Senior ESPN.com writer Pat Forde has concocted a plan for the 2008 college football season. Make sure the Ohio State Buckeyes aren’t invited to the BCS National Championship Game.
Forde writes “if you've ever seen lions maul a water buffalo, you've seen the last two title games.” A pair of superior SEC teams blew out the vulnerable Buckeyes. Forde and the rest of the country are already pouring the hate Ohio State’s direction.
As the article continues Forde says “...when an SEC team shows up on the other sideline it should be ‘O-H-N-O.’ And “they're also fond of calling their school The Ohio State University. It might also now be called The Overmatched State University of the BCS.”
This backlash really stems from the disappointment after the media’s coronation ceremony leading up to the 2006 season finale.
Honestly, the cumulative performance of the Buckeyes in the last two BCS Championships has been poor. But for those thinking they shouldn’t bring that weak Big Ten stuff back to the national stage, you have selective memory.
Ohio State is 4-2 overall in BCS bowl games, which more than respectable. While LSU has a better record at 4-0 in BCS games, the Tigers haven’t been as consistent and haven’t played a BCS bowl outside their backyard in New Orleans.
I’m not going to try to defend the Big Ten and say this was a great year for them, it wasn't. The conference went just 3-5 in bowl games. In its last four BCS game Big Ten teams have lost by 14 points (Michigan at USC), 27 points (Ohio State to Florida), 32 points (Illinois at USC) and 14 points (Ohio State at LSU).
Before the slamming of Ohio State and the Big Ten gets out of control, step back and consider looking at the bigger picture. There may be a little more than first meets the eye.
1 comment:
I would agree that the big picture is important, and this presents a problem for the "now is all that matters" national media, who are too quick to coronate (nice use of words there) the "in the moment" team. This holds true in all sports. It also is true of all topics in the media at large. Nothing matters but THE NOW. If one were to look back and consider previous Ohio State seasons they might notice that they are, in fact, 4-2 in BCS games. Yes they stunk it up the year before last and lost this year to an LSU team that I maintain is an insanely overrated team, but they have lost 1 game in the last two seasons and have produced and/or will produce this year a large number of NFL-caliber players. Is success to be measured solely on performance in a BCS game, or is there value in winning one of the consistently most difficult conferences in America 32 times since 1920?
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