Ohio State had third highest average home football attendance last season

“Four other schools also averaged more than 100,000 fans per home game: Penn State (105,485), Ohio State (101,947), Alabama (101,562) and LSU (100,819).”

— National Football Foundation

The 2018-19 college football season has been over for quite some time. And even though Clemson was crowned kings in Santa Clara, Calif., back in January, there were tickets, ratings, and other assortment of odds and ends that needed to be tallied.

On Tuesday, the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame released to the public their findings from the past season. Of the main highlights: the six College Football Playoff games generated five of the six most-watched cable presentations of the year.

Ohio State was also mentioned throughout the report in different capacities. The Buckeyes were one of five schools in the country to average over 100,000 attendance for home games. OSU had the third highest attendance in the land with a 101,947 average. Michigan lead all FBS schools with 110,377, and Penn State was second with 105,485. In total fan attendance, Alabama led the country with 1,313,670, while the Bucks came in second with a total attendance of 1,220,635.

The most watched regular season game was the SEC Championship between Georgia-Alabama, bringing in 17,499,000 viewers for the virtual playoff game. Right behind was Ohio State-Michigan; the 2018 edition of ‘The Game’ garnered 13,200,000 viewers. Ohio State also starred in three other games that were in the top-10 for regular season viewership: Penn State, Northwestern (Big Ten Championship) and TCU.

While OSU-UM was the second most watched game of the regular season, Fox’s biggest regular season CFB broadcast ever was the 62-39 Buckeyes schallacking of the Wolverines.

In the postseason, the Rose Bowl was the highest non-Semifinal New Year’s Six game ever, drawing an 8.57 rating and 16,311,000 viewers. Ohio State won that game against Washington, 28-23, in what would be Urban Meyer’s last game as head coach.

Overall, I think it’s safe to say the Ohio State brand is strong.

“Carmen’s Crew, an Ohio State alumni team, will serve as the host of one of eight regionals and welcome seven additional teams that will compete for the chance to advance to the championship week in Chicago.”

— The Basketball Tournament press release

The Basketball Tournament is nearly back. And if you live in the Columbus area and wanted to catch some of the stars from the Thad Matta and Chris Holtmann eras, then you’re in luck.

Brackets were released for the 2019 TBT, and Carmen’s Crew (the main OSU squad) will be one of the host institutions for the July 19-21 regionals. Carmen’s Crew, the No. 1 seed, will square off with No. 8 seed Illinois BC at 7 p.m. ET on July 19 from the The Capital Center at Capital University. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Carmen’s Crew will consist of some familiar faces. William Buford, Aaron Craft, Jon Diebler, David Lighty, Evan Ravenel, Lenzelle Smith, and DeShaun Thomas are the former Buckeyes playing—and Scoonie Penn is the GM. The team isn’t exclusively OSU stars; Courtney Pigram (East Tennessee State) and Leon Rogers (Northern Illinois) round out the squad.

But that’s not your only chance for an OSU fix. Team Big X, placed as the No. 4 seed in the region, features Andrew Dakich, C.J. Jackson, Keyshawn Woods and Jae’sean Tate. Big X faces West Virginia Wildcats on July 19, and tips off at 5 p.m. ET.

Whether you cheered on the stars of the Final Four runs or the squad from the past couple seasons, a slew of former Buckeyes are suiting up once again this summer. If you’re looking for tickets, you can get them here.

“Magno, from Dublin, Ohio, becomes the 52nd All-American in Ohio State history. Magno is the second Buckeye pitcher to be named an All-American in the last two years...”

— Ohio State Athletics

Even though their magical run ended in the Nashville region, the Ohio State baseball squad had a member pick up another accolade. Andrew Magno, who’s pitching propelled the Buckeyes to a Big Ten Tournament title and bid to the NCAA baseball regionals, received third team All-American honors by Baseball America.

The junior left hander is the 52nd All-American in school history, and the second pitcher in as many years. This is another honor for Magno this postseason. His relief work earned him Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player accolades as he guided the Buckeyes’ bullpen efforts against Michigan, Minnesota and Nebraska in Omaha.

It’s been a pretty big month for Magno, as he was drafted in the 15th round of the MLB Draft by the Detroit Tigers last week.

Congrats to Andrew for bringing home even more awards!

Stick to Sports

• Wolfe family sells WBNS-TV, other media properties, for $535 million to TENGA.
• The funnies are out after Kyle Lowry’s missed game-winning shot.
• Ratings from Game 5 of the NBA Finals rebounded.
• There’s a new Animal Crossing, but it’s delayed to March 2020.
• On this day in history: (2010) South Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup for the first time.