Gene Smith’s press conference at Ohio State last week provided plenty of fodder for this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays.

Of course, we had to start by talking about the news that got everyone talking: Smith saying he does not think Ohio State should host a College Football Playoff game at Ohio Stadium. Would it really make sense for the Buckeyes to give up home-field advantage in the CFP to play in Indianapolis instead? We can see why Ohio State might prefer to play indoors – and why Ohio State might not have as much of a home-field advantage over warm-weather teams as some people think – but that doesn’t mean it’s not disappointing.

In the end, Smith’s preference may end up being a moot point anyway, as the College Football Playoff announced last week that it will not expand until at least 2026. Griffin’s holding out hope that the CFP might reconsider actually expanding to 12 teams, but Dan thinks the CFP is just delaying the inevitable.

Smith’s press conference last week gave us plenty of other topics to dive into as well, including why it’s a good thing that Ohio State won’t be playing annual games against the ACC and Pac-12 (17:25), why a divisionless Big Ten could be good for Ohio State (20:37), how the schedule might change if the playoff does expand (23:04), why Ohio State has to adapt to compete with other schools on NIL (29:42) and why a new contract for Ryan Day should be only a matter of time (35:28).

Beginning at 39:55, we shift our focus to Ohio State basketball and take a look at where things stand for the Buckeyes with two weeks to go in the regular season. Dan makes the case for why Ohio State’s basketball season should be viewed as a success so far, even though he understands where fans’ frustration after losses comes from. We also discuss Malaki Branham’s emergence as a second star and try to keep our streak going of correctly predicting how the next week of games will unfold for the Buckeyes.

Finally, we talk about why Luke Montgomery is such an important addition to Ohio State’s 2023 recruiting class (52:18) and share our thoughts on whether a five-game suspension is a fitting punishment for Juwan Howard’s meltdown in Madison (54:45).