He hasn't forgotten about us, DT. It's Just that SMENE has sent him a special gift of Green Kool-Aid and he has gotten addicted to it! 

Speaking of Green: Here's some ...

And here's some more...


And how about some more..

What is their significance to OUr team?

If you look at Paul Myerberg's twitter feed, he responds to Andrew Gribble, an OU alum and talented young sportswriter, with a hint that Ohio will be #25.

It appears that Tennessee will certainly be #28.


All these teams except BYU are now accounted for, and Florida and Oklahoma State slipped in behind Ohio as well. So, will BYU be #27? Who else would slip behind Ohio to get Ohio into the Top 25? It would have to be Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Utah,  Boise State, or Notre Dame.

based on his hint given:

"The total distance tomorrow’s program will travel for its road games this fall is 1,648 miles, give or take a mile here or there. [Distances are from the university's main address to the "town center" of each its road opponents -- for example, "Los Angles" should one of the opponents be U.S.C.]"

I think we're #27.  I did a little Google Mapping, and I came up with 1653 miles. Most of the trips didn't come up with tenths of a mile, plus I just did Athens, OH as suppose to the "University's main address", which I guess would be 120 Chubb Hall... maybe? That's why I think I'm about 5 miles off.

I just did Athens in general using Bing, rounded.

Athens to Happy Valley-469
Athens to Huntington-80
Athens to Foxborough-726
Athens to Oxford-167
Athens to Muncie-220
Athens to Kent-172
1834

Three very different numbers.  Too early in the morning for me to trust mine at all.

Ah, I figured it out. The shorter distances are as the crow flies, computed by using latitudes and longitudes, while the longer distances are the driving distances. This website computes it both ways, and shows Athens to Oxford at 142 as the crow flies, and 181 driving distance.

Since technology isn't helping us, we can at least eliminate some based on our smarts.  
Using the post on Page 2, I think we are down to this.
Alabama, Arkansas, Boise State, Brigham Young, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Southern Cal, Stanford, Texas, Texas Christian, Utah, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Although home vs Hawaii, BYU travels all over the west and as far east as Notre Dame and GT.
Notre Dame has to travel to USC this year. 
Boise is @ Hawaii
Even if Boise was home I think their conference schedule puts them out of the running... So I'll focus on teams in the East
Virginia plays @TCU, otherwise they might have had a shot.
Ohio State looked worth counting...
to MSU 255
to South Bend 227
to State College 323
to Madison 502
1277 Only 4 away games. 
WVU is Big 12 now, thinking it is probably us.
GT looks close...
to Maryland 649
to VT 410
to Clemson 123
to UNC 379
to the other Athens 70
1631
Could be?

Georgia Tech is 27!!

Well, well, Ohio will apparently be #26. The clue he gave did not appear to fit, though it almost did, but apparently he was using different data for the 1896 and 1898 seasons than the data in the Ohio Media Guide, and he intended the clue to point to Ohio.

Now that we see Ohio ranked at #26 by Presnapread, and at #31 by Phil Steele, the question arises, how good does the team need to be to justify that kind of rating, given the parity in college football? Turning to the Sagarin ratings, which I like for their transparency, last year's numbers:
#26 team - 79.91
#51 team - 73.88
#76 team (Ohio) - 69.81

The preseason consensus seems to place Ohio at about #51. To achieve that, Ohio will need to be about 4 points better than last year. Is that possible? Definitely. I think the offense will be about the same, but the defense will be a few points better. In fact, a 4 point improvement, is just about exactly what I expect.

What about a #26 rating? To approach the top 25, Ohio will need to improve a full ten points over last year. That's a huge jump. Ohio has jumped 10 points before a couple times,  from 2005 to 2006  and from 2010 to 2011, plus the 2008 to 2009 jump was close. A ten point jump will be hard, though starting from as good as they were last year. That's going to be tough.

What will it take? Well, for starters, an extra year with the Frankenstein offense should be worth a couple more points. TT's experience will help, too. The young receivers, and the young offensive tackles will have to pick up where last year's receivers left off. The defense will also have to get better, and make significantly fewer bad plays, and get more sacks. Is it possible? Well, I won't be the one to say they can't do it, but I'm not ready to say they belong at #26 yet, either.

Go Ohio!

I woke up and examined a controversy regarding mapping, mid-day a Deaf and Dumb Institute controversy emerges.  What will the evening bring?

Indeed. It seems that the data at Cfbwarehouse for Ohio does not match the Ohio records for the years 1896, 1897, and 1898:
1. Did they play Marietta once or twice in 1896?
2. Did they win or lose the games with Chillicothe in 1896, and was it the "Young Men's Club" or the "Young Men's Christian Association", ie, YMCA?
3. Was the game with the Deaf and Dumb Institute in 1897, or in 1898?

The only person who probably remembers those games is OCF.

According to my trusty 19th Century media guides, here's the answers to your questions:

1.  1896 -- played Marietta once, lost 22-0
2.  1896 -- played Y.M.C. (Chillicothe) twice; won first game 12-6, won second game 22-8.
3.  The 38-6 walloping of D&D Institute occurred in 1897.  

The four-game 1898 and '99 seasons were very abbreviated, in part, I believe because of the death of QB Ralph O'Bleness due to an injury in practice prior to the '98 WVU game in Morgantown.  The Mountaineers won 16-0, after having lost the previous year in Athens, 12-0.  Charles G. O'Bleness, Ralph's brother, was the founder of the Security Bank in Athens and the benefactor of the hospital in Athens that bears his name.  Charles was the manager of the football team when his brother was QB.  He was also the founder of the Ohio Debate Team, and a championship debater, back in the day.  

Agree with you, L.C., that there is a lot of meat in the Read. I found it interesting that he would even hint we could run the table in be in a BCS bowl. I'm not sure my old heart could take a perfect 13-0 into a major bowl ... but I'd die proud wearing my Green!