Stinks/doesn’t stink: Camping World Bowl, GIA Attendance and Early Signing Day

Your favorite hot takes column of stinks/doesn’t stink is back for a postseason appearance. Today, we’re diving into the Camping World Bowl, slumping GIA attendance and early signing day.

Camping World Bowl

If you’d told me or any one of the 30 Kyle’s at PFB that OSU would lose three home games and play a bowl game for a potential 10th win of the season, I would have told you to peace out of my happy space. But uh … here we are. And here’s Gundy this week reviewing the season and previewing the bowl game vs. Va. Tech.

“I don’t see our season as a disappointment. I know we all want to make the final four. Winning nine games is difficult. I think the people will be excited about being there. I think they’ll be excited about a location where there’s a lot to do. I would be surprised if we didn’t have as much of a fan following as we did a few years ago in Phoenix.”

Certainly there’s nothing you can do to improve your win total — TCU, Oklahoma and K-State you just can’t get back, after all — but there’s a weird dynamic to those Gundy comments that doesn’t sit right with me.

Is 9-3 a bad season? No. Is the Camping World a bad bowl? Not really. But, is it based off of preseason expectations and the roster’s talent level? My answer there is yes. Maybe I’d be more interested if it was Notre Dame instead of Virginia Tech.

No offense to the Camping World Bowl but ….

Verdict: Stinks

Slumping GIA attendance

There’s been many #stats thrown out on the Twitter this week regarding OSU’s slumping attendance at GIA, despite a 7-1 basketball team.

Attendance is down, which indicates either fans aren’t interested, don’t care yet, or simply aren’t bought in with the product on the floor. There’s innumerable ways to break it down and certainly it’s a case-by-case situation as to why people are choosing to stay home rather than packing up to get to GIA.

But here’s the facts: Basketball is a second semester sport. I cover it. No place — outside your KUs or Kentucky’s or Dukes — are selling out in November or December. They just aren’t. And for a program that lost its best player to the NBA and its best coach to Illinois, I’m not sure why there’s an outcry for people to come watch a team that, by most prognosticators predictions, is likely to finish in the bottom three of the conference.

Will the attendance change come Big 12 play? My guess is that there will be a slight uptick, but numbers will still be down. But here’s my not-so-hot take: Let’s wait until conference play before we fire up our pitch forks and call for fans to get off their bottoms.

Verdict: Doesn’t stink … yet

Early signing day

For the first time ever, the early signing day in college football will take place beginning on Dec. 20. We’ve talked about the benefits of it as it relates to OSU and the sport in general, but given its fast approaching date, I thought it relevant to hit on again today.

In previous years, OSU has lost key commitments late in the process. Ronald Jones was a late de-commit. Nick Starkel, too. So the fact that OSU can now lock these guys up essentially two months before they typically could is excellent news.

Spencer Sanders, OSU’s quarterback of the future, plans to sign early. As do several other OSU commits I’ve talked with in recent weeks. That means OSU coaches can turn their focus to the 2019 class and beyond much earlier than normal, and have little to no worries about major programs poaching in the final hour. I’m all for it.

Verdict: Doesn’t stink