Buckeyes Need to Drop

Ohio State looked good all year, but they were exposed last night. I don't know that I've ever seen such a heavily favored team play so poorly in a championship game. Some blame the 50 game layoff between the Buckeyes' final regular season game and the National Championship game, but Ohio State historically has an excellent record in games played after a layoff of forty or more games. (Take last year's Fiesta Bowl, for example.)

The college bowl season in general didn't bode well for the Buckeyes. Their two marquee wins this season came against Michigan (blown out by USC in the Rose Bowl) and Texas (almost defeated by 6-7 Iowa in the Alamo Bowl). Penn State, OSU's third-best regular season opponent, was impressive against Tennessee; but outside of the Nittany Lions and Wisconsin (which Ohio State didn't play this season), Big Ten Conference teams looked quite mediocre in their bowl games.

Florida obviously deserves the national title, but I don't think Ohio State should be an automatic #2 (even though they are #2 in both polls). I would put Louisville ahead of the Buckeyes and possibly LSU, USC, andor Boise State. Louisville, by the way, dropped in both polls despite easily winning the Orange Bowl and being a field goal shy of an undefeated season. Louisville also won the Big East, a conference that was 5-0 in bowl games and whose teams were a combined 37-8 against nonconference opponents. The Cardinals, for lack of a better saying, got hosed.

I grew up in Indiana, a fan of Big Ten athletics. In the time I've lived in Tennessee, I've gotten the impression that SEC football fans are full of themselves. But Florida proved last night to be significantly better than the Big Ten champion Buckeyes, and the Gators should be congratulated on an impressive win.