{"id":208054,"date":"2026-07-20T20:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=208054"},"modified":"2026-07-20T20:15:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T01:15:33","slug":"random-thoughts-hodge-podge-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/07\/20\/random-thoughts-hodge-podge-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: hodge-podge edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest installment of Random Thoughts centers around next year\u2019s Major League Baseball season, favorite sports, a resignation, NIL in Ohio, preseason picks and the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2027 baseball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major League Baseball announced its 2027 schedule last week. Hopefully I\u2019m wrong but like many others, I have serious doubts the 2027 Major League Baseball season will begin on time, if at all. A lockout is almost certainly on the horizon and a big part of it is owners\u2019 proposal for a salary cap. Obviously it\u2019s something the owners have wanted for a long time, while the players union is against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both sides appear ready to dig in. I\u2019m just hoping the entire season isn\u2019t wiped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprising stat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not quite sure I’m buying this but apparently it’s true. According to a new study, soccer has overtaken baseball to become America’s third-favorite sport. American football is No. 1 by a big margin, followed by basketball, soccer, baseball and hockey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No disrespect to soccer players or fans. I would think football would be No. 1, baseball second, basketball third, then soccer and hockey. Apparently not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t come as a surprise \u2013 Michigan AD Warde Manuel is out, effective at the end of this year. The announcement was made yesterday. After the things that have gone on in Ann Arbor \u2013 Connor Stallions, the Sherrone Moore situation \u2013 someone was going to go down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NIL in Ohio<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last last year, OHSAA member schools passed an emergency NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) referendum. The vote wasn\u2019t close, with nearly 80 percent of schools that cast ballots voting in favor. It should be noted that 30 percent of member schools didn\u2019t cast a ballot for or against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s still relatively knew in Ohio, high school NIL deals are pretty rare. Approximately 50 NIL deals have been registered with the OHSAA, a requirement according to the rules. Of those, most are very small deals valued at $1,000 or less. Just a handful are considered top-tier deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t surprising. As mentioned, it\u2019s still very new and quite honestly, 95-99 percent of Ohio high school athletes aren\u2019t going to get big NIL deals. LeBron James would have cleaned up big time if NIL was in place when he was in high school. A handful of elite athletes like that would have done well. Could things change at some point? Perhaps, but I think the potential impact of NIL in Ohio has been overstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preseason predictions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe it or not, we\u2019re getting closer to the time for the VW independent\u2019s preseason predictions for the Northwest Conference and the Western Buckeye League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be the 10th year the VW independent has published preseason predictions. Off the top of my head and ahead of receiving preseason information from the coaches, I can think of three teams that should be NWC title contenders and I think there are three or four teams that could contend for the WBL championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll make my final predictions once I receive all of the information from the coaches and publish them in early August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picking again<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the preseason picks, Pigskin Pick\u2019Em will be back for a 10th season. Games involving NWC, WBL, GMC and MAC teams will be picked each week, along with Lima Sr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World Cup<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to soccer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Cup is over and what a finish it was. It took extra time but Spain defeated Argentina 1-0. If nothing else, the final truly showed the U.S. men\u2019s team has a lot of ground to cover to get to that level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above topics, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports The latest installment of Random Thoughts centers around next year\u2019s Major League Baseball season, favorite sports, a resignation, NIL in Ohio, preseason picks and the World Cup. 2027 baseball Major League Baseball announced its 2027 schedule last week. Hopefully I\u2019m wrong but like many others, I have serious doubts the 2027 Major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-30 23:24:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208055,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208054\/revisions\/208055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}