You don't have to be a fan of sports to know that the world is still in a holding pattern but if you are not a fan of sports, you probably are not reading this piece currently.

While people are hopeful that a resumption of sports will be sooner rather than later, nobody knows anything at this point as the world deals with the larger issue of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences that arise in having to shut things down on a global scale.

When it comes to those major things, we will allow other outlets to sort through all of that, our focus here is talking about Ohio State sports and recruiting, and while sports are on the shelf, recruiting continues to go on, even if it is a bit of a different world out there.

In this week's edition of the 3-2-1 brought to you by our friends at Hague Water Conditioning, several Ohio State coaches are in the news but not for either their on-field/court leadership or recruiting but rather how they are taking the lead in helping those who need a hand up during these difficult times. Plus, the roster turnover for the Ohio State men's basketball team is still churning, we talk a little bit about the latest name to join the team and look at the bigger picture of where Ohio State stands now. Plus, are we getting closer to seeing an expanded College Football Playoff field in the next five-plus years? We ask some questions in regards to that.

1 - Ohio State coaches giving back

Times are tough for a lot of Americans as we are beyond the three-week mark of things being shut down largely on a national scale. It is during times like this this that the challenge is out there to help those who are less fortunate during these tough times or might need a hand up to make ends meet.

Ohio State's Director of Athletics, Gene Smith, football coach, Ryan Day, and men's basketball coach, Chris Holtmann, along with their wives made a pledge earlier this week to donate $35,000 a month between April and August to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank's COVID-19 Emergency Fund. That total donation will total $175,000 upon completion.

Shortly after that move was announced, the Ohio State assistant football coaches stepped up with an additional pledge of $47,000, bringing the total donation up to $222,000.

For those unfamiliar with the work of the Mid-Ohio Footbank, the organization is able to secure $9 worth of groceries for every dollar donated, meaning that over the course of this campaign, the organization should be able to secure close to $2-million in groceries to help distribute among the less fortunate and those who have seen job interruption or loss due to the shutting down of many industries during this public health scare.

According to a release provided by Ohio State Athletic Communications, the foodbank normally provides enough food for 150,000 meals a day over a reach of a 20-county service area. That number has obviously seen a dramatic rise over the last three weeks and since March 23rd, the foodbank has seen distributions go up 14-percent over the same period in 2019.

“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of these amazing families to be on this journey with us.” said Matt Habash, president and CEO of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.

For anyone looking to make their own donation to help families affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, please visit www.midohiofoodbank.org/buckeyenation.

2 - Recruiting is in good hands

We had the chance to speak with Ohio State's Assistant Athletic Director of Player Personnel, Mark Pantoni, on a conference call earlier this week. It is an impressive title for Pantoni but what he has been able to accomplish in spearheading the Ohio State recruiting effort since arriving at the school in 2012 is even more impressive than any title that they could give him.

You could have all the planning and mapping out in the world but if you don't have the coaches to go out and do the work, it would all be a moot point. But conversely, you could have dynamic recruiters but if you don't have the strong foundation back in the football offices of where to expend the energy, it would be a rudderless shift.

Pantoni is that rudder and he has been leading Ohio State into clear recruiting waters every season.

RELATED: Buckeyes stay on the cutting edge of recruiting amid shutdown

We have spoken at length and multiple times about the lead that Ohio State has opened up in the Rivals.com team recruiting rankings with the top national class for 2021 at this point, a class that stands 15 strong and could be close to some other big names.

With recruiting being a relationship business, these are not things that just happen overnight. The successful programs are always working ahead when it comes to keeping tabs on 'the next class' and being ready once the NCAA calendar allows for schools to be talking to the rising juniors.

“We built those relationships over a long period of time and it did not just start in January, it starts September 1st of their junior year where we have gone very hard at a lot of guys that are already part of the class,” Pantoni added.

Obviously there is a long way until National Signing Day 2021, be it a December NSD in 2020 or the more traditional February 2021 period. A lot of things could happen between now and then and the Buckeyes are not tiring themselves out by slapping each other on the back with a partial class verbally committed (and not signed) and position needs still needing to be addressed.

"There's a long way to go and some of these kids only visited one time, or even zero times, and have committed to us," Pantoni added. "So we know that we have a long way to go to keep them firm and get them back on campus, and just continue to make sure that everything stays firm."

3 - Building for the future

We told you earlier this week about the addition of Jimmy Sotos to the Ohio State roster by way of transfer.

He follows in a trend of "sit one" transfers that includes players like CJ Walker, Justice Sueing and now Sotos. Ohio State has also gone through the graduate transfer ranks as well to get guys like Seth Towns and Keyshawn Woods.

