Suburban Dad Pop

“Well let me tell you something – or you can watch the fucking news. Everything comes to an end”.

-Carmella Soprano, The Sopranos, S4 E1

The Sopranos is a template for life lessons and although the show went dark almost 18 years ago, it remains prescient, knowledgeable, and relevant. During the season 4 premiere, an exasperated and worried Carmella, when faced with the prospect of losing the lavish lifestyle she has grown accustomed to, throws in husband Tony’s face the fact that “Everything comes to an end”.

This small bit of dialogue is perhaps one of the more truthful and succinct parables in the history of television.

So, what does this statement have to do with my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes winning a National Championship in the inaugural season of the expanded College Football Playoffs? For starters, and most importantly, the old model of business has changed and Ohio State no longer is required to beat their archrival, the University of Michigan, to win a National Championship. In every previous year since Ohio State joined the Big 10 Conference this thought was unfathomable, but the new playoff model decreases the importance of our rivalry, as well as every other rivalry in sport.

I know this sounds like blasphemy, and I am sure many of you reading this want to respond with another famous Sopranos quote: “You want a smack in the mouth?”

But, for better or worse, it’s the truth and losing to an archrival and subsequently winning the National Championship can happen in the same season (University of Alabama in 2017), it just hadn’t happened outside of the SEC conference until earlier this week.

I am not taking The Game or the rivalry lightly. I am an OSU alum, was adjunct faculty for three academic years, and was a student during the late 90s/peak John Cooper years. The memories of having incredible seasons ruined by the Wolverines caused my football PTSD (Pre-Tressel Stress Disorder) and no group of alumni despise UM more than my fellow mid-to-late Gen Xers. However, now any college program can win the ultimate prize – the National Championship without beating their rival.

I am not saying that is a good or a bad thing, I am just telling you the way it is.

Everything comes to an end.

The old ways also coming to an end include players having less agency, pertaining to their compensation and career trajectories, than formerly allowed by their coaches and Athletic Directors. This is particularly pertinent to Name Image & Likeness (NIL), the ability of players to be appropriately compensated for the services they provide, and the Transfer Portal, which allows players to changed Universities teams without penalty. Maybe this isn’t the way things were done when Woody Hayes was coach, but if you think Cooper, Jim Tressel, and Urban Meyer didn’t skirt rules and push boundaries to compensate players for their time and efforts, as well to ensure players loyalties, then I have a stadium naming rights deal to sell you.

And now, outside of Urban potentially sheltering a domestic abuser, University Athletic Program’s old rules and boundaries are extinct and compensating players can be done in the open.

Everything comes to an end.

In this brand-new Day (pun intended) of College Football, Ohio State coach Ryan Day should be lauded, for navigating NIL and Portal waters all against the backdrop of Covid, during his first year of coaching. His 70-10 record includes a National Championship, two conference championships, two Rose Bowl Championships and a winning record against Top 5 teams (6-5). Yes, he has a losing record against his archrival and it is a record that has to get better because the rivalry still means A LOT (remember your drunk uncle’s rant at Thanksgiving dinner) but he has succeeded in winning a National Championship which is, whether you like it or not, the ultimate prize.

And that ultimate prize fuels the coffers of NIL moneys, which in turn keeps the most talented recruits and transfers coming to Ohio State, which in turn puts said players in the NFL. This cycle, that Ryan Day has perfected, repeats itself because of its success.

Players no longer come to Columbus to beat Michigan. They come here to make their lives and the lives of their loved ones better.

Don’t hate on me, I am just telling you, in case you missed the memo, that in the last five years, College Football has changed. And if you did miss the memo, go to your desktop computer, print the memo, read it, and store it next to your MapQuest driving directions and/or boarding pass for your next vacation to the Carolinas.

Everything comes to an end.

Perhaps the best thing that has come to the end, during this glorious National Championship run, is the criticism that Ryan Day can’t win a big game. Going 6-1 (University of Oregon twice) this season in games against fellow opponents in the College Football Playoff, with a PLUS 100-point differential, should put those accusations to bed. They key word being SHOULD; there are A LOT of drunk uncles in Buckeye Nation.

So, thank you to Coach Day for leading the charge into this new College Football landscape. Thank you for silencing the crowd who wanted Urban back and thank you for having a higher overall winning percentage (87.5/81.0) than Tressel, with as many National Title wins against less National Title losses. Thank you for advocating for mental health awareness and thank you for representing our state and our University with dignity, integrity, and grace – qualities which your harshest critics, and your predecessor, seem to lack.

SILVER BULLET PORTAL

• The last time Notre Dame beat Ohio State was in 1936. Lou Holtz was born in 1937. Ergo, Lou Holtz has never seen Notre Dame beat Ohio State.

• Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard is one tough customer and played a heck of a game.

• I suppose that I support ex-Buckeye player Marcus Freeman and his success at Notre Dame, but it is important to remember that Satan also started out as an Angel.

• Ohio State is 7-0 against Notre Dame since 1995 – which was the first year they had faced each other since 1936. Also since 1995, Ohio State is 18-11 against UM, and 23-7 against Penn State. That is a 48-18 clip against the other Midwestern Blue Bloods and with more National Championships than the other teams combined. There can be no doubt that Ohio State is the premier football program in the Midwest.