By: Matt Hayes (Sporting News) -- So this is what it has come to. After 60-plus days on the job at Ohio State, there’s no avoiding it. Either the Big Ten bows to Urban Meyer, or Urban Meyer bows to the Big Ten. “I can tell you this,” says Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema. “We at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC—in any way, shape or form.” Just so we’re clear: Bielema wasn’t talking about winning national championships. He was ... Read More

From: WaitingForNextYear.com -- When Urban Meyer was hired to be the new head football coach at The Ohio State University, everyone knew things were going to change at Ohio State. Many predicted that recruiting in particular would be dramatically different under Urban Meyer’s watch. That’s no slight on Jim Tressel. Urban Meyer will be lucky to match what Jim Tressel accomplished in his decade at the helm. But Jim Tressel was a rare, unique man and coach. His laid ... Read More

By Matt Scalici (al.com) -- Former Ohio State football coach John Cooper during a radio interview in Cleveland on Tuesday. called the Alabama Crimson Tide "one of the most penalized teams in college football" and suggested the NCAA should investigate the program. Speaking with Cleveland sports radio station 92.3 The Fan, Cooper, who was head coach for the Buckeyes from 1988 until 2000, was asked about recently fired coach Jim Tressel and his NCAA violations. Cooper explained ... Read More

By: AP via ABC News -- The Bowl Championship Series as college football fans have come to know it is going away. Over the next six months, the people who oversee the much-maligned postseason format will talk about how to reconstruct the system for crowning a national champion. In the tumultuous 14-year history of the BCS, the appetite for change among college football's leaders has never been stronger. "It's my impression that ... there will be meaningful discussion about ... Read More

From: ESPN.com -- NEW ORLEANS -- Bowl Championship Series officials will meet Tuesday to exchange ideas about possible changes to the format of major college football's postseason system. "Everything you can imagine will be discussed," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said. "Everything from format, who plays who, to where they play, to the business aspect of it ... it's all going to be on the table." The meeting will bring together the 11 conference commissioners and ... Read More

By Doug Lesmerises  (The Plain Dealer) -- JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- This is a long way from 41-14. Florida's win over Ohio State in the BCS National Championship game on Jan. 8, 2007, seems more like 50 years ago than five the way the 2011 seasons transpired for the 6-6 Buckeyes and 6-6 Gators. "That just made us want to get to Florida faster," Gators' fifth-year senior Chris Rainey, then a Florida recruit, said of the lopsided final in the Arizona. ... Read More

By Rachel George (OrlandoSentinel.com) -- JACKSONVILLE — With both Florida and Ohio State unable to sell out their allotment of Gator Bowl tickets, the crowd is unlikely to be at capacity for the first time in four seasons. Rick Catlett, Gator Bowl president, said Saturday afternoon that the two schools returned about half of their tickets. Florida received 15,000 and sold 8,000, according to a UF spokesman. Ohio State sold more than 7,000 and returned approximately 5,000, said an OSU ... Read More

By Mark Podolski (News-Herald.com) -- Columbus is a few hours from these parts, but that didn't stop the news from the Ohio State football program reverberating here in 2011. There was plenty of it, and most of it not good. Because of that, it's no surprise Jim Tressel resignation as OSU football coach was voted the top sports story of 2011 by The News-Herald sports staff. Tressel's departure was polarizing. His supporters stood firmly behind the coach who, in 10 ... Read More

By Garry Smits (Jacksonville.com) -- Urban Meyer has coached some fine college quarterbacks and two of them are currently starting for playoff-bound NFL teams. He’s already comparing Ohio State freshman Braxton Miller to the likes of Alex Smith, Chris Leak and Tim Tebow, quarterbacks who led Meyer’s teams at Utah and Florida to BCS bowl victories and in the case of Leak and Tebow, two national championships. “I’m putting a lot of pressure on [Miller] already but he’s special,” Meyer ... Read More

By: Bruce Hooley (FoxSportsOhio.com) -- A former colleague of Jim Tressel once told a story about the disgraced coaching icon before he grew into the sweater-vested poster boy for much of what’s wrong with big-time college football. Seems Tressel repeatedly called the same play from the booth snap after snap until finally questioned about his repetitive strategy by the head coach down on the sideline. “I’ll stop doing it when it stops working,” Tressel supposedly said. Old habits apparently die hard, ... Read More