Former Buckeyes get their degrees

The Onion's take on Ohio State's spring graduation ceremony

A press release issued earlier this week by The Ohio State University details the school's success in issuing degrees to former student-athletes. A report published by the National Consortium of Academics and Sports (NCAS), ranks OSU "second nationally in the 2006-07 academic year in former student-athletes returning and completing their undergraduate degrees." A PDF of the NCAS report can be found here.

Kudos to OSU for offering the NCAS' Degree Completion Program.

The list of alumni athletes (more than 100) that are currently/were in the program reads something like a line-up for the Ohio St. edition of Hollywood Squares. Some of the highlights:

• Butler By'not'e ('90-'93), who made apostrophes fashionable far before Ni'al Diggs.
• Mike Nugent ('01-'04). But, really, how did Nuge manage to not get his degree in four years?
• Michael Wiley ('96-'99)
  
• Mike Kudla ('02-'05) Not to perpetuate the meat head stereotype, but there's just no way this guy ever had time to go to class with his rigorous bench press schedule.
  
• George Reese ('99-'00). Remember? The small forward on the phantom Final Four team? 'G' tattoo on his arm? Eh? Eh?

photo/ The Onion

OSU alum play well on Sundays

Matt Wilhelm had a break-out year with the Chargers, but not good enough to edge out A.J. Hawk for a starting position on CFN's list.

In another one of CFN's trademark 'more than anyone should ever care to know about college football'-features, they've listed the Ohio St. alumni team near the top of their "NFL Alumni Teams" list.

This is one of their more, ahem, bogus undertakings. The criteria:

Remember, these are current players, or players that are still close to playing, with the occasional current college stars thrown in to to fill out a starting lineup. A * is next to the names of the incoming rookies, and a ** is next to the names of the players coming back to school next year. Also to note, the idea is to find the best players for the lines and the secondaries; they might not always fit with four safeties or five tackles if needed.

Incoming rookies? Current college players? Very curious...

The OSU roster is pretty intimidating, nonetheless (save for the typo on the D-Line.) As expected, our defense goes deeeeeep, especially in the DB and LB positions.



photo/ JIM BAIRD- Union Tribune