3-2-1: Where Do We Go From Here?

2020 has been a year filled with twists and turns, on a nearly weekly basis, when it comes to our normal way of living.

This past Tuesday, fans, players, coaches, reporters and countless other people associated with college football learned of a major change to this fall that has been dreaded: The postponement of the Big Ten and Pac-12 seasons.

Given this week’s news, it did not feel appropriate for me to roll out my traditional Thursday 3-2-1 piece filled with recruiting news and tidbits.

So, in this first edition of 1-1-1, presented by Infinit Nutrition, I’ll discuss what we learned a couple of days ago, ask about the recruiting implications of this decision and make one bold prediction about Ohio State's recruiting efforts.

First off, before I dive into the recruiting aspect of this article, I wanted to take a second to think aloud about what has transpired this month.

It was just last week that the Big Ten gave teams a schedule, a key step toward playing football this upcoming fall. I was rightly skeptical that a full season, from start to finish, could be played, but this schedule release was still an encouraging sign for fans of college football.

What I didn’t expect, however, is that the conference would end up postponing the entire season to the spring. If you have to delay to late September or early October and re-evaluate things three weeks from now, then that is understandable.

But to flat-out postpone the season to next spring just defies logic based on what occurred over a week ago.

I mentioned before that I understand there are a lot of factors at play here as we are in the middle of a global pandemic. Nobody can predict the future and what the outcomes would be if a season was played, so this is a tricky situation that needs to be handled appropriately.

As a result, I don’t believe there is an objectively correct way to handle this as a conference, but I would deem the Big Ten’s response as a head-scratcher, to say the least. From the outside looking in, it felt as if a postponement to the spring has been in the works for a while.

So, why announce a conference-only schedule? Why release that schedule only to announce a week later there will be no fall season?

I’m usually someone who likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, but it is hard for me to do so here.

Now, let’s get into some recruiting talk.

Understandably so, I get why people do not want to focus on recruiting right now. But, however, there are some points I do want to touch on before moving on to the next section.

To start off, I received word a couple of days ago that a borderline five-star pass rusher Ohio State was in pursuit of did not receive an official offer from the program. To find out who that was, click HERE.

Also, we learned on Tuesday that five-star commit Tunmise Adeleye was reopening his recruitment and had ended his nearly four-month pledge to the Buckeyes. These two developments are pretty interesting.

Based off of this, one could come to the conclusion that Ohio State is now in an even better position to land top-50 overall targets J.T. Tuimoloau and Tywone Malone. With Adeleye out of the fold and a premium defensive lineman not having the option to commit to them, it’s safe to say the Buckeyes are laser-focused on the two targets above.

Now, they could very well end up expanding their d-line board and look to flip a couple of players, namely Alabama pledge Damon Payne, so it remains to be seen how their recruiting at this position group will ultimately play out. Either way, I give Larry Johnson and company the edge in both Malone and Tuimoloau’s recruitments.

Next, going back to the postponement of the season, we learned that Ohio State’s commits are continuing to stay on board with the program.

There were Buckeye pledges understandably upset with what occurred on Tuesday, and they voiced their displeasure about the decision. To go along with that, however, were several responses reaffirming their commitments to Ohio State.

You can check out Dave Lackford and I’s full commitment reaction piece HERE, but these are some of the replies that stood out the most to us.

Donovan Jackson: “It won’t affect my recruitment at all.”

Ben Christman: “I’m locked in and will sign with Ohio State in December.”

Jordan Hancock: “I am going to miss watching them play, but other than that, it doesn’t bother me.”

Sam Hart: “I really hope they can find a safe way to play this fall and whatever the outcome is, it will not affect my recruitment at all. I’m still a Buckeye.”

Keeping this No. 1 class together is a priority for Ryan Day and his staff.

This entire section assumes that a spring season will be played next year, as well as a fall season in the latter parts of 2021. I am not going to go over whether this is feasible or not because I do not know what the world will look like five months from now.

So, for the purpose of this exercise, we are going to imagine a scenario where a spring football season could be played. What questions will we have?

The first one that immediately jumps out to me involves the uncertainty with Ohio State’s Class of 2021 commits. Right now, we don’t have any answers as to whether or not they will still be allowed to enroll early as some are planning to do.

If they do enroll in January, then will they get the opportunity to play in the spring season? If they are given permission to participate, would they use up a year of eligibility and then have to use up another year during the fall season?

Assuming the answer to that second question is yes, then there could be some problems. I would imagine a few, if not all, players choosing to just enroll in the summer and not lose a year of eligibility.

If the answer to that question is no, however, one would have to wonder whether that could actually benefit the Buckeyes’ efforts on the trail in this cycle.

While the Big Ten came out and said football is postponed until the spring, the Pac-12 did not say that would necessarily be the case in their conference. A player like Emeka Egbuka or Tuimoloau could look at Columbus as even more of an appealing destination if they get to play two seasons while only using one year of eligibility.

There are an abundance of question marks on the team side of things as to what a spring season would mean for the Buckeyes, but I believe it is possible that this scenario could help them on the trail.

Before I pose this next question, I am going to assume the February National Signing Day date is pushed back. In my opinion, it would be unfair for players to have this deadline still intact considering the fact that the dead period was pushed back yet again through the end of September.

So, here’s the question: Would official visits be allowed throughout the entire spring season?

We know that there is traditionally a dead period that lasts throughout most of February. If there is a game during that time frame a prospect really wants to check out and use their official visit for, would the NCAA consider just getting rid of this dead period for programs playing a spring season?

It is my belief that they would do so to give 2021 recruits a chance to take OVs before they sign, whenever that may be. What I am unsure about, however, is whether or not this will be extended to schools from the ACC, the Big 12 and the SEC if they indeed have a 2020-2021 football season.

It’s not 100 percent confirmed, but I would find it highly unlikely that any Big Ten program, like Ohio State, will be able to host visitors this fall since the season has been canceled.

As a result, coveted targets will only get the opportunity to check out the campus possibly starting in January, so getting rid of a whole month for them to visit is not really fair to these recruits.

There is a lot more I will be talking about in future pieces, but these were the two big questions I have at this time.

Just earlier this week, I was writing up a story that evaluated several mock classes for Ohio State. The Buckeyes had 2,885 points as I was writing it up, and the question wasn't if they will land the top class, but if it would be the greatest class of all time.

On that day, however, Adeleye announced his decommitment and the Big Ten postponed the season.

Despite it looking less likely as if it will be a guarantee that Ohio State will secure the No. 1 class in the 2021 cycle, I still believe it will happen.

Dave and I didn't get the impression that the current batch of Buckeye commits plan on reopening their recruitments, and there has been no decommitments following Tuesday's announcement.

Adeleye's decision was before the official announcement from the Big Ten that the season was postponed, so I don't believe his departure is a sign of a mass exodus. Ohio State may suffer a decommitment or two down the line, but most of their star commits will stay on board, in my opinion.

Also, Alabama is the closest to them in terms of legitimately competing for that top spot. Unless they can land Amarius Mims (a Georgia lean), Maason Smith (LSU lean) and some other top players, I find it hard to imagine them catching up to the Buckeyes.

Changes in rankings for commits and other factors could lead to Ohio State not landing the best class on our Rivals Team Rankings, but I don't envision them not finishing No. 1.

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove.