COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State’s 2024 team suffered an unfathomable loss to Michigan on Saturday, launching into question the entire future of the program, and what the next few months could hold.

For various members of the 2025 class, though, they took to social media on Sunday night to reaffirm their commitments — without explicitly stating so. But their message was clear.

With National Signing Day on Wednesday, a few recruits made their positions clear. They were:

-Running back Bo Jackson

-Defensive lineman Trajen Odom

-Safety Deshawn Stewart

-Safety Cody Haddad

-Running back Isaiah West

-Linebacker Eli Lee

-Quarterback Tavien St. Clair

-Receiver Phillip Bell III

-Safety Faheem Delane

-Offensive lineman Jayvon McFadden

-Linebacker Riley Pettijohn

-Cornerback Devin Sanchez

-Receiver Bodpegn Miller

-Offensive lineman Jake Cook

Of course, there are 25 commitments in the class, so a player not posting about it on social media doesn’t mean disaster is on the horizon for Ohio State’s class. But for those 14 players, it’s clear that there’s nothing to worry about — and there is nothing to worry about for a few other recruits as well.

Notably, though, five-star cornerback Na’eem Offord will be amongst the names to keep an eye on this week. He will decide between Oregon, Auburn and sticking with his pledge to Ohio State.

Yale Athletics

The men’s swimming and diving team (2–0, 2–0 Ivy) came in fourth at the Ohio State Invitational last weekend, finishing with a grand total of 1292.5 points and breaking six Yale records. 

The Ohio State Invitational took place from Nov. 21 through Nov. 23, and the Buckeyes welcomed the Elis and eight other teams to compete: Cincinnati, Indiana, Louisville, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Rutgers and the UCLA women’s team. 

The Bulldogs can use their successes in Columbus as momentum for the remainder of the season.

“Ohio was a great opportunity to see where we are as individuals, what we need to improve to help the team as much as possible in the second half of the season,” Konstantinos Zachariadis ’27 wrote to the News.

Day One: Thursday, Nov. 21

The highlight of the opening day was Jake Wang ’28, who broke a team record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:45.34. 

Alexander Hazlett ’26 came in 19th, followed by Charlie Egeland ’27 at 1:47.05 and 1:47.69, respectively. 

Noah Millard ’26 excelled in the 500-yard freestyle, placing first and clocking in at 4:11.29. Arshak Hambardzumyan ’28 finished 13th in 4:19.77. 

The Bulldogs also placed well in the relay race. Wang, Nick Finch ’28, Nareg Minassian ’26 and Deniel Nankov ’27 finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:17.55. The team of Mak Nurkic Kacapor ’27, Lucius Brown ’26, Alex Deng ’25 and Hazlett came in eighth, clocking in at 1:19.12. In the 400-yard medley relay, the squad of Millard, Egeland, Finch and Nankov finished in 3:07.53, putting them in fifth place. 

In the 50-yard freestyle, Finch placed tenth in 19.82, Nenkov came in 15th with a time of 19.68 and Minassian finished 18th in 19.87. 

On the diving side, Brady Stanton ’28 led the Bulldogs, placing 15th in the 1-meter board competition with his score of 275.3. Fellow first year Jackson Lipscomb ’28 scored 266.6 points, which put him in 18th place. Nicholas Chau ’26 followed closely, finishing two places behind, with a score of 258.6, and Ray Wipfli ’25 came in 28th with 197 points.  

Ending the day with a team total of 377.50 points, the Bulldogs were in fourth, with Penn State, Cincinnati, Northwestern and Notre Dame trailing behind. 

Day Two: Friday, Nov. 22

The highlights of the second day of competition included three broken team records. Egeland, Brown, Nankov and Finch broke the record in the men’s 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:24.98, putting them sixth overall. With a time of 45.50, Finch broke the record in the 100-yard butterfly. In the 200-yard freestyle, Millard’s time of 1:32.42 broke his own record and secured him third. 

