Week 13: The Game OSU vs. Michigan

[Orange and Brown]

I heard that the entire state of Michigan imploded today!!

[seofan_via_dublin]

OSU will move to 6.
Stanford, if they move to 4th, will be guaranteed a BCS birth.
So we would have:
Oregon, Auburn, TCU, Stanford, Wisconsin, big 12 champ, big east champ, ACC champ.
Those 8 teams would the automatic births,
Leaving:
OSU, 3 SEC schools, MSU, Boise St, as having a stake in a claim for 2 BCS births.

[javon white]

Tressel's program is one of the best in the country, if not the best, and he appears to be amongst the classiest of NCAA coaches. Unfortunately, Gordon Gee's elitist comments did not help the public perception of OSU football.

[ManitouDan]

RE: The BCS

When OSU lost to Wisconsin (who has since proved to be a Top Five team this year), the Bucks dropped completely out of the Top Ten and even after finishing 11-1 are still on the cusp of a BCS bowl.....maybe.

Boise State gets beat by a Nevada team that couldnt beat at least THREE Big Ten teams, and if the talking heads are right, Boise wont drop out of the Top Eight!!! Sound fair?

The Big Ten has taken hit after hit for being mediocre by posters on SEOPS, but this same "mediocre" conference has three 11-1 teams and two of those three losses are to each other. With Boise, Okla State, and LSU all losing (ranked ahead of OSU going into the weekend), the Bucks SHOULD jump from 8th to 5th.

Wanna bet it wont happen? There is an OSU bias built in that ranks them high in the pre-season because of all the talent they have, and then if they stub their toes even once, they are consigned to the Lake of Fire; never to be heard from again.

The Wisconsin team that upset the Bucks in Madison has since scored 70 or more on three occasions with a high of 83. I dont care who they played, 70 points is a month to some programs.

OSU should be in a BCS bowl. I understand the tie breaker for the Rose, but any bowl that passes on the Bucks will be losing the school that travels better and brings more money than any other school in the country, and isnt that what bowls are all about?

They had OSU ranked #2 in the pre-season and the Bucks went 11-1 to justify the ranking. One loss does not make your program abject failures, and it isnt OSU's fault that Michigan football is run by the village idiot.

good wrap up. I'm in ageement with most of what you have to say. Only opposing point I'd like to make is that YES , the big ten had 3 teams go 11-1 , who OOC did they beat ? Did any of the 3 of them beat anyone at all outside of conference ? MSU got a scheduling break this year not getting the bucks. The most impressive thing they did this year was not lose again to Osu. I think Osu should move up to 5th . I hope they get So Carolina. The visor VS the vest. lol MD

[seofan_via_dublin]

Youre forgetting possibly Okla St or Okla, and from the SEC after the champ is decided you have one of Ala/Ark/LSU/Fla/Aub, etc staking a claim because they are the best of the best to hear some tell it.
.

Not forgetting them, just not including several of them,because they won't have a shot at serious consideration.

The Big 12 championship loser will be out, this eliminates wither Oklahoma or Nebraska.
Oklahoma State has a really good team and in past years may have been in consideration, but with 2 losses this year,
they will be out. Whether it's deserved or not is debatable.
LSU is now out, after the loss to Arkansas, Florida is far from a BCS birth, Bama is out.

There are a bunch of really good teams this year, and this season may be the best year for a playoff yet.
But, we must be careful when talking playoff, because you can't just go throwing teams in and saying this would be great.
The NCAA will never have a playoff that doesn't reward each of the 6 major conference champions with a birth, the conferences will never let the money machine go through without it.
If we go past 8 teams then the season will now have 16 games for the champion. Adding a ton of travel expenses for both the teams, and the fans that will be asked to shell out ticket and travel expenses for what could be 3 extra weeks.

Oregon, Auburn, Wisconsin, Champions from Big 12, Big East, ACC, and TCU those are the auto births this year.
If Stanford stays ahead of Wisconsin and moves to 4, then they get an automatic birth.
That leaves OSU, MSU, South Carolina, Arkansas, Boise State, and a very far reaching shot for Oklahoma State for only 2 spots.

One thing is for sure, there are going to be some very good Non-BCS bowl games!

