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Why is this news?: Ohio Stadium ranked 2nd, Thad Matta reaches milestone

All the big Ohio State news in one helpful place.

By Dan Vest
Jamie Sabau

"(Ohio Stadium) only got one first-place vote from the panel but was no lower than seventh on any ballot.

-Athlon Sports

The college football offseason brings all sorts of things. It brings really cold weather followed by really hot weather. It brings the yearly effort to distract one’s self with lesser sports. For better or worse, it brings more free time on Saturdays for things like working outside and spending time with family. And for those of us in sports media, it brings lists. Lots and lots of lists. Today was no different, as Athlon released its list of the top football stadiums in the country.

Athlon brought in fifteen members from various media outlets to select their ten favorite stadiums with points awarded according to a stadium’s ranking on each list. Ohio Stadium checked in at second, just behind LSU’s Tiger stadium. Ohio Stadium was the only venue to appear on all 15 voter ballots.

Penn State’s Beaver Stadium was the only other Big Ten stadium to make the top 10, checking in at tenth. The Big House in Ann Arbor was 15th and Wisconsin’s Camp Randall was (criminally underrated at) 16th.

Today marked a significant anniversary for the Ohio State basketball program. It’s the tenth anniversary of Thad Matta’s hiring as Ohio State’s head basketball coach. Matta inherited a middling program that had occasional success, but little to no consistency. Over the course of the last decade he turned that program into a Big Ten conference powerhouse that is almost always in the thick of the conference championship race.

The Buckeyes have won at least twenty games in each of Matta’s seasons at the program’s helm, posting a 275-83 record overall. Included in those 275 wins are five Big Ten regular season championships, four Big Ten tournament titles, 8 NCAA tournament berths, an NIT championship, and two Final Four’s.

The Buckeyes have also steadily pumped talent into the professional ranks, having at least one player drafted each year from 2007-2013.

Dontre Wilson was among 44 football players around the country to be named to the Paul Hornung Award watch list. The Hornung Award is designed to "promote outstanding performances by versatile college football players who often go unnoticed." Two-way starter Owen Marecic of Stanford won the award in 2014

If there is a word that best describes Wilson, versatile might be that word. Last season in limited action as a true freshman, Wilson rushed 31 times for 250 yards (8.1 YPC) while also hauling in 22 receptions for 210 yards. Wilson also racked up 523 return yards (just under 25 YPA) with a long of 51 yards. Wilson is expected to play an even bigger role in the offense this season with the loss of Carlos Hyde and Philly Brown.

Fans who follow Ohio State Athletics on Twitter will have a special opportunity to purchase individual tickets before the rest of the general public. The OSU Athletics Twitter account (@ohiostathletics) will tweet out a password sometime between now and the July 10. The password can then be used on the 10th beginning at 10 a.m. to purchase tickets.

Non presale tickets will go on sale the next morning, July 11, at 10 a.m. , though with the ease of obtaining the presale password, there might not be many good seats left.

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