COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — What's brewing with the 2011 Ohio State Buckeyes ...

BUCKEYES BUZZ: If the NCAA allows Ohio State to go to a bowl game, the Buckeyes will be making travel arrangements.

How far they travel — Jacksonville, Fla.? Tempe, Ariz.? Detroit? — remains to be seen.

Ohio State AD Gene Smith said Tuesday that Ohio State would not penalize itself by keeping the football team from making a postseason trip as a way of mitigating potential NCAA sanctions.

In an exchange of text messages with The Associated Press, Smith said, "Cannot speculate on what they (the NCAA) may do. No, we do not intend to self impose a post season sanction."

There has been speculation that the NCAA might hand Ohio State a bowl ban in addition to its other penalties. College sports' ruling body is still deciding Ohio State's sanctions for several instances of players accepting improper benefits and coach Jim Tressel not revealing knowledge of violations and playing ineligible players. Tressel was forced out on May 30.

Schools often ban themselves from bowl games as a way of softening the NCAA's eventual sanctions.

The Buckeyes (6-5, 3-4 Big Ten) under interim coach Luke Fickell are bowl-eligible going into Saturday's annual rivalry game with No. 17 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

It is still too early to speculate what bowl game they might go to, but the Big Ten has ties to the Rose (Pasadena, Calif.), Capital One (Orlando, Fla.), Outback (Tampa, Fla.), Insight (Tempe, Ariz.), Taxslayer.com Gator (Jacksonville, Fla.), Meineke Car Care (Houston), Ticketcity (Dallas) and Little Caesars (Detroit) bowls.

NO VOLS: Ohio State announced on Tuesday that it has made several changes to upcoming football schedules.

The Buckeyes have added a game with Florida A&M on Sept. 7, 2013, and lined up a home-and-home series with North Carolina in Columbus in 2015 and in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2017.

In addition, to accommodate the Big Ten's move to a nine-game conference season beginning in 2017, a home game against Tennessee in 2018 and in Knoxville, Tenn., against the Volunteers in 2019 have been canceled.

Ohio State had already made changes to the 2012 schedule, replacing Cincinnati with Central Florida.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Fickell, speaking on the Big Ten coaches teleconference Tuesday, on the difference between John Cooper (whom he played for at Ohio State) and Jim Tressel (whom he coached for) in terms of their approach to the Michigan game: "What it came down to is playing. You can't blame a coach. Obviously, I didn't have a lot of success (going 1-3 vs. Michigan as a player). I would never point the finger at the coach, you know? Obviously, there's a little bit of differences in everything you do, the emphasis and the stress that you put on it. But it still comes down to those guys playing. Your seniors have to play great in the Michigan game. Your great players have to play great. That's what it comes down to. Has there been more of an emphasis? Yeah. There's maybe a little bit different passion than when I was here as a player, but it's not that big of a difference. The difference comes down to those guys playing on Saturday."

Note: Cooper was 2-10-1 vs. Michigan, Tressel was 8-1 (not counting the vacated 2010 season).

UPCOMING BUCKEYE: A top DL in Ohio, Adolphus Washington of Cincinnati's Taft HS, verbally committed to the Buckeyes on Tuesday. His teammate, WR Dwayne Stanford, said he will sign with Oregon.

The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Washington said he intends to major in nursing at OSU.

Washington was asked if he thought he'd be playing next year for the rumored next head coach, Urban Meyer.

"I hope so," he said.

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