Considering his own and the team’s record breaking achievements, Millard was proud of the team’s performance in Columbus. 

“The OSU meet was a great way for everyone on the team to give themselves a benchmark at the halfway point of the season, seeing the successes from their training thus far. It’s also a great opportunity to be compared against other high quality competitors and then to see how we can fine tune our skills in the next 12 weeks before Ivy Champs,” Millard wrote to the News. 

In addition to Millard’s record-breaking finish in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:32.85, Jose Cano ’26 came in 18th in 1:38.38, Nankov in 20th in 1:39.30 and Finn Henry ’26 came in 23rd in the C final. The Bulldogs performed well in the 400-yard individual medley. Jed Jones ’25 came in 16th in 3:50.93, Elliot Lee ’28 in 24th with 3:53.71 and Zachariadis in 30th in 4:02.07. 

Other impressive scores came from Egeland’s ninth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in 52.54, Wang in 11th with a score of 52.75 and Deng at his heels in 52.97, followed by Hazlett in 15th in 53.24, Minassian in 18th in 54.02 and Alex Brehm ’25 in 29th with a time of 54.82. In the 100-yard backstroke, first-year Manoli Mountantonakis ’28 came in 25th, touching the wall in 48.17; Kacapor’s time of 48.48 placed him 29th. The team of Millard, Jones, Wang and Egeland finished sixth in the 800-yard freestyle relay in 6:26.71. 

The Elis ended a long and successful day of swimming, maintaining their fourth-place spot. 

Day Three: Saturday, Nov. 23

The Bulldogs broke two more records on the final day of competition: Egeland in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:54.82 and Millard in the 1650-yard freestyle in 14:33.47. 

Millard’s record-breaking time and a first-place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle was an NCAA “A” cut mark. Hambardzumyan placed seventh in 15:08.36, Cano in 18th in 15:30.26, Zachariadis in 22nd in 15:35.52 and Henry in 24th in 15:48.62. 

Many Elis posted impressive times in the 200-yard backstroke. Mountantonakis finished 14th in 1:44.56, Lee in 17th with a score of 1:45.93, Kacapor in twenty-fourth in 1:47.24, Jones in 26th in 1:48.40 and Lee rounding out the team in 29th in 1:50.97.  

In the 100-yard freestyle, Nankov’s time of 43.29 put him in eighth. Finch’s time of 43.33, only 0.04 seconds behind Nankov, helped him claim ninth, followed by Minassian in 15th with his time of 43.50, Brown in 25th in 44.44 and Kacapor in 29th, clocking in at 44.84. 

The 200-yard breaststroke put many Elis on the scoreboard. Egeland finished eighth in 1:55.09, Deng in 15th with a time of 1:57.36, Wang in 22nd in 1:57.74 and Brehm in 23rd in 1:59.04. In the 200-yard butterfly, Lee placed 17th in 1:48.40 and Hazlett in 21st in 1:46.66. Millard, Finch, Minassian and Nankov’s time of 2.51.65 in the 400-yard freestyle relay earned them fifth place. 

With a final team score of 1292.5, the Bulldogs ended the Invitational in fourth place.

Reflecting on the team’s wins over the three days, Zachariadis was proud of the team’s performance and looks forward to keeping up the momentum throughout the season. 

“This team can achieve great things and it is a pleasure to be part of it! There were some great swims and we are all excited for what is next!” Zachariadis wrote to the News. 

Millard echoed Zachariadis’ sentiment, expressing that he, too, anticipates the team’s upcoming meets as they continue to build on past successes.

“I’m super motivated after seeing how the team raced,” Millard wrote to the News. “We have a lot of exciting things developing and I can’t wait to see what will happen come our championship meet.”

The Elis will host Southern Connecticut on Wednesday, Dec. 4, and Thursday, Dec. 5, at Payne Whitney Gymnasium’s Kiphuth Exhibition Pool and head to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the U.S. Open from Wednesday, Dec. 4, through Saturday, Dec. 7. 

