You can turn on the news or open social media and you will see one story or another from an official of one school or conference weighing in with their thoughts on what the path will be for college football. Some are optimistic, some not so much and other voices have come out and said that nobody knows.

The only thing that we know is the truly desperate (myself included) suddenly have a rooting interest in the KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) not only as the only real outlet for live sports but also as an example of trying to bring live sports back into society, even if it is without fans in the stands (at this current moment).

In this week's edition of the 3-2-1 brought to you by our friends at Hague Water Conditioning, we talk about where things stand in college football, we go down under to talk about Ohio State's recruiting efforts and we really just try to focus on how important sports are to all of us.

1 - Crying, Waiting, Hoping

While the absence of football in May is not exactly a new thing based on how the calendar works, the loss of the spring practice window, the up-in-the-air status of football camps and most importantly, the unknown of what the season may look like in terms of delays, cancellations or worse has football fans very much on the ledge as there are more questions than answers. In fact, there are no answers at this point.

There are plenty of voices out there, each with their own message or opinion. Penn State head coach James Franklin came out and said in an interview with ESPN essentially that in his opinion, he could see conferences moving forward, even if the entire membership was not able to move forward.

"I don't see a conference -- any conference -- penalizing 80% or 75% of the schools because 25% of them can't open," Franklin said.

Staying in the Big Ten however, University of Minnesota regent Michael Hsu took to the Paul Finebaum radio show to deliver a much less optimistic picture just a few days earlier.

"I would say that based on what's available to us today in terms of science and vaccine development, I think the odds are we are not (going to) be back to school in the fall, in person," Hsu stated on the Finebaum show. "And, that may mean that sports is also not gonna be happening, at least in the beginning."

U of M board regents chair Ken Powell jumped in after the interview had aired to say that no decisions had been made in regard to fall athletics or in-person classroom attendance.

While schools like Arkansas, Colorado State, Arizona and Arizona State are among a list of schools that have signaled through the media and their actions a plan to reopen their campuses in the fall, schools like Cal and Stanford have been mentioned as schools that might be slower to re-open among media reports.

What is for certain is that there is not going to be a situation where a national all-clear is called or where the NCAA is going to step in and just "reopen" college football. The sport is not set up that way, the NCAA doesn't hold that kind of blanket power, certainly in football but more importantly, it has no voice in the decision that each school has to make in regard to bringing students or student-athletes back on campus.

The thing that fans worry about is that these decisions may come from even above the level of athletic directors or conference commissioners with this being a larger issue that resides in the statehouse. Governors will have just as much say as anyone in this and while some states have been more aggressive in their re-open plans than others.

When it comes to Ohio, don't look for Governor Mike DeWine to be out signaling things one way or the other as he said on Thursday on the Finebaum radio show as well, an odd place for a state official to show up and talk sports.

"I don’t think we know," DeWine said. "Anyone who tells you they know is making it up. I’m not going to make it up."

2 - NCAA staying nimble

On Thursday the NCAA made the move to approve three blanket waiver requests, important to shaping how business is going to be done over the coming weeks as we have been in the midst of a lengthy recruiting dead period that has kept recruitable student-athletes off campus and college coaches at home.

* Basketball and football student-athletes to participate in currently defined summer athletic activities without being enrolled in summer school.

* Schools to provide less than the currently legislated minimum financial aid requirements to maintain membership in Division I. This waiver does not provide relief from other financial aid rules, including financial aid commitments to prospective and current student-athletes or regulations related to the cancellation or reduction of financial aid.

* Reclassifying schools to count as Division I opponents in the first year of the reclassification process, whether or not the school meets Division I scheduling requirements.

Of those three waivers, the one that most fans will take notice of is the first one. That will take care of the summer-enrollees who have never had a chance to step foot on a college campus at this point, apart from the mid-year players who got a taste of college life before being sent home as campuses closed in large part.

Also stated in the release is an easing of the rules previously limiting the number of student-athletes (and family members) that were allowed to participate in a recruiting call with coaches.

