I wrote this in a preview of the Big 33 game that appeared in last Sunday’s (June 10) paper:
“Incredibly, there isn’t an Ohio State signee on the Ohio roster. Or the Pennsylvania roster, for that matter.”
Not that incredible, according to reader Ken Rankin of Millersville, who points out that for the second straight year the Big 33 falls on the same day (Saturday) as Ohio’s North-South All-Star Game, traditionally a very big deal in that state. Ohio State has nine incoming scholarship freshman from Ohio, and all of them are choosing to play in the North-South game. Last year, four Ohio State signees played in the Big 33.
Otherwise it was the same deal last year, when the Big 33 folks moved their game from the traditional late July to mid-June so that kids could play in the game and enroll in summer school at their chosen college. That’s what all the big-time college coaches want/demand of their freshmen, so the Big 33 would have devolved to nothing or even ceased to exist without moving. (Whether it had to move to the same exact date as the North-South game is another question; our reader seems to suggest the Big 33 made the change so the local kids could beat up on Ohio’s JV every year.)
Anyway, I wrote about this a lot in previewing and covering last year’s game and didn’t feel like belaboring it again, but Rankin makes a fair point- I should have at least explained the situation.
Duly noted.