Ohio State, Miami and Clemson plunged in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday following their losses during a wild weekend, while eight of the top 10 teams moved up one spot behind No. 1 Oregon.

The Ducks held the top spot for the seventh straight week.

The shake-up creates two top-five matchups in conference championship games coming up on Saturday — a day before the College Football Playoff bracket is announced. Oregon, the nation’s only unbeaten team, will face No. 3 Penn State in the Big Ten game in Indianapolis. No. 2 Texas will play No. 5 Georgia in the Southeastern Conference game in Atlanta, a rematch of their top-five meeting in October won by the Bulldogs.

No. 4 Notre Dame, 11-1 and winner of 10 straight games, won’t play again until the College Football Playoff.

Ohio State, which lost for the fourth straight time to Michigan and was knocked out of the Big Ten title game, dropped five spots to No. 7, behind Tennessee.

SMU is No. 8 and followed by Indiana and Boise State. The Broncos are in the top 10 for the first time since 2011 and are the highest-ranked Group of 5 team, two spots ahead of No. 12 Arizona State, the highest-ranked Big 12 team.

If the Broncos win the Mountain West title and are one of the four highest-ranked conference champions in the final CFP rankings, they would receive a bye to the quarterfinals.

Miami’s loss at Syracuse cost the Hurricanes a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game — and possibly the CFP — dropping them six spots to No. 14. Clemson, which plays SMU in the ACC game, lost at South Carolina and fell six places to No. 18.

South Carolina has won six straight — four against ranked opponents — and earned a three-rung promotion to No. 13. Ole Miss remained No. 15 and was followed by Iowa State and BYU.

POLL POINTS

Ohio State’s 13-10 loss to Michigan marked the fifth time this season a top-five team lost to an unranked opponent, the most since it happened five times in 2017.

Miami’s 42-38 loss to Syracuse was the 12th by a top-10 team against an unranked opponent, the most since there were 12 such losses in 2021.

It’s been 10 years since South Carolina was ranked higher than in-state rival Clemson. In 2014, the Gamecocks were No. 13 following a 3-1 start and finished 7-6, and they were unranked in Steve Spurrier’s last full season as coach.

Notre Dame has its highest ranking since it was No. 4 on Dec. 22, 2020.

WHO’S IN; WHO’S OUT

No. 23 Syracuse enters the Top 25 for the first time since Oct. 30, 2022, after winning nine games for the first time since 2018 under first-year coach Fran Brown. The win over Miami was its first over a top-10 opponent since 2017.

No. 25 Memphis, which was last ranked in October 2020, knocked off Tulane as a double-digit road underdog and has 10 wins for the second consecutive year.

Tulane, which plays at No. 24 Army in the American Athletic Conference title game, went from No. 18 to falling out of the rankings.

Texas A&M, No. 20 last week, was bounced after losing at home to Texas and dropping its last three SEC games.

CONFERENCE CALL

SEC: 7 (Nos. 2, 5, 6, 11, 13, 15, 22).

Big Ten: 5 (Nos. 1, 3, 7, 8, 21).

ACC: 4 (Nos. 8, 14, 18, 23).

Big 12: 4 (Nos. 12, 16, 17, 20).

AAC: 2 (Nos. 24, 25).

Mountain West: 2 (Nos. 10, 19).

Independent: 1 (No. 4).

RANKED VS. RANKED

No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 3 Penn State in Indianapolis: For the Big Ten championship.

No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Georgia in Atlanta: For the Southeastern Conference championship.

No. 8 SMU vs. No. 18 Clemson in Charlotte, North Carolina: For the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

No. 10 Boise State vs. No. 19 UNLV in Boise, Idaho: For the Mountain West championship.

No. 12 Arizona State vs. No. 16 Iowa State in Arlington, Texas: For the Big 12 championship.