By Erik Boland
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Traveled to Columbus' famed High Street on the Ohio State campus last night to get the flavor of the city before the biggest college football game in, well, you know.
Here's what I discovered: It was completey understandable why the University of Michigan sent out an email message to students suggesting they avoid High Street. Not that it felt unsafe, far from it, its just walking about in Wolverines' gear brought to mind a Christians and lions situation from ancient Rome.
Funniest t-shirt? There were several with interesting, not to mention suggestive, derivations of "Michigan" and "Wolverines," but the winner had to be "Ann Arbor was a..." It is here I pause and paraphrase. It was something along the lines of Ann Arbor was a promiscuous woman.
Also discovered this about High Street: don't step off the curb into the street to flag down a cab. Now, living in New York there is simply no other way to grab a cab as he who politely waits curbside waits for an eternity. I stepped off a curb to get a cabbie's attention and had two police officers step up on me.
"Get the h*** out of the street!" one yelled. "Didn't you here the announcement?!?"
"Umm, no," I wittily replied.
Neither was impressed I was from New York, in fact one of them I believe was ready to ticket me for that infraction alone. Fortunately, another cab unloaded a passenger nearby and an officer said, "Get moving!"
Yes sir.
Anyway, it's about one hour from kickoff at the Horseshoe and about half of the 106,000 expected are here. Most will be in their seats by the time the Ohio State Marching Band, which by the way has it's own media guide, enters the stadium to perform Script Ohio. It's supposedly cheered louder here than touchdowns in other places.
How tough a ticket has this been? Stubhub.com had advertised tickets for upwards of $4,500 and I actually saw one - ONE - ticket this morning on ebay for $12,000. In a testament, barely, to common sense, no one, yet, had bid on it. But there's still time.