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Ranking The Toughest Places To Play In College Football · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buck guys tomorrow morning for Wednesday, June twenty sixth. I'm your
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  host, Tom Moore. The Akron game in sixty six days, the game
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  against Michigan in one hundred and fifty seven days. EA Sports College Football twenty
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  five coming out in even less than sixty six days. Under a month now
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  till the release of that. EA putting out new content pretty much every day
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  this week, talking about different features of the game, rankings in the game,
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  different teams, who's going to be the strongest team, all that kind
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  of stuff. On Tuesday, they dropped a list of the twenty five toughest
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  places to play in the game. Drew a bunch of hashtag conversation online on
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  Tuesday with lots of people disagreeing with also all that kind of stuff, and
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  I thought, all right, gow hope I got to have on talk about
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  how difficult it really is to play in some of these places and what they
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  may have gotten a little low, maybe a little high. You're doing that
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  with Kevin nut Off bucke huddle dot com. He has been traveling the country
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  with the Buckeyes for decades now, been to a lot of these venues.
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  Kevin let's start. I'm just going to run through the list real quick.
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  Number one Texas A and M number two, Alabama number three, LSU number
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  four, Ohio State Ohio Stadium coming in fourth, toughest place to play in
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  the country. Number five, Georgia number six, Penn State number seven,
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  Wisconsin number eight, Oklahoma number nine, Florida State number ten Florida. We'll
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  get through the rest of the top twenty five in a minute, but just
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  the top ten. There is there anything that stands out there in terms of
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  places you've been that are maybe too high, places you've been that are probably
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  should have been included in that list. What are your thoughts so far?
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  Yeah, there are several big ten schools on this list, so obviously I've
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  been to them. We'll start with Ohio Stadium at four. I think that
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  when everybody is motivated and it is a big game, Ohio State probably somewhere
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  in that top five. I think that that's agreeable. There are some acoustical
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  issues there. I think that there's some planning issues. I think that spreading
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  out of the students kind of doles a little bit, but you're going to
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  get a lot more for a Michigan or Penn State game than you are for
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  Northern Illinois or Bowling Green. You know, apologies to both programs, but
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  it's just just a reality. So you have that there. I mean at
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  Penn State at six, that is probably the loudest place that I have ever
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  seen a game in my opinion, But again that's for the white out.
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  That's for Ohio State. I'm not there for a game against Ducane. I'm
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  not there for a game against Delaware, so I you know, certainly on
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  TV it sounds kind of like a mausoleum at that point. Camp Randle at
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  seven, that is a great venue. Obviously, jump around. Ohio State's
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  record when I have gone to games at Camp Randle is very good. Really
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  can only remember one loss at Camp Randle off the top of my head.
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  I think you all can too, when the opening kickoff was returned for a
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  touchdown and Ohio State just battled from behind the whole game and couldn't get back
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  over the hump. And then obviously I've seen a game at Oklahoma and it
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  was loud, but I just remember the hailstorm that we had and the weather
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  delay, So maybe I am a little biased off of that. You know,
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  several of these other stadiums I've been to, but not for games.
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  I've seen Kyle Field, I've seen Brian Brian Danny, not Brian Denahey by
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  any stretch of the imagination going to LSU that is a bucket list. As
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  long as it is a night game. I want to see a night game
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  at Tiger Stadium. I've seen Sanford Stadium at UGA, I've seen Dope Campbell
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  at Florida State. So I mean, I've seen a lot of these stadiums,
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  but I do have a couple that are probably somewhere in the next fifteen
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  that I would probably have in my top ten. All right, well,
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  let's go through that next fifteen. EA put out a graphic with just the
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  top ten. Brett McMurphy put out the full top twenty five list, sourcing
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  it to EA Sports. Number eleven, Oregon. That's one that I can
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  not wait to go see a game this fall. We were obviously supposed to
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  be there in twenty twenty. That one got canceled for obvious reasons. Can't
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  wait to get out there. That is going to be a very very big
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  game this fall. Number twelve, Clemson, number thirteen, Tennessee number fourteen,
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  Auburn number fifteen, South Carolina number sixteen, Michigan number seventeen, Virginia
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  Tech number eighteen, Utah number nineteen, Texas number twenty, Iowa twenty one,
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  Notre Dame twenty two, Michigan State, twenty three, Arkansas twenty four,
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  Boise State, and twenty five. Bring those cow bells, Mississippi State.
