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New Look For Ohio Stadium In The 2026 Buckeye Football Season · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Friday, May fifteenth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Or the ball State game in
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirteen days, the game against Michigan in
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety seven days. Our friends it Grateful Griddle,
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  Speaker 1: Columbus's favorite food truck. They are now on Uber each, grubhub, band,
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  Speaker 1: or Dash. Just search for Grateful Griddle there or check
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  Speaker 1: out Grateful Griddle oh dot com for more. The Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State Buckeyes have been rolling out a whole bunch of
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  Speaker 1: new stuff recently. We did a show about a week
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  Speaker 1: or so ago on their new black uniforms. Tunnel Vision
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  Speaker 1: is what they're calling it. They have rolled out some
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  Speaker 1: new shoulder stripes for the home jerseys, the road jerseys,
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  Speaker 1: the home alternate jerseys, the road alternate jerseys, and now
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  Speaker 1: they're rolling out some new turf for Ohio Stadium as well.
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  Speaker 1: And welcome in Tony Gerdaman from the Buckeye Weekly podcast. Tony,
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  Speaker 1: this is sort of this is like a really intentional,
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  Speaker 1: very holistic approach to rolling out some new branded stuff
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  Speaker 1: and this you know this, this feels like Wow, this
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  Speaker 1: is like a really well planned, well executed thing.
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  Speaker 2: It's an interesting turf as well considering what they can
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  Speaker 2: do with it. But yeah, it is. It's it seems
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  Speaker 2: like there's been some they've listened to feedback from fans
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  Speaker 2: on a lot of this, and perhaps listen to feedback
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  Speaker 2: from the NFLPA on the type of field because they're
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  Speaker 2: doing a way with the slit film turf that the
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  Speaker 2: NFLPA didn't like, and so they're going to go with
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  Speaker 2: this new turf that has been approved. And it's interesting
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  Speaker 2: because the old turf is only four years old, that
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  Speaker 2: was half of its lifespan, and it's like, no, we're
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  Speaker 2: just we're going to do away with it, and it's
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  Speaker 2: going to look a little bit different. You've seen Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State's Twitter account released one markup of it of what
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  Speaker 2: it would look like, and you've kind of got the
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  Speaker 2: dark light alternating grass that people like at the Oregon
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  Speaker 2: and other places like that. So I think that's one
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  Speaker 2: interesting thing about it, and we can get into some
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  Speaker 2: more interesting things, including some very interesting possibilities on the
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  Speaker 2: customizable end zones.
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  Speaker 1: Tom. Yeah, and we get back in twenty twenty two
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  Speaker 1: when they did this the last time, people were very interested.
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  Speaker 1: As I went over there and shot photos over at
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  Speaker 1: the stadium of like the whole process of how they
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  Speaker 1: do this. And I'm sure we'll do that again this year.
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  Speaker 1: I will when you were talking earlier people on YouTube,
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  Speaker 1: I will throw the graphic up there of what the
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  Speaker 1: new field will look like. And now I'll throw up
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  Speaker 1: some pictures of the whole process of what it looks
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  Speaker 1: like when they go through and do this, they tear
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  Speaker 1: the whole field up. The whole thing takes like two
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  Speaker 1: ish weeks. I think it was two to three weeks
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  Speaker 1: the last time they pull all the field up. They
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  Speaker 1: put down this base layer and it's like crushed gravel
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  Speaker 1: and all sorts of stuff, and then they will lay
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  Speaker 1: out the field in five yard strips. It's just sort
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  Speaker 1: of five yard strips of turf. They'll put that all out,
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  Speaker 1: and then they will put in the stripes, the yardage markers,
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  Speaker 1: the yardage lines, all that kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: That's all painted on already that comes. All of that
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  Speaker 2: stuff is no longer inlaid. It's just part of the
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  Speaker 2: creation process. Because you know this plastic stuff, the natural
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  Speaker 2: color of plastic is green, and it matches grass as
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  Speaker 2: they're painting it. They just go ahead and paint the
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  Speaker 2: yard markers on them to reduce the number of seams
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  Speaker 2: on the field as well. So there's also that aspect
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  Speaker 2: of it.
