Ohio State AD Gene Smith changes mind: He's fine with having playoff game at Ohio Stadium
Bill RabinowitzGene Smith has had a change of heart about playing potential College Football Playoff games in Ohio Stadium.
Last year, the Ohio State athletic director said it would be his preference for the Buckeyes to play at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis instead of Ohio Stadium if OSU was selected as a host team in the first round.
Smith has now warmed to the idea of playing a round-of-12 game at the Horseshoe.
“The more I've listened to my colleagues and considering all the issues everybody brought up, I'm fine with playing on a campus site,” Smith said.
Last year, he cited the weather, concerns about player safety on frozen turf and the logistical challenge of preparing the stadium for a mid-December game as reasons for moving the game to a dome.
“But when you look back at the (mid-December) weather over the last 10 years, it's not that bad,” Smith said.
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He said a playoff game at Ohio Stadium would need to be played on the weekend “because of the pressure it would put on our campus,” he said. “Parking. We're still in school, so that's an operational nightmare for that magnitude of a game.
“We've got a lot of people who have to work the next day. I just think that's hard. I think we could pull off a Friday, and if push came to shove, we could probably pull off a Thursday. But that would be really hard on our campus. Students go to class. There are night classes.”
There is one reason Smith hopes the Buckeyes don't play host to a playoff game at the Horseshoe. That would mean the Buckeyes didn't finish in the top four of the CFP rankings.
“Hopefully, we're never in the (round-of-12),” he said.