Nice article here which I think hits the nail on the head on several points.
http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/7358238For the sake of the national championship game, let's all hope Ohio State loses to one of its weak sisters in the Big Ten in the next month.
Because as things stand, it sure looks like we're destined to watch a repeat of last season's BCS championship game — top-ranked Ohio State getting blown out by a much more complete team.
We certainly are not arguing that the Buckeyes don't deserve to be ranked No. 1. They continue to build a perfect record, and are certainly entrenched atop the rankings until they lose a game. But put them in New Orleans on Jan. 7 against a second-ranked team like LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, or USC, and we'd have another ugly title tilt along the lines of last year's 41-14 drubbing of the Buckeyes by Florida.
Jim Tressel's team is built around a rugged defense, but one that has hopelessly padded its stats against lesser opponents all season, and continues to have its way with run-of-the-mill Big Ten offenses. Saturday's bumbling 24-17 victory over Michigan State speaks to that problem.
Granted, OSU's four remaining opponents currently are 23-9, but those records are just as hopelessly padded by the soft non-league schedules Big Ten teams played this year. In reality, the conference is fully stocked with inconsistent, ordinary teams that have helped position a good-but-not-great Buckeyes ballclub as the near-unanimous No. 1 team in the country, merely on the 2007 wings of attrition.
Much is going to be made of the Buckeyes' trip to Penn State this week, but let's face it: This Nittany Lions edition is nothing special. And neither is Illinois, Wisconsin or Michigan.
Oregon, meantime, is a last-play-fumble-at-the-goal line from being unbeaten and ranked No. 1, and the Ducks keep getting better. Dennis Dixon is deftly directing what has become the best offense in college football.
And if there were a playoff tournament, LSU would probably be considered the team to beat because of the way the Tigers play defense, come through in the clutch on offense, and play physically on both sides of the ball.
Those teams, as well as USC — this would be the increasingly healthy USC team, with offensive linemen returning to the lineup and the speed that created the 60-minute mismatch with Notre Dame on Saturday — are just too fast for the Buckeyes.
As the more impressive one-loss teams stack up behind them, we'd much rather see the Buckeyes get bumped out of the way so a pair of more exciting teams can create a more compelling — and competitive — matchup in the BCS Championship Game.