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  Speaker 1: All. Right, well, there you go, So a whole new
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  Speaker 1: approach to turf this year. And one of the things
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  Speaker 1: that is going to be new is the fact that
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  Speaker 1: you're going to be able to swap out some of
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  Speaker 1: the pieces of the field. So the end zones, for example,
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  Speaker 1: we talked about this sort of getting rolled out in
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  Speaker 1: conjunction with the uniforms. They can now match elements of
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  Speaker 1: the field to the elements of that uniform for like
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  Speaker 1: a whole themed event.
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  Speaker 2: I was a little confused by this because I'm reading
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  Speaker 2: it and they don't really explain too much of it
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  Speaker 2: in the release, But then they have a quote from
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  Speaker 2: Ross Bjorke Ohio State ad here says, additionally, the new
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  Speaker 2: surface at Ohio Stadium takes this vision further. What they're
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  Speaker 2: talking about branding providing a dynamic playing surface. And you
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  Speaker 2: say dynamic, that means it can change. So what does
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  Speaker 2: that mean? And it says provides the latest advancements and
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  Speaker 2: performance and safety and meets NFL standards. But you can
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  Speaker 2: utilize customizable end zones to amplify themed game atmospheres and
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  Speaker 2: elevate the experience for fans inside the stadium and those
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  Speaker 2: that are watching. And so we know they do their
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  Speaker 2: color rush like the all Scarlet, they do the blackouts,
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  Speaker 2: which lends me to believe that there will be a
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  Speaker 2: game with black end zones at night in a night game.
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  Speaker 2: Hopefully not Kent State to open the season or something
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  Speaker 2: like that, but stuff like that. They can just you
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  Speaker 2: know what what, Oregon has all of these unic combinations
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  Speaker 2: Ohio Stadium now it sounds like it's going to have
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  Speaker 2: field combinations at least in the end zone. It's like, well,
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  Speaker 2: we're doing We're doing the blackout. Let's bring out the
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  Speaker 2: black end zones. And it's very interesting to me. I think,
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  Speaker 2: I don't I don't know how commonness is nationally. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know how many people are doing this, but I thought,
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  Speaker 2: that's that's an interesting thing. And time of the most
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  Speaker 2: important things Safe Flight is still sponsoring the field.
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  Speaker 1: And you know those some of those field sponsors and
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  Speaker 1: in some cases when teams have changed conferences, the conference logos.
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  Speaker 1: When we were out in Oregon a few years ago,
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  Speaker 1: there was a noticeable gap or rise where the Big
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  Speaker 1: ten logo was probably like a quarter to a half
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  Speaker 1: inch taller than the surrounding turf because they had just
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  Speaker 1: cut out the old PAC twelve logo and laid the
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  Speaker 1: new Big ten logo in, so that you know the
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  Speaker 1: new the new approach. If you can just sort of
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  Speaker 1: paint the stuff and have it set in, then that
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  Speaker 1: avoids that issue. So that's that is very interesting.
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  Speaker 2: One other thing time, if I can jump in, I
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  Speaker 2: did ask Ohio State if they could, will they be
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  Speaker 2: explaining more on the custom customizable end zones? Will they
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  Speaker 2: be will there be another release in the coming days
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  Speaker 2: or so to let us know what kind of end
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  Speaker 2: zones they're talking about? And I was told no, any
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  Speaker 2: information on that will be provided in the lead up
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  Speaker 2: to the announcements of themed games. So nothing right now.
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  Speaker 2: But still try it.
