http://www.fanblogs.com/charity/007546.php

Although January 8th, 2007 will remain as "the day that goes without mention" for the remainder of our lives for many of us, we finally have the chance to exact our revenge on the Gators. Help those in need while helping show why Ohio State has the best damn fans in the land.

The particulars:

1) Make a donation online to the American Red Cross, CARE, or the International Rescue Committee.

2) Email the donation confirmation to kevin@fanblogs.com and state your team affiliation by 8pm EDT on Wednesday, May 14th.

3) Results will be displayed at Every Day Should Be Saturday and Fanblogs throughout the week, with the final results shown by Thursday, May 15th.

4) The winning school will have its colors displayed at EDSBS and logo/mascot shown on every page at Fanblogs.

For those of you who aren't regular readers of the site, Orson is a Florida alumnist and devotee. Let's turn EDSBS Scarlet & Gray. Florida is winning so far with a staggering $250, so let's get on it Bucks!

[Note by Sean, 05/12/08 3:30 PM EDT ]Couldn't have said it better myself.
-Sean

Saw this story a few weeks back: Koufos

So any word on whether he actually signed with an agent yet? Is he gone? Did he withdraw from classes like the article states? Is he headed to Greece no matter what? And did Matta get that JC transfer to take his place?

Sean, pfef, you both have much better sources than I do so hopefully you have more info on this. And 5 more words makes 75 ....

Hey Around the Oval,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you're logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Around the Oval from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
7. Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Around the Oval and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Around the Oval now has all the basic information about the Ohio St. Buckeyes and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Ohio St. Buckeyes material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

-------

There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Promoted from the diaries section, because I wanted to mention this. Second in career receptions, second in career receiving touchdowns, sixth in career receiving yards. How is Cris Carter not a first-ballot hall of famer? -Sean Cris Carter was not voted into the NFL's Hall of Fame in Canton this year in his first year of eligibility. Also not getting the call was former Buckeye Randy Gradishar who was also named a finalist. Gradishar played ten seasons with the Denver Broncos.

Going in will be Washington cornerback  Darrell Green, Washington/New York Jets/Philadelphia wide receiver Art Monk, New England linebacker Andre Tippett, San Diego/San Francisco defensive end Fred Dean, Minnesota/Denver tackle Gary Zimmerman and senior committee choice, Kansas City cornerback Emmitt Thomas.

 8-team playoff

Ideally, we would rank the top 8 teams and have them play it out.  Inevitably, certain conferences (and Notre Dame) might be left out in certain years under that system, and unfortunately, that is unpalatable to conference commissioners and school presidents.  We all want a playoff, but we all have to be realistic and must understand that some concessions have to be made in order to have a playoff system in this construct that we currently have.  A playoff will never happen without the support of the six major conferences, the support of the BCS bowls, and the support of the Notre Dame administration (as much as we hate to admit that). There is simply too much money involved and each of those entities must have some incentive and involvement to support a playoff system. Additionally, there must be some value given to the regular season and a conference championship to satisfy traditionalists. There is something to be said about preserving the value of the regular season and maintaining the importance and tradition of conference play and rivalry games.

I would have an 8 team playoff, with 6 of the teams comprising the champions of each of the 6 major conferences (big 10, big 12, sec, pac10, big east, acc). The other 2 teams would be the highest ranked teams in the BCS standings who did not win their conference. If Notre Dame or a mid-major was one of these teams, then they qualify. If Notre Dame or a mid-major finishes in the top 6, they automatically earn one at-large bid over any other team (a playoff system has to have the support of ND, as much as we might lament one school having such influence). For this system to work, the regular season would likely have to be shortened by 1-2 out of conference games to satisfy the NCAA and preserve academic integrity in the sport.

Teams would be seeded based on the final BCS rankings.  The first round of games would be played at the higher seeded home team's stadium. This rewards a team for an excellent performance during the regular season.  The 4 losers of the first round would then be eligible for selection to non-BCS bowl games.  The winners would advance to semifinals (two games) to be played at two of the BCS bowl sites.  The semifinal winners advance to a championship game (3rd BCS site). The losers would advance to a consolation game (4th BCS site). The semifinals, championship, and consolation games would rotate between BCS sites on an annual basis.

In 2007, with this system, the teams involved would have been the conference champions (OSU, LSU, VaTech, Oklahoma, USC, West Va) and the next highest ranked teams, in the top 8 (Georgia and Missouri). Teams would be seeded according to final BCS ranking. The first round of this playoff and bracket would have looked like this for the past few seasons:

2007 season:

West Virginia @ Ohio State
Georgia @ Oklahoma

Missouri @ VaTech
USC @ LSU

2006 season (michigan/florida controversy):

Wake Forest @ Ohio State
USC @ LSU

Louisville @ Michigan
Oklahoma @ Florida

2005 season (USC/Texas game)

Florida State @ USC
Notre Dame @ Ohio State

Georgia @ Penn State
West Virginia @ Texas

2004 season (Auburn gets snubbed despite going 12-0)

Pittsburgh @ USC
Utah @ Texas

VaTech @ Auburn
Michigan @ Oklahoma

2003 season (USC was AP, Coaches#1 but left out by BCS; BCS was determined largely by computers at this time)

