Why is this news?: O'Bannon trial ending, Ohio Stadium expanding

"The NCAA couldn't even get its own witness to make a substantive point about why its model against player compensation is necessary."

-Kevin Trahan, SBNation

Lost amidst yesterday's Wimp-Lo-esque USMNT celebration and the spectacle of the NBA Draft was any discussion about what happened on one of the last days of the O'Bannon vs. NCAA trial. On Thursday, NCAA economic expert Daniel Rubinfeld took the stand on behalf of the organization. Things...did not go smoothly.

Rubinfeld, who once compared the NCAA to a cartel (oops), attempted to give some clarification by placing the NCAA in a different category of cartel from those other, bad cartels. False equivalencies abounded, from Rubinfeld using his time as a tennis amateur to make a point about why players shouldn't be paid, to claiming that paying players would decrease fan interest because a spike in baseball salaries happened to coincide with a decline in TV viewership for the MLB. By that reasoning, we can extrapolate that approximately zero people watched the NBA or NFL on television this year.

Today is the last day of the actual trial. The verdict will be rendered sometime in the next few weeks, and based on all available evidence it looks like the NCAA is about to get defenestrated.

"Ohio State should enter the stretch with an 8-0 record and a very real shot at reaching the initial college football playoff."

-Adam Rittenberg, ESPN.com

The Buckeyes will play their two biggest games of the regular season in November, looking to prove that they're even better than their 12-2 record from 2013. Ohio State heads to East Lansing on November 8th, looking to avenge a stomach-turning loss to eventual Rose Bowl champs Michigan State. After games against potential upstarts Minnesota and Indiana, the Buckeyes will face TTUN in Columbus on November 29th.

UM's Devin Gardner embarrassed the OSU defense last season, gaining 451 yards of passing offense and adding four touchdowns before falling a two-point conversion short of a major upset. The Buckeyes have only fallen to the Wolverines twice in the last decade-and-a-half, and if the Buckeyes are undefeated heading into The Game it will be even more fiercely fought.

The first three games for Ohio State (against Navy, Virginia Tech, and Cincinnati) look to be a much more robust opening slate than the Buckeyes have faced in several years (powerhouse FAMU notwithstanding). There are a lot of questions surrounding the secondary and linebacking corps heading into the year, but with eight games to get before the toughest part of the schedule rolls around, there should be plenty of time to get things sorted.

"Nazlymov will be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside five Olympians and three other coaches."

-OhioStateBuckeyes.com

Ohio State fencing coach Vladimir Nazlymov has earned the sport's highest honor in the United States. He is set to be inducted this evening into the USA Fencing Hall of Fame.

Nazlymov, who won medals for the Soviet Union in three different Olympic games, also racked up 10 Senior World titles before becoming a coach. In that capacity, he has led Ohio State to three national championships. Those titles came in 2004, 2008, and 2012.

The induction ceremony will take place at 7 pm tonight at the Columbus Convention Center. Tickets are $20 each.

"This year, Ohio State has 2,522 more seats in the South Stands, all of which will be provided to students."

-Jeff Svoboda, BuckeyeSports.com

The Horseshoe is expanding to meet increased student demand. Ohio State oversold its student ticket allotment for the coming season, and the new seating will help mitigate that boom in sales. The infamously dodgy online ticket window was even left open for an extra amount of time during this season's purchasing period.

As if we needed another reason to inflate our sense of self-importance, Michigan has experienced some issues selling enough tickets to fill the Big House. So not only have we been punching them in the face with their own hands and telling them to stop hitting themselves on the field, we're doing it in the bleachers as well.

The new seats also mandated the construction of a new player entrance tunnel in the South Stands. There will also be a new and improved player entrance routine for home games, according to AD Gene Smith.

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