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  Speaker 1: However, you can't when you can't get any actual information, Tony,
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  Speaker 1: what can you do? You can turn to AI and
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  Speaker 1: you did turn to AI for some theoretical looks at
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  Speaker 1: what field. And we are going to be very clear here,
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  Speaker 1: we're not saying this is what the field is going
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  Speaker 1: to look like. But you did come up with you
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  Speaker 1: along with I don't know what roc or Gemini or
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  Speaker 1: whoever came up with what a black a tunnel vision
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  Speaker 1: all black uniform themed field could look like. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think the good news is this is not like
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  Speaker 1: the Eastern Washington field, where the whole field is read.
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  Speaker 1: You're just sort of changing the end zones in this
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  Speaker 1: sort of theoretical model. But I think the response to
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  Speaker 1: this among you know, members of our site was broadly positive.
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  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, on Twitter as well, people seem to
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  Speaker 2: like it. And then you know, you get them some
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  Speaker 2: tweaks like make the you know what we want, we
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  Speaker 2: want red letters, Carlette letters, you want this, you want that,
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's the interesting thing. That's why it'd
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  Speaker 2: be neat to see all of the mock ups that
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  Speaker 2: State has or the ones that they were like, this
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  Speaker 2: is too garish, we're not doing this one and see
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  Speaker 2: what it'll look like. But even you know, people have
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  Speaker 2: complained about just the the ugly green that the field
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  Speaker 2: would sometimes have where it's just splotchy, and so this,
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  Speaker 2: even just the green portion of it will be you know,
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  Speaker 2: like I said, the alternating shades, which people like, and
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  Speaker 2: it just gives gives it a more you know, a
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  Speaker 2: nicer look, more aesthetic. I guess the situation going on there,
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  Speaker 2: So I'm I'm looking forward to all of it, and Tom,
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  Speaker 2: you will be taking pictures as the palettes of the
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  Speaker 2: turfs come in, and you'll be you know, like up
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  Speaker 2: in the you know, well, now I'll go get a
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  Speaker 2: I'll go high up in the north end zone and
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  Speaker 2: get a look. Now let's go walk over to the
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  Speaker 2: south stands and get a look. And people, it's gonna
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  Speaker 2: be like, the workers are gonna be like, what is
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  Speaker 2: this guy doing? You know, I'm just trying to work
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  Speaker 2: here making sure the pants are pulled up as somebody's
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  Speaker 2: taking photos of them, as we all have to do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is the same guy working the security
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  Speaker 1: booth at the gate to Ohio Stadium, who I will
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  Speaker 1: then see multiple times generally while we're out there. The
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  Speaker 1: last time they did this it coincided with the middle
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  Speaker 1: of June when we were out there for camps every day,
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  Speaker 1: so it was you know, hey, I'll just run over
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  Speaker 1: from the Woody over to the stadium and pop in
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  Speaker 1: there real quickly and get pictures of whatever they're doing today.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see I don't know that I didn't see a
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  Speaker 1: specific timetable on when exactly this work is going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: I would assume probably you're looking at June ish, because
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  Speaker 1: you got to have it in before you get too
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  Speaker 1: close to the season. So there you go, a new
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  Speaker 1: look for Ohio Stadium this year. We don't know all
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  Speaker 1: of the specifics, but we have enough enough that it
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  Speaker 1: seems like it's definitely going to be going to be
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  Speaker 1: intriguing and going to be something that they can that
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  Speaker 1: people will have at least some new stuff to talk about,
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  Speaker 1: if not to complain about. So there you go. There's
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  Speaker 1: your update on the Ohio Stadium turf. We'll be back
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  Speaker 1: on Monday with an update on the college football Playoff.
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  Speaker 1: Tony and I give me talking about the sixteen versus
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  Speaker 1: twenty four debate, why the two conferences, the Big Ten
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  Speaker 1: and the SEC, are so dug in on their choices,
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  Speaker 1: and most importantly, will this ruin the College Football Playoff
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  Speaker 1: regular season or the college football regular season forever? There
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  Speaker 1: are people who are saying it will not quite so sure,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll talk about that on Monday's episode. That'll do
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  Speaker 1: it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you Monday.