A hard-hitting linebacker from Ohio decided Wednesday that staying in the Buckeye State was his best choice.

Bobby Carpenter will not be playing for the green and white next season - he’ll be playing for Ohio State University.

The 6-foot-3, 235 pound linebacker from Lancaster High School picked the Buckeyes instead of MSU, Northwestern and North Carolina.

“Location was a factor,” Carpenter said, whose family lives 30 miles from Columbus.

Carpenter said getting a chance to see his three younger brothers compete was a factor, but family wasn’t the biggest reason.

Carpenter made his decision Monday morning, but MSU remained a top candidate until that point.

“They have a great program and a great coaching staff,” he said. “But Ohio State has a great linebacker core and I think I’ll be able to contribute right away.”

Susie Carpenter, Bobby’s mother, said his decision to stay close to home made here happy, but she would have approved of his decision either way.

“I guess it’s more convenient for him to stay here, but if he chose another school it would have been hard to see him play.”

She said she tried to stay out of the decision-making process.

Midwest recruiting expert Bill Kurelic said Ohio State got a top-notched player in Carpenter.

“Carpenter’s one of the top ten players in Ohio, and he’s one of the 20 best linebackers,” Kurelic said.

MSU has received 16 verbal commitments overall, with hopes of adding six more.

Ryan Wallace

Coach calls it quits

John Narcy, MSU’s diving coach, will call it quits after 36 years with the program.

Narcy is a four-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, National Coach of the Year in 1990 and recipient of the Fred A. Cady Award for lifetime achievement in 2001.

Narcy’s divers have earned All-America honors 50 times. He has coached an AIAW champion, an NCAA champion, six Big Ten champions and three U.S. Olympians.

Narcy’s last home meet is Saturday against Northern Michigan.

Ryan Wallace

Big Ten ponders rule

The Big Ten Conference is evaluating changing the way official time is kept at football games, Michigan athletic director Bill Martin said Wednesday.

Martin said Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has suggested the official time be kept on the field by a conference official who is already on the field as the television timeout coordinator. This is the method used by the Southeastern Conference, Martin said.

The Big Ten will host a meeting of conference athletic directors and faculty representatives Feb. 18-19 in Chicago. Martin said Delaney could make the game-management change himself without a vote.

The move is in response to the Nov. 3 MSU-U-M game. MSU won the the game 26-24 on a last second touchdown catch by sophomore running back T.J. Duckett as time expired.

The Spartans preserved one second on the clock when sophomore quarterback Jeff Smoker spiked the ball.

“That play should never have been allowed to be run,” U-M head coach Lloyd Carr said. “Obviously, the clock in the last 10 seconds, there’s a major error there, and something needs to be done about it.”

Martin made his comments Wednesday night before U-M’s basketball team played MSU at Breslin Center.

The Associated Press