Hartsock will have to catch up on college football after attending a Halloween party with his wife AmyBEN HARTSOCK
The Big Ten launched SiriusXM Big Ten Radio on Monday to allow fans 24/7 access to the latest news from their favorite university. One of the weekday shows that is exclusive to the channel, “Big Ten Today,” features former Ohio State player and NFLer BEN HARTSOCK as a co-host, and he couldn’t be more excited to be there from the get-go. “It was really kind of a cool experience to be one of the first people that’s there when you flip the switch for the first time,” Hartsock said. “We’re getting to know each other in real-time so it’s interesting. You just hope to be informative, be engaging and put something out there that someone is going to want to listen to for a while.” Hartsock took some time to speak with THE DAILY about the new SiriusXM channel, his weekend full of college football and his unique hobby away from the microphone.
B1G THINGS TO COME: On the show we’re just trying to get to know each other a little bit better, and the uniqueness and the genuineness of the content we want to put out comes through with that kind of effort. Everybody is going to talk about the games and everybody’s going to have some expertise as it pertains to the football games that we’re breaking down, but can you be engaging, can you be compelling, and can you make it interesting in a way that people aren’t going to want to change the channel?
COLLEGE CHAOS WITH A SIDE OF SOCCER: Saturday is my big prep day or research day for watching the games, but the first thing I’ll do is start off with my daughter’s soccer game. She’s in fourth grade and it’s her first season playing soccer, so we’ll go watch it as a family and the minute we get home from that, the noon games will be kicking off. My Saturdays are spent in a dark room with multiple TVs going with my notebooks and I’ll be analyzing things as they happen. It's not uncommon for me to take 3-5 full pages of notes of thoughts that I’d like to expand on, and especially with the Big Ten Network now, I’ll have to be abreast on some games I normally wouldn’t be, like the bottom half of the conference because there’s no lonelier place than to be on air with nothing to talk about. I try to get to bed before midnight because we’ve got to connect for our weekend show at 6 the next morning so it’s a quick turnaround. This week is a little bit unique because it’s close to Halloween and I’ve got a costume party to go to, so I’ll have to catch up on the late games after that.
REVVING UP THE ENGINES: In the past year, I’ve gotten into sports cars. I bought a sports car this year and have taken it to track days, and I’ve become a track day guy. I’ve really enjoyed that and outside of traditional sports, I’m more of a motorsports guy. I’ve gotten into the sports cars and what not, and I’m really excited about it. I’m working on becoming a better driver and going to the different tracks and trying the different sections and seeing if I can gain a half second there and increase my lap times. I’m a fever guy though. A couple years ago, I was really into going scuba diving and a few years before that, I was trying to do motocross every free day I had. I’m not a golf guy and I know that’s one of the more traditional outlets for people take part in. For me, I could think of so many other things that I’d rather do for four hours and it’s just a sport that I’d rather watch than play.
