A Pack of Trojans?

It’s been 11 days since the Buckeyes beat Michigan in the biggest regular season College Football game ever played... and my head is still spinning. Rarely do games of that magnitude live up to the hype (and man did that game get a lot of hype). It had just the right amount of suspense, controversy, hitting, big plays, and Buckeye dominance that all great games need to have. Add in the tragic passing of Bo Schembechler, then sprinkle in 2 Undefeated teams, an outright Big Ten title, and a shot at the National Championship and you’ve got yourself a Classic! I can still see Beanie Wells’ spin move - turning a 4-yard loss into a 52-yard touchdown run. I can still see the play-fake by Troy Smith before hitting Ted Ginn Jr. with a perfect 39-yard touchdown pass (easily the best play-fake by an Ohio State Quarterback since Johnny Utah torched Bodhi’s gang during the great beach game). I can still see the thousands of Buckeye fans storming the field, heading to sing the Alma Mater with the team in front of TBDBITL (avoiding the SWAT Team protecting the goal posts in Flying V formation). I’ve watched that game at least 4 times already, and it gets better every time!

You know how you’re supposed to wait at least an hour before getting in the pool after you eat? Well, it takes at least a week to digest a game like this year’s Ohio State – Michigan game. But now that we know the Buckeyes will officially occupy one of the sidelines inside University of Phoenix Stadium (and the hangovers from November 18th have finally subsided), our attention can now be focused on which team Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes will battle on January 8th. Will it be Pete Carroll’s USC Trojans? Will it be Lloyd Cooper and the Michigan Wolverines? Will it be Ashtabula, Ohio native and former Buckeye Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators? Right now, it looks like the Trojans are in the best position to get a ticket to Glendale, but the other two have legitimate arguments and legitimate chances. So lets take a look what each team brings to the table, and what needs to happen for them to get a shot at the Scarlet and Gray for the Crystal Football.

FLORIDA

The SEC continues to get no love from the BCS. Despite having only one road loss in one of the toughest conferences in College Football (or the most over-rated, I’m not sure), the Gators won’t have enough steam to make it to #2 in the BCS (even if they beat Arkansas in the SEC Championship game). So once again, the SEC will be on the outside looking in on another BCS National Championship (and I have to say, I’m really looking forward to hearing all the bitching!).

There is one thing that intrigues me about the possibility of facing Florida. On more than one occasion in the past few weeks, I’ve heard analysts compare this Gators team to the Ohio State National Championship team from 2002. Despite the fact that Florida has one loss (while the 2002 Buckeyes won every game that year), the way in which the Gators rely on a good defense and an offense that delivers when it has to, the comparisons are being made. Since it looks like they won’t jump ahead of Michigan, it doesn’t really matter, but the chance to face a team similar to the 2002 National Champs does sort of intrigue me. In the end, they don’t have enough Buckeye in them to be undefeated, UCLA needs to beat USC, and the voters will need to sour on an Ohio State-Michigan rematch for the Gators to be in Arizona on January 8th.

MICHIGAN

If everyone in Ohio feels a slight rumble coming from up North on Saturday, that would be every Michigan fan collectively dropping to their knees and praying for a UCLA upset over USC. Right now, that looks like the only way that the Wolverines will have a shot at redemption over their Big Ten rivals. Personally, if you don’t win your own Conference, you don’t have a chance to win the National Championship. It’s that simple. How can you finish #2 in your Conference, but #1 in the Country?

However, after that incredible game on November 18th, you can’t deny that Ohio State and Michigan are the two best teams. If there is a rematch, and Lloyd Cooper somehow finds a way to out-couch Jim Tressel, then that means they will have lost in the Horse Shoe by only 3 points and will have beaten the Buckeyes in a neutral location. The neutral stadium would be the X-factor, and you have to say that Michigan deserves the title (of course every Buckeye fan knows that there is nothing neutral about playing in Arizona). Which is why I don’t want to see an Ohio State-Michigan rematch. It’s really a no-win situation for the Scarlet and Gray. We already took care of business once; doing it again will be a bit anti-climactic (plus, it never gets old seeing Michigan have to bend over and take one!).

USC

After shellacking Notre Dame this past Saturday, USC is now #2 in the BCS and on a crash course to meet the Buckeyes in the dessert on January 8th. This game will have everything that a National Championship game should have: Two great coaches, two great programs, two great fan bases, an old Rose Bowl rivalry renewed, and a (likely) Heisman Trophy winner. That right there is enough to love this match up, but it isn’t the real reason why I’d like to play the Trojans.

If we want to be the best, we have to beat the best – and nobody has been better than USC in the past few years. They have owned College Football: 3 Heisman Trophy winners in 4 years, 1 BCS National Championship (and would have 2 if not for a Super-human effort by Vince Young), and 1 Consensus National Championship (which they shared with LSU in 2003). Pete Carroll continues to reload and every year fields one of the top teams in the nation. If we’re going to win it all, lets do it against the top program!

Plus, if we can pull off a win, not only will we have 2 BCS National Championships this decade (not to mention another Top 5 finish), but also we will likely add our own Heisman Trophy winner to the list. I wouldn’t say the Buckeyes will have a more impressive resume than USC, but since Miami has tanked in recent years, we can at least throw our name into the “Who’s the best team this Century?” discussion (right now I would put Ohio State right behind USC and slightly ahead of Oklahoma – they have 1 BCS National Championship, a remarkable 4 other top 5 finishes, and 1 Heisman Trophy winner so far this decade).

So will it be USC playing for a Dynasty or will the Maze and Blue get a shot at redemption? Regardless, come Saturday I can finally file away the 2006 Ohio State – Michigan game into the “Greatest Game of the Greatest Year” file, and start to concentrate on who’s next. And who will have a say in whether the 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes will be Legends or Letdowns?