I think Ohio State could have a year much like USCw had this year. Big expectations and not exactly the desired results. Everyone thought that USCw was going to steamroll the competition because of how strong they ended the season last year. I would say it runs a lot of parallels with Ohio State this year and what will likely be a top 5 preseason ranking in 2013. Entering with big expectations coming of a probation season doesn't seem to have the results that people think they will have. Playing games when they don't really matter or don't have any real consequence is a lot different than playing knowing that if you lose, especially in the Big 10, you're going to drop a lot further than teams in the conferences that have been a lot stronger in years past. I would almost say the writing is on the wall for Ohio State next year when you look at some of the "closer" games from this year.
Ohio State had really close games against:
Cal (35-28)
MSU (17-16)
Indiana (52-49)
Purdue (29-22 OT)
Now I am not saying those are anything other than close wins, but those are some close wins against some pretty mediocre teams. The only team that they played this year that ended the season in the top 25 was Michigan, and we all saw what happened to those clowns in Dallas at the start of the season, in fact, Ohio State fans should be pretty familiar with the score "41-14," from that game you would probably like to forget from 2006.
Teams that win championships against what will most likely be an SEC team (until the playoff era begins) are going to have to bring a lot more than OT wins against Purdue. I don't see how a team like Notre Dame puts up much more than 7 points against Alabama and I think this years BCS is going to be one of those games that really shows how far (not that this hasn't been shown over the past 6 years) behind most teams outside the SEC are.
I guess the gist of this is that I would be very cautious in putting the "BCS Championship bound" label on this team quite yet, because I think they are a little behind even a middle of the road SEC team like Texas A&M.
Ohio State had really close games against:
Cal (35-28)
MSU (17-16)
Indiana (52-49)
Purdue (29-22 OT)
Now I am not saying those are anything other than close wins, but those are some close wins against some pretty mediocre teams. The only team that they played this year that ended the season in the top 25 was Michigan, and we all saw what happened to those clowns in Dallas at the start of the season, in fact, Ohio State fans should be pretty familiar with the score "41-14," from that game you would probably like to forget from 2006.
Teams that win championships against what will most likely be an SEC team (until the playoff era begins) are going to have to bring a lot more than OT wins against Purdue. I don't see how a team like Notre Dame puts up much more than 7 points against Alabama and I think this years BCS is going to be one of those games that really shows how far (not that this hasn't been shown over the past 6 years) behind most teams outside the SEC are.
I guess the gist of this is that I would be very cautious in putting the "BCS Championship bound" label on this team quite yet, because I think they are a little behind even a middle of the road SEC team like Texas A&M.
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