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  All right, so you haven't obviously, we will be there together in
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  Oregon this fall. We have seen many a game in Michigan Stadium. Which
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  of those games, Which of those teams, again, are maybe the most
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  impressive to you? Or which ones maybe you're a little little lower than you
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  think, or maybe you're higher than you should think. Yeah, I scribbled
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  these down quickly so i'd be able to refer to them with their actual rankings.
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  Oregon being outside the top ten it's shocking to me because I have come
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  from a place where I've been told that Oregon is a top five, maybe
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  even a top three environment. While it isn't one hundred thousand seat mausoleum,
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  it is built in a way where sound does not escape, and it is
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  just very loud. I'm surprised that Tennessee is in at thirteen I would think
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  that Tennessee would be higher. Maybe this has something to do with the fact
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  that Tennessee has had more down years than up years here recently, and that
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  there's something with that. Michigan at sixteen, people I think would expect me
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  to sit there and be like, oh, there should be like six hundredth
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  But you know, it's just not a loud environment. It's just not and
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  just the way that it's built into the ground and just it goes further back
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  than up. It just sound escapes. So I don't know if I'm buying
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  that. Virginia Tech at seventeen I think is pretty fair, very great environment,
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  you know, somewhere that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be as raucous as
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  it is. But for that Ohio State night game, it was pretty crazy.
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  Iowa twenty is I think a little bit low. Granted, and Tom
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  and I were talking about this before we started recording. You gotta remember,
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  I'm going to see a lot of these venues when they're facing Ohio State.
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  Ohio State is the super Bowl for most teams out there, so we're getting
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  we're getting like their full shot. They've got the engines to one hundred and
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  ten percent, So that's you know, I'm seeing the top end of that.
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  Notre Dame at twenty one. We had the chance to go to Notre
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  Dame last year. I think that's fair A little surprised about Spartans at twenty
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  two. Michigan State at twenty two. I don't really think that is particularly
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  loud stadium by any stretch of the imagination. I think that that's one where
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  they maybe just went seating capacity over any other sort of metrics. I don't
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  I don't buy it. Yeah, I'm pretty in alignment with you there on
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  most of those. Iowa definitely the last time I've been to Iowa twice I
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  think, and the last time we were there covering a game was twenty seventeen,
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  so that was a rather memorable day A Brian Farren's offense scored fifty five
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  fifty six points against an FBS team, So yeah, a little bit of
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  an outlier there, but yeah, that place can get loud Notre Dame.
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  Notre Dame was pretty loud last year, but it wasn't you know, it
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  wasn't deafening. It was loud, but that was primetime Top ten game.
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  Ohio State Notre Dame. That's you figure that's as loud as that place gets.
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  It was loud, but it was not the loudest place I've ever been.
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  Yeah, I don't know where Michigan State comes from on this list,
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  and Michigan, you know, we have been there for many, many of
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  the biggest games in Ohio State and Michigan history over the years. That's one
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  where it's not loud, and it's not anyone's fault. It is architecture's fault.
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  There is just a lot of spot there's a lot of area for that
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  noise to get out and it just doesn't. Not That is not a venue
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  that holds the noise very well, similar to the Rose Bowl. Great Great
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  Stadium just doesn't hold the new always well, just because of how it is
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  built. You know, looking through this list, I checked it twice and
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  I thought, where's Washington? You have covered a game at Washington. I
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  have not been out to Washington yet, obviously hoping to get out there whenever
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  Ohio State has a game schedule. The Husky Stadium, that's one I always
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  remember of Keith Jackson back in the day talking about how loud Washington Stadium is
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  or Husky Stadium is is. Are you surprised that one's not on this list.
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  I am a little surprised, and I'm trying to think. I think
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  two thousand and seven, does that sound right? When I went out to
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  Washington and the press box had some open air elements to it, and it
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  also had this speaker when they played like an air an air raid siren,
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  I have various points, and I think one was pointing directly at my seat
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  in the press pot. I remember it being very loud, but there is
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  a situation of where when you're on the side overlooking the water, there's nothing
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  really there to block the noise out. But to me, I remember it
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  being very loud. Granted, that was probably one of my worst travel nightmares
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  on the beat of all time, you know, all the way through where
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  we're sitting right now. So I maybe I wasn't in the best headspace at
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  that moment because I was only been in Washington for maybe about sixteen hours by
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  that point. But yeah, I think that that's one that seems to be
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  a bit of an omission. And the other one that kind of jumped out
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  to me was Nebraska. That's the place you and I have both made multiple
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  trips over the years that you know, Nebraska as a team has not been
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  very good for the last decade or so, but that is an atmosphere that
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  can get raucous and an atmosphere that when Nebraska has a good football team and
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  they may be trending back in that way this you know this year right now
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  under Matt rule that is you know that go back to you know, the
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  nineteen nineties when they were really rolling. That was an impossible place to play.
