COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Urban Meyer leaned forward in his chair and pointed to the picture in the corner of his office of him and his daughter, Nicki, singing "Carmen Ohio" together after one of Ohio State's home games.

That's the picture Meyer always references any time there's a prospect sitting alongside their parents on the black leather couches in the middle of his office.

This all began with Nicki.

By now you've probably heard about the "Real Life Wednesday" program Meyer offers his players. It's a weekly seminar Meyer holds by inviting prominent, successful and influential people from the business world into the Woody Hayes Athletic Center to discuss real life topics that will impact a player's view of how the world works when football is no longer a reality. It seems simple enough on the surface, but this is deeper than listening to a speaker once a week.

The depth of this program is the reason Ohio State is assembling recruiting classes that are better, deeper and more diverse than they've ever been. It's not the NFL Draft, the facilities, Ohio Stadium or the Nike uniforms.

"We just got a prospect to commit that hasn't been announced," Meyer told cleveland.com during a one-on-one interview last month. "And you want to know his No. 1 reason for committing? Real Life Wednesday."

Back to the picture of Nicki.

Meyer went on college visits with Nicki when she was being recruited to play volleyball and the tables were turned. Meyer became the parent listening to recruiting pitches by coaches who wanted his daughter, a talented libero.

"I sat there and listened and I said, 'My gosh, do I really sound that ignorant when I recruit?' " Meyer said. "They're talking about jersey numbers and locker rooms and training table and deep in my heart I couldn't care less. I want to know what that school is going to do for my kid."

That's when the vision for "Real Life Wednesday" really started to take shape. Meyer can sell anything to anyone -- which is evident in his top-rated classes every year -- but he then started to fully understand why jerseys, locker rooms and training tables may not be enough of a pitch when dealing with the best players in the country. Ohio State is a college football powerhouse, but everybody has a nice locker room and a big stadium and cool uniforms.

Meyer wanted to have an answer for parents when they asked the question he never got to ask before taking his daughter on recruiting trips: "What are you going to do for my kid?" In today's world, "Help them get a degree" isn't a suitable response.

When Meyer asked coaches that question, most of them said they'd help Nicki graduate. Meyer may have answered that question the same way in 2006.

"I looked at them and said that she's a 4.0 student, so we don't need your help to get a degree. We need your help to help her get a job. She's fine. She doesn't need study table," Meyer said. "Degrees, I don't want to devalue them because they're necessary, but back when I was growing up, you get a degree you get a job. Now there are plenty of people with great degrees who don't have jobs because they're under qualified, they're unprepared. And college athletes can't get jobs, they can't get internships.

"That's not true at Ohio State."

Ohio State has been recruiting top-10 classes since the beginning of time, but what Meyer has been doing in the recent years is unprecedented. They're signing five-star prospects from all over the country and assembling classes that are deeper and better than they've ever been.

Maybe the national title in 2014 has something to do with it. Maybe it's the records the program is putting up in the NFL Draft. It would be a blatant lie to say that a high school prospect isn't most concerned about chasing the dream of becoming a millionaire as a football player.

Ask Meyer or player personnel director Mark Pantoni why Ohio State has reached new recruiting heights, both of them respond -- without hesitation -- that it's "Real Life Wednesdays."

"There's testimony now," Pantoni said. "We have guys who have used this program and have been successful and we can point back and say, 'Look at what so and so accomplished.' It's powerful."

The names that have come and spoken to the team is so deep and impressive it's almost hard to wrap your mind around it: JPMorgan Chase & Company chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon; Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert; ESPN analyst and Buckeye great Chris Spielman; CBS analyst and Ohio State basketball legend Clark Kellogg; Harley Davidson CEO Keith Wandell; Panera Bread CEO/owner Sam Covelli; former NFL running back Ray Rice; and many more.

Real Life Wednesdays took a new focus this year, with discussions on current issues of domestic violence, drug abuse, relationships & race. pic.twitter.com/luwDNmZLVx — Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) June 15, 2017

Some of these people have found success in sports. Others are high-powered businessmen who are millionaires outside of sports. Take Dimon for example. College athletes may not know who that is, but the CEO of JPMorgan Chase isn't just walking around with a ton of free time. He spent a day with Ohio State football players.

It's not just about careers. Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back who is now more famous for losing his career as a result of a domestic assault rather than how many touchdowns he scored, spoke to the team about the importance of respecting women. He drove home how one bad decision can ruin your life.

And you may think that listening to a seminar may not be that valuable, but it's much more involved than that. These speakers are discussing job interview etiquette, how to dress, what's most important on a resume and what exactly they're looking for when hiring new employees. They dive into credit scores, what FICA means on a paycheck and how to properly set yourself up financially in the future. They don't teach that in classes.

"What sold me was the plan they had set out for me after football," said Jeffrey Okudah, a former five-star prospect from Texas who signed with Ohio State's 2017 class. "Not a lot of schools go into this much detail with the life after football stuff, so when Coach Meyer told me about the Real Life program that he's implement, that just really sold me and my family."

The question is this: How does Meyer find his speakers? They're usually just favors. Meyer is a pretty big celebrity himself, so he speaks at companies and events and, in turn, he asks speakers to do the same.

"That's how you get a lot of these big-time guys," Meyer said. "And a lot of guys, like Roger Goodell, he just has a big heart. He wants to help me make an impact. He agrees with everything we're doing. Jamie Dimon, when I explained what we were doing, he was like, 'I've never heard of that before' and he wanted to be a part of it.' That's the kind of reaction I usually get when I asked."

The access Ohio State's football players are getting to these people is unprecedented and Meyer isn't bashful when he says his team is more likely to get a job or an internship than a normal student. Football players are given an inside track to building relationships that could turn into a careers.

Ohio State can sell Ohio Stadium, the NFL Draft, facilities, the chance to win a national championship. But "Real Life Wednesday" has pushed the limit.

"Who wants to hire a guy who solves problems in front of 20 million people or 110,000 people every Saturday who also understand selflessness, teamwork, discipline and commitment?" Meyer asked. "Who wants to hire that guy? Everybody.

"But how many people fit that description? Not many."

At Ohio State, they do.