The Big Ten’s decision to cancel fall sports is already causing some teams from rival conferences to sharpen up their recruiting pitches with new material.
Multiple Ohio State football recruits said that some programs from the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 have reached out and begun using similar messages to try to get them to flip their commitments: that their schools and conferences care more about football than the Buckeyes and the Big Ten do.
“A couple of schools have reached out,” 5-star offensive lineman Donovan Jackson told Birm of Lettermen Row. “[The message has been] that their conference cares more about the sport and players.”
Four-star offensive tackle and 2022 Buckeye commit Tegra Tshabola has said he is receiving similar messages.
“I can’t really say the name of the school, but I’ve gotten texts like: ‘Look at this for the future. You have talent that can’t be wasted. You can’t take a year off.’ Things like that,” Tshabola told Bill Landis of The Athletic.
There’s nothing particularly surprising about any of this. College football recruiting is an intensely competitive environment, and schools will look for any advantage they can try to exploit. Some conferences planning to play football while others don’t is certainly going to be one of those potential advantages, especially when we’ve already seen it with other conferences.
While you can’t blame schools for trying, it does feel unlikely that this tactic will be particularly effective. You need only look at some of the public comments Buckeyes coach Ryan Day has made to know how badly Ohio State wants to play football as soon as possible. The school takes the sport very seriously, and most recruits will recognize that.
The players want to play. The families want to play. Help spread the message by buying this “We Want to Play” T-shirt. You can buy the #WeWantToPlay shirt here:
