Bashing Ohio State – excuse me, THE Ohio State University – has become en vogue for the 2013 college football season.
After all, the Buckeyes BARELY beat a mediocre Michigan team by one point in The Big House last Saturday. I didn’t know what was worse, barely getting by those Wolverines or giving up 41 POINTS to the same bunch who didn’t have much of a pulse on offense for most of the season.
But we all know what the real problem with Ohio State is: it plays in a crappy Big Ten with an even crappier out-of-conference schedule.
We do not want to hear about Ohio State’s 24 game winning streak. We do not want to hear about the studs they have on offense, namely Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde. And most of all, we do not want to hear about the job that coach Urban Meyer has done the last two seasons.
I’m here to tell you all this: the hate the Buckeyes have been getting all season long is utterly indefensible.
First of all, winning 24 games in a row is NOTHING to sniff at. Sure the Big Ten has been down for a couple of seasons, but it is an automatic qualifying (AQ) conference that has more than its share of football tradition and lore. (After all, you cannot knock a conference that has a tie-in to the Rose Bowl and has the most bank thanks to its money-making B1G Network). And there’s this: it’s not the Buckeyes’ fault that the rest of their conference sucks.
And, since I believe in fairness, why not knock the Florida State Seminoles’ schedule? While I do not think the ACC is as crappy as the B1G (though not much better) and they more than pass the “smell test”, the Seminoles’ out-of-conference schedule leaves much to be desired. Nevada, Idaho and Bethune-Cookman?! Are you kidding me?
Again, I am not knocking the ACC. I am a proud alumnus of NC State (except when it comes to sports), and am proud of the fact the ACC will more than likely have a representative in the BCS Championship Game for the first time in almost 15 years (when the Seminoles won it all in 1999).
I just think if folks want to bash Ohio State based on strength of schedule, they might as well take some swings at the #1 team in the country as well.
Back to Ohio State, here is all it has to do going forward: win, and win big against Michigan State. The good news is the Spartans are ranked 10th in the BCS. A win over those cats should quell the Buckeye hate once and for all.
Categories: college football
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