Kansas State @ Oklahoma
Ohio State @ Michigan

Florida State @ USC
Miami @ LSU

Of course, Kansas gets left out of the party in 2007, Boise State in 2006, Oregon in 2005, Cal in 2004, and Texas in 2003, but again, some team will always feel jilted in any system where only a finite number of teams are invited to play. Only two teams from the same conference realistically can be in the tournament in any given year in this system, adding even more importance to the regular season. This is why you MUST win your conference to guarantee your place. Additionally, some people might say that this system is unfair to mid-majors. Teams from the WAC, MWC, SunBelt, and MAC can get to the dance if they schedule and defeat hard, OOC foes from major conferences and dominate their conference slate (i.e. Utah in 2004).  The one anomaly above is the 2003 season, where Oklahoma got routed in the Big 12 championship game 35-7 by Kansas State and still was ranked #1 in the final BCS standings.  In this playoff system with the 2003 BCS system used for seeding, Kansas State would have to travel to Oklahoma again in the first round after soundly smacking them in the Big 12 Championship.  Of course, the BCS at that time was heavily based on esoteric computer rankings and not as much as on the human polls as it is at the present time.  Surely, with today's BCS emphasis on human polls, those standings would have changed considerably and Oklahoma certainly would not have been ranked #1 after such a disastrous conclusion to the regular season.

Winning your conference gets you in but it might not necessarily earn you a home game or a favorable matchup in the first round.   Seeding is based on BCS rankings, which essentially is based on the polls, so a conference champion would not necessarily be assured a home game in the first round. In West Virginia's case, their season-ending loss to Pittsburgh would send them to the Horseshoe in December for a first round matchup with the Buckeyes in 2007, rather than hosting a first round game in Morgantown. USC, which lost two games (one to Stanford), would have to travel to Death Valley to take on LSU.  This might seem like a terribly tough matchup in the first round, but both of these teams had two losses and the BCS ranked them where they ranked them.  No system is perfect, but anything is better than what we have right now.

This analysis holds even more true in 2006.  Wake Forest won a weak ACC conference and would have to travel to Columbus in the first round.  USC, the Pac-10 champion who lost to UCLA in the 2006 season finale, would have to travel to LSU, who didn't even win the SEC.  Similarly, Louisville and Oklahoma would have tough opening round matchups with Michigan and Florida.

Bottom line:  A team that has an impressive season is rewarded with a home game in their home stadium with the most favorable matchup possible. In college football, home field advantage is paramount. Imagine if an SEC team had to play in Happy Valley or the Horseshoe in December, or the converse of a Big Ten squad having to go the Swamp or Death Valley.

Hopefully this would encourage teams to schedule competitive, out of conference games.  If a team won such a game, they could elevate their ranking and seeding in the BCS rankings.  If they lose such a game, they could still get into the playoff by winning their conference.  Unlike the current system, there would be little to lose and much to gain by scheduling tough OOC foes.  Tradition is preserved and the importance of the regular season, if anything, is increased.

BCS involvement, unfortunately, is critical. Bowl administrators and TV executives are probably fearful that they would lose money in this system, but in reality they should clamor for this playoff system. Right now, too many teams are included the BCS and the quality of games is diluted. ABC had excellent foresight when they decided not to renew their contract with the BCS. There have been only two competitive games in the past two years (boise state/OU and kansas/VT) in this current 5-game format. Ratings have been abysmal for the other games, probably because many of these matchups lack national appeal and because there is rampant resentment towards the current BCS system. In this proposed playoff system, every BCS game matters (with the exception of the consolation game, although that might attract more viewers than current BCS pairings).  In this system, three BCS playoff games have national title implications, not just one, and the consolation game would match up two of the top four teams in the country. The championship, consolation game, and semifinals would rotate through all four BCS sites. You would have to believe these games that determine college football's national title would earn higher ratings than Kansas/VT or Wake Forest/Louisville.

Hi there. First off id like to congratulate your team on a great season and it was a shame that you guys didnt win the national title. im sure there will be plenty more opportunities with the fine program this school runs.

My question to you buckeye fans is the potential of recently drafted receiver Roy Hall. He is currently on IR and when he was healthy was the gunner on punt coverage. What can he bring to the table? Is he better suited as a WR or TE? Your response is greatly appreciated.

THE story of the first half, when the game was within reach.

Continue reading this post »

Can you feel it? In just about 24 hours from now the Buckeyes and Tigers will be playing for the BCS National Championship. There are only a few more articles to read, pictures to look at, tapes of old games to watch, and analysis to review.

Our beloved Buckeyes will take the field, not as a team out to avenge last years loss but rather as a team that can become legendary at a legendary program. They will play with the backing of an University, City and State and a legion of loyal supporters around the country. They will play for honor bestowed by the media. But more importantly they will play for each other. Each man playing for the man beside him, for the team mate on the side line and their coaches.

Should they prevail Monday night I will be humbly proud of them. Should the Bucks not complete this mission I will still be proud of them for they are The Ohio State University. Can you feel it? Go Bucks!!

O-H-

I'm trying hard to not hate you guys but it's not going real well.

http://www.cornnation.com/storyonly/2008/1/5/102416/2186

Lee Corso made the comment that the Buckeyes have the best offensive line in the nation. I thought it was a stupid comment when he made it, and went back and looked at the stats.

I was right.

Good luck Monday.

Todd Boeckman's play will be the X factor in the title game.

Continue reading this post »