We will talk more about what is "up next" for the team in the next segment of this piece but here we can focus on the fact that Ohio State under Chris Holtmann continues to plan for the long game by adding guys who will sit for a year and then either have one or two years left to play on the other side of that (Sotos will have one year to play on the other end).

The Ohio State head coach has been very clear about the necessity to have someone "waiting in the wings" just based on how roster management works these days.

"We’ll always, almost always, have a sit-one transfer on our roster, in some cases two, because it stabilizes your roster in a day and age where there can be a lot of volatility,” Holtmann said in June of 2019.

Of course there are people who just look at the near-term and feel that there needs to be an immediate push to go all-in on the current season and only focus on guys who are immediately eligible. And while the focus is on winning now, the truth of the matter is very few teams really even go 10-deep in terms of a rotation come the "meat" of their schedule, let along going 12 or 13 deep.

So look for this to be a continuing trend under Holtmann as he looks to keep one or two in reserve to have a good mixture of the young and the old on his roster moving forward.

We will talk about what that 13th spot on the team could look like next year in just a minute.

1 - Now what for basketball?

Back to basketball, Ohio State currently sits at 12 on scholarship provided that Kaleb Wesson follows through his professional basketball pursuits this season and does not return to Ohio State. What does that mean for that 13th and final spot?

Of the 12 on scholarship, 11 will be eligible with Justice Sueing coming off of his "sit one" year and with Seth Towns being immediately eligible.

Does Ohio State look to get someone else that can go "next year" via the graduate transfer? Does Ohio State look to get another "sit one" player? Does Ohio State go and try and kick the tires on another freshman-to-be?

Ohio State is still out there on the list of a player or two but if we had to guess at this point, we would expect to see Ohio State standing pat and having that scholarship available for the next cycle.

The Buckeyes will have two seniors (that will be playing) next season with Kyle Young and CJ Walker and Ohio State already has two commitments for the class of 2021 with Kalen Etzler and Meechie Johnson.

Sure, Ohio State definitely could use another point guard, someone to aid CJ Walker in those duties but also remember that Duane Washington can bring the ball up the court too.

Ohio State does not have that "center" that so many teams in the league have and that will be interesting to see how Ohio State would play small. Ibrahima Diallo is not quite ready yet and still has a lot of offensive limitations in his game as he is still really learning the finer points of being a big man in the American game.

It appears that a guard may be the more likely option if they go and get a one-year hired gun. Names like Devin Gage (DePaul) and Justin Kier (George Mason) have emerged as recently as Thursday with Ohio State attached as a team looking closer. This certainly lends itself to the belief that Ohio State could be in the market for that one grad transfer which will still allow Ohio State the chance to add at least one player to the class of 2021, and more if the constant cycle of roster churn keeps going after the upcoming season.

2 - Expanded playoff coming in the future?

We know that the College Football Playoff is locked in at just four teams through the 2025 season per the current contracts. But anything beyond that is up for discussion as new deals will need to be signed and decisions will need to be made.

According to a published report on Stadium, 85-percent of ADs that were polled are in favor of expanding the field from four to more teams with 72-percent wanting it to sit at eight.

Of course the belief would be something like all five Power Five champions making the field, plus a Group of Five champion as well as two at-large teams to make a field of eight.

That opens up a lot of questions, especially in a day and age where parity is not a real thing in terms of how college conferences conduct business. Eight or nine league games? Play FCS foes or not? There are a lot of ways to artificially keep a conference non-champion high in the rankings and earn that second (or maybe third if you listen to some of the SEC honks out there) team into the field and additional paychecks. While it would not benefit Vanderbilt, Rutgers or Oregon State in the near term to see an additional team from their league go to the playoff, when it comes time to split checks among league members, that money will go a long way to helping forget a 3-9 season.

How do you pick a G5 champion to emerge? How does any of this work? Where do you play the additional round of games? Do you start the season earlier? Do you risk playing a first-round playoff game in Columbus or another cold-weather city?

It is going to create a lot of fun conversation even if the real conversations are probably a couple of years away but it is something that seems to have a lot of groundswell and eight is on its way.

Chase Young and Jeff Okudah in the first round? Check.

Who could go in the second round? There are several possibilities based on which mock draft you are looking at.

We are not going to get ahead of ourselves and make the declaration now, but we are just going to say that the record of how Ohio State players are translating to the league and just the sheer number of players that are getting good grades, that by the end of round two, we will see at least four Buckeyes off the board.