Ohio State’s first official media availability of the preseason will be held one week from today when Ryan Day, C.J. Stroud, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Ronnie Hickman will meet with reporters at Big Ten Media Days.

With that in mind, we start today’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays – after Dan gloats for a bit about winning last week’s draft – by looking ahead to next week’s Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis, where representatives from all 14 Big Ten teams will meet with the media between Tuesday and Wednesday.

We discuss why Stroud, Smith-Njigba and Hickman are the right choices to represent Ohio State at media days (though we would have also loved to see Dawand Jones back in his hometown) and what we could hear from each of them and Day. Expansion will undoubtedly be the dominant storyline next week, particularly during Kevin Warren’s press conference on Tuesday, but we’re also expecting plenty of Ohio State/Michigan talk – with the near-certainty that both fan bases will get riled up over something a representative from the other team says.

(Programming note: Since Ohio State’s day at Big Ten Media Days will be on Wednesday, next week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays – despite the name – will be published on Thursday, allowing us to talk about everything we learned in Indianapolis.)

Around the halfway mark of the show (29:13), we shift our attention to the latest developments in Ohio State’s recruiting for the 2023 class. Even though the Buckeyes still have the No. 1-ranked class in the country, some fans have expressed concerns after a few notable misses for Ohio State in recent days. Is there really anything to be concerned about with a class that still leads the nation? We take stock of what the Buckeyes have done well in the class and where they still have work to do.

With last week’s news that Ohio State will hold both a black-out and a scarlet-out this season, we also spend some time sharing our thoughts on Ohio State’s alternate uniforms. Should the Buckeyes try some more creative uniform concepts, or should they simply stick with tradition? Should Ohio State bring back the gray sleeves permanently, or wear them for College Football Playoff games only? We discuss all of that (starting at 44:38).

In the final 15 minutes of the show (beginning at 51:55), we turn our attention to basketball and get Griffin’s thoughts on which current and former Ohio State players have stood out in the Kingdom League, what the Buckeyes could get out of their upcoming trip to the Bahamas and where the Buckeyes stand with top targets Scotty Middleton and Devin Royal.

Finally, we show our youth with our answers to a fun listener question: Which Ohio State football and basketball players that you didn’t get to watch live do you most wish you could have?