivers production did come from Texas paying too much attention to Smith. How would that game been different if Smith wasn't in the game? We will never know.
Upvote 0

Filter

Back
Top