We now know exactly when Ohio State’s 2022 season will kick off, and it's hard not to start getting excited.

Ohio State’s Sept. 3 season opener against Notre Dame is still more than three months away, but the buildup to the Buckeyes’ first game of the year received a big jolt of energy Tuesday when ESPN announced that the highly anticipated non-conference clash at Ohio Stadium will be played under the lights, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.

So we begin this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by starting to look ahead to the first game of the year, as we discuss some of the many reasons Ohio State vs. Notre Dame will be the Buckeyes’ most exciting season opener in some time and share our thoughts on the early 13.5-point spread.

In that same spirit, we also share our thoughts (beginning at 14:30) on the other early betting lines for Ohio State’s big games that were recently released by FanDuel, which has the Buckeyes as a 16-point favorite over Wisconsin, 21-point favorite over Iowa, 13-point favorite over Penn State and 14-point favorite over Michigan. Are the Buckeyes really that much better than everyone else on their schedule, or are those spreads a bit too generous? And we make our picks for which games we’d feel most and least confident betting on Ohio State’s side right now.

We also take a look (20:08) at the early odds to win the Big Ten by BetOnline, which has Ohio State as a -200 favorite to take the conference crowd and no one else with better odds than +1000. Is betting on the Buckeyes good value even at 1-to-2 odds, and which other team in the conference would we be most inclined to take a flier on? Plus, we discuss which teams could be the sleepers to contend in the conference or at least pull off a big upset in Big Ten play.

In the second half of the show, we hit on a variety of miscellaneous topics including:

• 29:57: Ohio lagging behind other states by not allowing high school athletes to make NIL deals
• 32:50: Why Noah Potter and Justin Ahrens’ transfer destinations make sense
• 38:30: What Malaki Branham and E.J. Liddell could do at this week’s NBA Draft Combine
• 42:40: Griffin’s post-vacation thoughts on Ohio State basketball’s addition of Isaac Likekele
• 46:11: Who the Big Ten’s best running backs will be this year
• 48:40: Why Braxton Miller is Ohio State’s most exciting quarterback of the past 20 years