My dad used to tell me, “Every year a Buckeye fan wants three things. Most important is beat Michigan. Second is win the Big Ten. And finally win the Rose Bowl.”
Yeah, this one stung for a little while. But I keep thinking back to the beginning of the season. If you would have told me that we would be playing Michigan for the Big Ten title and a possible trip to the Rose Bowl, I’d have taken that grinning from ear to ear. This was supposed to be a ‘down’ year for the Buckeyes. This team is young and was supposed to be learning how to win. They had not faced adversity yet this season. Now, they have their backs to the wall a little.
I’m not saying I don’t care about the National Championship, because that is certainly not true. With the disappointments of the pro teams that we follow here in Cleveland it is nice to be in the hunt for championships at the college level. Truth is that I was raised believing getting to the Rose Bowl through Michigan was the goal of every season. Anything on top of that, (National Titles or Heisman Trophies) was gravy. I may be one of the few that still believes in that. Possibly because Tressel has us in the top 5 every year. If we weren’t in the running for the BCS championship every year we would still be happy that we were beating Michigan. Don’t forget that.
So this year’s game will be without as much national attention. Last year we invited the rest of the world into The Game because of it’s BCS significance. This year it has the feel of a backyard football game again. Just us and them. And you know what? That’s fine by me. Because when you strip away the whoop-la, it is still Ohio State vs Michigan. One game for year long bragging rights. Game on!
Halftime Adjustments 
In College Football 2007, when an OSU team has an opportunity to go to the National Title game, and doesn’t get it done prior to the Michigan game…then the Michigan game and an opportunity to go to the Rose Bowl is the consolation prize. Not a bad consolation prize, but it’s still the consolation prize, nonetheless. That is exactly what this week feels like to me right now, just imagine what the team feels like.
I’ve been saying this in so many words since just after the Illinois game. Chris Spielman just put it more concisely than I did today on his radio show.
So yeah, let me give it the old college try for this week. Rah rah, sis boom bah. Go fight win. Beat Michigan. All that stuff. Woo. Hoo.
I’ve been telling my friends, it’s crazy how much Tressel has changed our standards. I still want to beat Michigan more than ever (especially to make Hart and Henne each 0-4 against us), but frankly, after week 5 this season, my hope was for the National Championship. But regardless, I think one thing is clear…..with Tressel, we are going to have MANY title chases in the future.
Come on now, the Bucks no more deserve to be seriously considered for the Championship game than Crennel deserves consideration as coach of the year. What quality team have they played this year? Penn State? Wisconsin? Maybe next year they will play high school teams non conference since strength of schedule means nothing only winning matters.
rawdawg15:
They play in a BCS conference. They were ranked 11th in the preseason, and therefore, nobody gave them a snowball’s chance in hell of getting to the number 1 ranking. Perhaps they should’ve been ranked lower. Not their fault.
There were 10 teams that lost 1 game–to the scrubs in their conference–prior to Ohio State. That’s not Ohio State’s fault. Losing to Illinois, is however, Ohio State’s fault. They didn’t get the job done, they suffer the consequences.
The OOC schedule was under their control. So is the crappy OOC schedule for every other big time school. As for the strength of the other 9 teams? Not Ohio State’s fault.
The crappy system where you must win all your conference games and then get voted, like we’re watching figure skating or something, into a bowl game? Not Ohio State’s fault.
Here’s the deal, and it goes for everybody. Beat the Stanfords. Beat the App States. Beat the Kentuckys. Beat the Illinois’. Beat the South Floridas. Beat the South Carolinas. Beat the UConns. Beat the Oregon States. Your team does that, they get to play in the National Title game. They don’t, they get the consolation prize or worse. Period.
Otherwise, just take the two preseason favorites, scrap the season, and put them in the title game and be done with it all. As it’s been made quite clear this season, the polls are an absolute joke and don’t mean jack squat. A team that doesn’t get on the field prepared this year is a team that gets punked. As we’ve seen from every conference this year, there isn’t a team or conference out there that’s head and shoulders above the rest.
