McCord replaces Stroud as Ohio State starter
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Tom VanHaaren, ESPN Staff Writer
After a lengthy quarterback battle this offseason, Ohio State coach Ryan Day announced Kyle McCord as the starting quarterback for the first game of the season against Indiana.
McCord had been in a battle with Devin Brown as the team is looking to replace last season’s starter, C.J. Stroud, who was the No. 2 selection in the NFL draft. Day had not named a starter and said as recently as last week that the players were still being evaluated.
“I think that’s significant that we have two guys that we feel confident playing in the game,” Day said. “This is something that’s a little unchartered territory for me, but you just go on what you see every day in practice. I think that Kyle’s consistency the last couple of weeks has allowed him to be the starter.”
Day said McCord deserves to be the starter, but Brown’s play throughout the offseason will give him the opportunity to see the field as well. The biggest challenge, according to Day, will be find a rhythm and flow for each quarterback and will go off of how the preparation for the week goes to determine playing time for both.
Day had said the battle had gone back and forth with Brown making a big push as of late, but he saw McCord step up and continue to play consistently in practice. Now, despite being named the starter, McCord needs to show Day the same consistency during the season.
“I think the first thing is you just have to go watch them play in the game, and it’s one thing in practice, you see certain things but to get tackled and to move the team down the field,” Day said. “Finish off drives, do well on third down, do well in the red zone. That’s going to continue to play itself out during the season and there’s been teams that have done this similar before.”
Ultimately the goal is to win a championship, and Day says how their story plays out will be written by each quarterback. With little experience for either signal-caller, Day says they both need each other right now and that they’ll continue to ride the roller coaster together throughout the season.
“I just don’t have a crystal ball on this and I’m not sure how it is going to shake out,” Day said. “But, I think what we’re doing is fair based on what we see in this preseason.”
Day originally said he’d like to see a sizable gap in play between his quarterbacks, but he described McCord’s play as good enough to earn the starting job. He believes the more games they play this season, the more the coaches will see in terms of strengths, rhythm and chemistry, along with results.
However, the position plays out, with McCord hanging on to the starting job or Brown eventually taking over, Day seems confident in both quarterbacks. He points to the Alabama team with Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts as teams that have navigated this situation before and believes his team will figure it out as well.
“Now, it’s time to go play in games, though, and we certainly have seen enough in practice to believe that both guys can perform in a game,” Day said. “Now it’s time to go put it on the field and when you’re in the game, you really get an idea of what is going on. In practice, you try to give controlled setting and you try to make them as game like as possible, but again, now it’s time to go play.”
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Shwetha Surendran
The NCAA sent a letter to Kalshi, a company that offers prediction markets on college basketball and football, expressing its concern about the company’s “commitment to contest integrity and the protection of contest participants,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by ESPN.
In the letter, dated Oct. 30, NCAA chief legal officer Scott Bearby asked Kalshi how it monitors collegiate sports markets for integrity concerns and activity by prohibited customers, who it considers a prohibited customer, whether it will report integrity concerns to the NCAA and whether the company will cooperate with NCAA investigations.
“We welcome Kalshi’s stance on its efforts to protect the integrity of NCAA competitions and to reduce instances of abuse and harassment directed at student-athletes and other participants,” Bearby wrote.
The NCAA also asked if Kalshi would ban prediction markets similar to prop bets, which the company began offering this fall.
Prop betting markets, Bearby noted in the letter, heighten “the risk of integrity and harassment concerns.” In March last year, NCAA president Charlie Baker called for a ban on prop bets on college athletes in states with legal sports wagering.
The NCAA also asked Kalshi in the letter to review language on its website that the NCAA says implies a relationship between them.
“Kalshi has robust market integrity provisions required by our status as a federally licensed financial exchange,” a Kalshi spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. “We value the NCAA’s feedback and are working on adjusting the language on our site. We are currently reviewing and addressing their additional requests.”
Prediction markets like Kalshi have emerged over the past year and are competing with traditional sportsbooks in the betting market. Kalshi is battling multiple lawsuits by state gambling regulators, who allege that the company is violating state laws by offering event contracts that mimic sports bets. Kalshi argues that it does not fall under state jurisdiction and is instead regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency.
In March, Kalshi announced a partnership with IC360, an integrity monitor used by many collegiate and professional leagues.
The NCAA has faced an increasing number of alleged betting violations by players in recent years. In September, the NCAA announced that a Fresno State men’s basketball player had manipulated his performance for gambling purposes and conspired with two other players in a prop betting scheme. In total, the association has opened investigations into potential betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men’s basketball players.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami has asked the Atlantic Coast Conference for clarity on a number of officiating decisions made in its loss this past weekend to SMU, including a critical 15-yard penalty in the final moments of regulation.
Miami lost the game, 26-20. The Hurricanes, who were as high as No. 2 in the AP Top 25 last month, have dropped two of their last three games and are now ranked No. 18.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said Miami has not gotten an answer from the ACC. It’s unclear if any explanations will be coming.
“Certainly, we’re waiting what the response is, as well as on the roughing the passer one which we certainly don’t agree with,” Cristobal said Monday. “But at this point in time, the best we can do is turn it in and hope for a better result next time.”
The Hurricanes’ Marquise Lightfoot was called for unnecessary roughness against SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings with about a minute left in the fourth quarter, giving the Mustangs 15 yards and a first down. Miami had called time out just before the fourth-and-9 play was snapped, and the Hurricanes argued to no avail that Lightfoot did not hear the whistle.
Replays showed that Lightfoot, who did make contact with Jennings, tried to hold the SMU quarterback up after apparently realizing the play was dead.
That penalty gave SMU the ball on the Miami 37, and the Mustangs went on to kick an overtime-forcing field goal.
Miami also was incensed about how a pass interference flag that would have aided the Hurricanes was picked up, and how officials missed a Hurricanes receiver getting tackled in the end zone on a play that wound up as a Miami interception in overtime.
Miami was called for 12 penalties in the game for 96 yards, compared with four by SMU for 40 yards. The eight-penalty differential tied Miami’s biggest of the season; it had 13 penalties compared with five by Florida State when those teams played in Tallahassee last month.
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