These moves will also allow 'current student-athletes' to participate in these calls, but any time that is spent in these calls will count against the "eight hours" of weekly work that is allowed per NCAA rules.

A major issue that was not ruled upon in this release is a decision on an extension of the dead period itself. It does appear that the dead period could be extended out until June 30th, which would wipe out three big weeks of on-campus official visits that schools were hoping to follow through with. A decision on an extension of the dead period will be addressed at the group's May 13th meeting.

3 - I come from a land down under

The Buckeyes have found their man at punter with the commitment of 23-year-old Jesse Mirco, one of the latest stars coming out of ProKick Australia.

Drue Chrisman is going into his final year of eligibility and there was a need to add a punter to the Ohio State roster. The last time the Buckeyes went out-of-country, it worked out pretty well with Cameron Johnston.

Of course, there are going to be the star-chasers that worry what this will mean for Ohio State's recruiting class in its attempt to not only win the first recruiting national championship for Ohio State but even have a chance at maybe being the highest rated class in the Rivals.com-era.

We will be quick to remind people that the class rankings only take into account the top-20 players in terms of the formula. While Mirco does not have a ranking now, one will come at some point and even though punters do often garner four or five stars in the rankings, it is highly unlikely that Mirco will be among the top-20 players that factor into the formula to determine the top team when it is all said and done.

RELATED: How do the Rivals.com team rankings work?

Sure, this might hurt the average star ranking, but there seems to be a segment who is being very short-sighted about this and would rather hope & pray that Ohio State does not need to punt in 2021 to try and save the average star ranking.

And while the Buckeyes are still in on a lot of top players, things have a funny way of sorting themselves out and often there is not a huge instance of top-100 players trying to get into a class without a spot left for them, at least within the confines of how many players Ohio State wants to take at each position.

In short, this was a position of need, the Buckeyes are taking a player in early-May and that should be indication enough that Ohio State feels pretty good about Mirco and needed to strike while the iron was hot. It will all work out.

1 - Who's next?

We seem to ask this question each week and we will keep riding with it. If you had Jesse Micro on your board, just go ahead and take a victory lap, because nobody else did.

It has been a nice little run-up in the class of 2022 after the addition of CJ Hicks for the Buckeyes. There are plenty of other players like Gabe Powers who could be the next man up, but at this point you just never know what the timeline of any player is going to be, in-state or out of Ohio.

How about for the class of 2021? A good number of players still seem to be in a holding pattern until they can take visits. Guys like Emeka Egbuka and J.T. Tuimoloau both want to get out and take that official visit. Tywone Malone announced some top teams (but can you consider a top-14 any sort of a cut list?) Jager Burton made a tweet that either indicated he is either getting closer to a decision or had a tough dinner decision to make.

Of course when it comes to Burton, in-state Kentucky has not given up and has to be considered a co-favorite and not to be taken lightly.

JC Latham is still a name that is out there but concern has grown in recruiting fans as a lot of information is being thrown out there that leads to several different potential outcomes.

The purpose of this segment is not to come out and throw a name out there and live by it, just to ask the question of who do you think is going to be next.

2 - Are you playing College Football Risk?

We are throwing out a plug to our friends who are spearheading the Ohio State effort for College Football Risk through Reddit.

We often don't get involved in things like this but with the lack of sports going on at the time and just the friendships we have developed with a few of the people over there, we wanted to give them a platform as everyone works toward the common goal of removing Michigan from the map of the United States. (Okay, that may have come across a little harsh, but you get the idea).

There is not much time left to play, but this is the time that the Ohio State effort really could use your help.

This is not based on any inside knowledge and just waiting on a player to go public, this is just based on how things have gone to this point and a belief that as the recruiting dead period will likely extend through this month and potentially beyond, a major player, either in 2021 or 2022 will just grow tired of waiting and will make the pledge.

Of course, none of these pledges are binding, but they are not binding during a normal recruiting cycle either. That means Ohio State will have to continue to recruit at a high-level and it will be just as important to recruit players you "already have" as the ones that you would "like to land.