Ohio State has made some stupid decisions when it comes to traditions over the last couple of years. Most of these decisions have come from Ross Bjork, who is clearly trying to put his own stamp on the Ohio State football program as a whole. Most of them have been bad. Bjork even acknowledged one mistake recently.
That didn't stop Bjork from making a decision to change another tradition. The Buckeyes will not be having Senior Day against TTUN, as they normally do. Instead, it will be in Week 1 against Ball State. Ryan Day was asked about that decision, and it turns out that he is not totally blameless in this scenario.
Ryan Day says moving Senior Day was an idea Ross Bjork came up with
When asked about it after their first intrasquad scrimmage of the Fall, Day acknowledged that the idea was brought to him by the administration first. However, Day seemed to actually like the idea of moving Senior Day, showing he's not blameless for this bad decision.
"It first came to be from our administration as an idea, and we talked about it. The traditions here at Ohio State are significant and very, very strong, and something we all respect. What we don't want to do is do anything that is going to disrupt any of those traditions. But when we look at everything that goes on that weekend, how things have changed, there's some things that we thought about. We want to keep the focus on the game. This was just one more thing we thought we could move."
That's not a good enough excuse to move something that fans look forward to every single year. The fans love being able to thank the seniors for their dedication to the program over the years, especially in years where it falls against TTUN. It also helps stir emotions with these players that can be helpful.
Ross Bjork likely pushed this idea more than Ryan Day is letting on
It seems likely that Bjork pushed this idea a little harder than Day is letting on. As we've seen over the last few years, Bjork is not shy about implementing what he wants. If he thinks something is better to do in a certain way, he will do it. It's pretty clear Bjork doesn't care about tradition as much as the fans do.
Day needs to have a little bit more pushback when it comes to these things. Fans won't tolerate messing with too many traditions before they start to become incredibly vocal about things. Bjork already wore out his welcome at two SEC schools before coming to Columbus.
The Ohio State Buckeyes will continue to worry about the football that needs to be played the most, which is a good thing. Day mentioned that the seniors thought this was a good idea, so perhaps they are on board, too. Still, this is something that doesn't sit right with me, and there are a lot of fans in agreement with that.
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