You don’t like taking the two top teams in the preseason, having the NC game off that and scrapping the season? Good. Then either take the system for what it is, or push for a playoff system like every other major sport in America has for crowning a champion, and take the lame “who have you played” crap elsewhere.
I was going to respond, but I couldn’t say it any better than Tom did. Well said.
RockKing:
Thanks, but I must give partial credit to Chris Spielman. Some of the rant above I heard in similar fashion on his show Monday. I think we all as Buckeye fans feel the same way.
Now when is everyone going to wake up, smell the coffee, and get the playoff system moving another step forward from the small step we took towards the BCS? It’s driving me insane.
Tom,
Maybe you’ll agree with this idea; It’s personally how I’d like to see a playoff system work out in the future:
Go on ahead and take the top eight teams nationally, regardless of which conference they’re in, and place them in the four BCS bowls. Lets say the Big Ten fields one team, SEC fields two, the Big East fields one, Pac-10 fields one, the WAC fields one/ACC fields one, and the Big 12 fields two (sorry ACC; I’m just throwing out a scenario. It is NOT a knock on your conference).
Now, take these teams and have them each play in the BCS bowl games. Let’s take this year and throw out an example using the above formula:
Rose-Ohio State (11-1: Big Ten Champs) VS Arizona State (11-1: Pac-10 Champs)
Hypothetical Winner-Ohio State
Sugar-LSU (12-1: SEC Champs) VS Oklahoma (12-1: Big 12 Champs)
Hypothetical Winner: LSU
Fiesta-Georgia (10-2: SEC #2-do not go to the SEC title game, which is where Tennessee loses to LSU) VS Kansas (12-1: Loses in Big 12 Championship to Oklahoma)
Hypothetical Winner-Georgia
Orange-West Virginia (Big East Champs) VS Hawaii (WAC Champs)/Virginia Tech (ACC Champs)
Hypothetical Winner (either way)-West Virginia (and it’ll be the highest scoring game in the history of NCAA football in they play Hawaii :-P )
Now take these teams who have won those games and use the BCS bowls as the initial brackets to lead to the national title game. This is also in keeping with the current rule that you can only have two teams from your conference earn a BCS bowl bid, with Hawaii in my mind getting an exception for probably going undefeated and finishing in the top 12 (although a case could be made for Virginia Tech in the ACC despite that blowout loss to LSU early in the season). Besides, it gives people an excuse to make two more bowl games.
The Palmolive Soap Bowl-OSU VS LSU
Hypothetical Winner-LSU
The XBOX LIVE Bowl-Georgia VS West Virginia
Hypothetical Winner-West Virginia
National Title Game-Louisiana State VS West Virginia
Hypothetical Winner-Meh
Now you have your title game match-up. Does this method leave the door open for conference rematches? Yes, but we could also just change the rules to limit a conference’s BCS teams to just one, with only the conference champion going to the BCS. That opens the door for all the major conferences to field a team and have a shot at the title, even if said team went 10-2 or 9-3 during the year (See Urban: I’m pulling for ya and the Gaytors, buddy), and also opens two spots for mid majors to have a crack at wining it all.
The only conferences that cause a problem for this format are ones like the Big Ten, Big East and the Pac-10: Three conferences that don’t have a Conference Title game. In the case of a Conference tie, then it should go to the team that has either:
A-Won the head-to-head match-up with the team it shares the Conference Title with (see Penn State-OSU in 2005).
B-A better win/loss record.
The reason for B is because sometimes teams from the same conference don’t play each other during the season, like Iowa missing both Michigan and Ohio State this year.
And finally, C-If one of the teams tied for the conference title went to the BCS the year before.
The only possible problem this causes is if, lets say; UM goes 10-2 and loses to Ohio State who has went 11-1, but UM’s only other loss was OOC early in the year before THE GAME and OSU’s was to…..lets choose something outlandish and go with Minnesota. And then lets say OSU went to the BCS the year before, so UM will automatically get the BCS spot for the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl even though OSU has a better record and won the head-to-head.
Now the only way to totally throw things totally out of WAC (_>
Just my two cents.