College Football has been fraught with lawsuits this season. Players and teams that don't like the rules have decided to find a lawyer who will fight and a judge who agrees with them to get what they want. Ohio State football players and coaches haven't done that, though.
The Buckeyes don't have a single player on their roster who was part of a lawsuit to get an extra year of eligibility. Instead, they played things by the book, which is what fans wanted to see. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has decided to grant a lot of players eligibility anyway.
Ohio Governor doesn't help Ohio State in eligibility ruling
DeWine issued an executive order that grants every player in college a fifth year of eligibility. He essentially says that the NCAA rules don't supersede the rules in Ohio. This only applies to players who have not tried to play professionally, so this isn't an LSU situation.
However, the NCAA came back and said that DeWine can't legislate the rules of the NCAA. It's highly unlikely that this holds up in court, although previous lawsuits ended up helping the players more than expected. Regardless, this ruling does nothing for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Ohio State's football and basketball rosters are already set. They won't be looking to add any more players during the course of the year. This order comes in the middle of the football season, so it does Ryan Day no good. The roster he has assembled to this point is pretty good, anyway.
This is just one more mess that college football has brought upon itself for failing to have real rules in place. Until there is something done at the federal level, the college sports landscape will keep looking this way. Unhappy players will find a judge with a tie to a school that gives them a favorable ruling.
Ohio State doesn't need to add more players to win a title
The way that the Buckeyes are currently constructed gives them a shot to win a title. Besides one poor quarter of play, Ohio State has been dominant in every game they have played. Jeremiah Smith is the best player in the country, and the rest of the offense is starting to click around him.
Defensively, Ohio State has done a better job of stopping the run. They have done a good job of keeping teams from throwing the ball on them all year long. While the special teams are a mess, Ryan Day feels good about the core group of guys that he has in most of the position groups.
This order does nothing for the Buckeyes, so it's an odd move for DeWine to make. Some smaller schools might get some use out of it for basketball season if the court upholds it. This would have been better served to have been tried in the summer. Even then, it likely wouldn't have done much for Day.
Ohio State will just keep chugging along and will continue to prepare for the end of the year. Winning this week in Bloomington would give them a massive upper hand in the Big Ten race, as well.
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