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  That was a place that Nebraska never lost. And now obviously it's you
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  know, because of the team on the field, that has been a little
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  easier to win there. But it feels like at its best Memorial Stadium in
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  Lincoln, probably you know, somewhere in the top ten, top fifteen at
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  the least. And that's the good news with the game is you're going to
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  be able. EA will send out updates as long as you're connected online somehow,
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  We'll send out updates as things changing. And if Nebraska ends up being
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  I'm not going to buy into Nebraska this year. I buy into them every
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  year. I look foolish, more foolish than usual if I'm not buying into
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  Nebraska at this point. But if they start off pretty well and that place
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  gets to be rocking, I think they move up and you're going to see
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  the features of where your receivers don't know their routes, and all the little
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  bells and whistles that they have in store. For what home field advantage means.
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  I think that it's one that has the potential. But you know,
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  we're for me, once for me, twice for me. I mean,
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  has Nebraska been good since we had the last n C two A game?
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  I you know, I I don't know, but I think at some point
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  you have to put a little bit of team you know, you know,
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  team result into the equation because they are good fans there, but they do
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  sit on their hands if things are not necessarily going well, and they may
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  not be releasing those balloons very quickly either. Yeah they don't. They famously
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  don't boo usually, but if there's not much a cheer about, there's not
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  much cheer about, and that team has not given them a time to cheer
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  about over the last few years. Last thing, Kevin, this is one
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  I was sort of putting together a list of places that I thought maybe you
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  had gone and I had not been for a game and I had USC on
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  that list, and you thought you said, oh, oh, I have
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  thoughts on USC. So Kevin, the floor is yours. Tell me about
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  the Colisseum as I'm going to sit here and dump on the Colisseum. I'm
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  going to throw the caveat that. I have not been to USC. I've
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  not been to the Coliseum in years and years, and I've I've made a
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  comment on on Twitter splash x and got immediately shot down about, well,
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  you don't know what you're talking about because things have changed there. But what
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  hasn't changed is architecture. And it's just not a stadium that is going to
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  keep the sound honed in. And we're seeing that maybe it is a gigantic
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  Olympic type stadium and it just it is what it is. And I mean
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  a lot of times they're having to haarp off areas because they just can't put
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  enough butts and seats. Now, when Ohio State comes to town, when
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  Michigan comes to town, things are going to be a little bit different there.
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  But it's just not really a great venue for noise. And I actually
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  not only have been there to see Ohio State play, I've been there to
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  see a USC UCLA game when I was a kid, and at that moment,
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  I was pretty impressed. But I also was pretty impressed with my old
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  high school stadium that I wasn't going to yet when because I was pretty young
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  when I went to that game. So SC probably not going to get to
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  the top of any of these lists anytime soon, just because of the enormity
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  of the venue and just there's not really a great way to keep the sound
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  in all right. Yeah, so well, I'll have to take you your
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  word for that for at least a little bit. Buckeyes do not have a
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  trip scheduled out there until twenty twenty six. They do have a trip scheduled
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  to Washington next year, just double check that before we wrapped up. Yeah,
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  there are some big venues on this schedule, and they could play at
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  the home of USC UCLA sorry later this year as well. That's potentially a
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  spot they could play a college football quarterfinal game in the Rose Bowl. Been
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  there many times, you know. My thoughts on the Rose Bowl. Not
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  the loudest venue, definitely the best venue, that's all right, So we'll
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  we'll see where the buck Eyes end up this year. Wherever the buck guys
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  end up We will be there, Kevin, Tony and I following the Buckeyes
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  do Big ten media days in Indianapolis in about a month and then on the
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  road at home all over the country this year. Wherever the college football postseason
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  takes them, we will be there and we'll be covering it all at bucke
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  Huddle dot com. That's where we cover the team. We get Mark covering
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  recruiting is the time in recruiting right now. Lots of news happening. Mark
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  had an all day chat on Tuesday on our board. Tons of questions about
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  all sorts of different elements of recruiting and where things stand with certain guys and
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  guys who might get offers and all that kind of stuff. Really really good
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  insight and content there from Mark on the Huddleward presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse,
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  accessible only to members of bucke Huddle dot com. A great reason to sign
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  up for that, as well as all of our coverage of the team,
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  our coverage from our ex'es and o's gurus who are all there making you a
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  smarter football fan, all at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That'll do it for
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  today. Thank you guys all for joining us have a great day. We'll
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  talk to you tomorrow.