Buckeyes don’t deserve BCS hype anymore
LOS ANGELES – All week long, you were assured that Saturday night’s big game had “national championship implications.”
It might have. If only Ohio State had shown up.
Then again, that’s nothing new for the Buckeyes, who have failed to show up for the last two national championship games.
What you are left with is less an implication than an emphatically harsh reminder that the Buckeyes do not merit any discussion for the title game. Let them go back home and beat Troy 106-0 next week. Let them run the table in the Big Ten. So what? With Saturday in evidence — Ohio State and Michigan crushed — the Big Ten doesn’t seem so big anymore.
Then again, at least Michigan is willing to try something new, opening the offense with Rich Rodriguez’s spread scheme. By contrast, Jim Tressel seems determined to play 20th-century football well into the 21st century.
As it happened, Ohio State scored first, on a 29-yard field goal by Ryan Pretorious with 3:06 left in the first quarter. For a moment, I found myself wondering if the Buckeyes might actually beat the 11-point spread. I should’ve known better. That field goal would be all Southern Cal allowed all night. Still, Ohio State is nothing if not consistent.
foxsports.com
9/14/08