[Charge]

The commentators doing the Arkansas, LSU game yesterday basically agreed with Gee, but didn't have a pair to come right out and say it. They showed a high-light of a TCU player catching a ball with the nearest defender 30 yards away and both said they couldn't rank TCU a head of a one loss SEC team. The voters have said the same thing all year by the way they have voted. Talk about hypocrites, these same people that want to jump Gee for saying what he did has voted the same way he thinks. All the people on here hammering Gee tell me you really think that Utah State, New Mexico State, Idaho, San Jose State, San Diego State are equal to Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, South Carolina and Miss St. I forgot about the great Coach Pat Hill, who has never won anything, comments about Boise St. would beat Wisconsin by 4 TDS, he is the one who should be blasted by what he said instead of Gee.

[Just_A_Fan]

pretty good post and a even better thing to worry about (which BCS game are we going to play in) as to my team we get the Pampers Bowl. If UM does keep RR they will only win 9 game next year he's only imporved 2 games a year 3-9, 5-7, and now 7-5. Someone said earlyer that the Michigan fans are just getting used to the but kicking, The answer to that question is when was the last time that we was actually post to win. AS fnas we come into the game hoping to win, but as OSU fans you come into the game knowing your going to win, thats the big differents even more so the past three years. Even Carr's last couple years those teams was WAY under achivers. Just look at all the talent that is now in the NFL.

[ManitouDan]

what you haters forget to mention,,,,,,,you meant to say ohio state playing another sec team, basically on their HOME field......

please do NOT drag out this lame A S S excuse for the bucks being o for their existence against the SEC. please , you look stupid when you it.

[seofan_via_dublin]

MD....MSU is the only conference team to beat Wisconsin, and had those two tied alone for the championship, MSU would be in the Rose based on head to head

Im thinking NW beat MSU (?) but that was when they had their QB.

It was Iowa, in Iowa that beat MSU.

[seofan_via_dublin]

seo: So how does the former DIAA and DIII for example have a 16 game playoff? Mt Union won their SECOND ROUND game yesterday and is now in the semifinals and looking more and more like another installment of the Mt Union- Wisconsin Whitewater National Championship game.

Mt Union plays a 10 game schedule
If they make it to the title game they will have played 14 games for the season.
Auburn will play 14 games this season and not even have a playoff.

All DIII playoff games will be held in stadiums smaller than Alumni Stadium in Jackson.
For almost all DIII playoff games only one team travels.
A potential NCAA playoff will have all games in 80-100K seat stadiums.
Games will be played at Neutral sites for FBS football.

So, if you're a Mt. Union fan and you want to watch playoff football in the stadium throughout the playoffs.
You need to wake up the morning of the game, drive to Mt. Unions field, park the car and buy the ticket.
You might spend $50 all day and do that 3 times. You can drive to Salem, VA for the finals. so we'll budget $300 for that road trip.

If you're an OSU fan, and the Buckeyes make it to the title game, and you wish to watch the Buckeyes all the way through.
You need to get 4 straight weekends off work.
You need to spend at minimum $1,200 on round trip flights, and that number is very low on bargan flights.
You need to buy tickets that will be around $100 a seat, for 2 seats because you're not making the trip without a wingman!
Do that 4 times.
Then theirs Hotels, rental cars or taxi, food, and the various extras.

So, which one would you want, $450 total and never take a weekday off work.
Or at Minimum, $3,500 and you've taken a weeks vacation time to get there.

That's just from the fan standpoint.

The travel budgets for D1 football far out weigh those of D3.
You remember that home game for one of the teams involved in D3.
Mt. Union doesn't have to miss class, or pay for travel for 3 weeks of playoff football.

OSU has to pay for travel, rooms, food, ect for over 150 athletes and staff.
That $3,500 for you to go to the game.
It just became an extra half million dollars.
Now I'm just using the Buckeyes as an example, and their athletic budget can handle an extra 1/2 million.
But they are the exception, most athletic departments around the country are subsidized by the University general fund.
Do you think the Universities are going to shell out an extra 1/2 million.
And that 1/2 million is a low estimate.

Playoffs would not solve everything, and I don't trust the NCAA to get anything right.

[seofan_via_dublin]

They don't play games to empty stadiums!
Some people have to flip the gigantic bill so that poor lazy schmucks like us can sit and watch the tv!

[seofan_via_dublin]

They won't be playing playoff home games, they will be neutral field sites.

You don't have the 105,000 people that are in Ohio Stadium and the thousdands more dying to get in.
You have our road traveling faithful.
Which is about 20-30K depending on the week.

If your cousin wanted season tickets, he'd have them.
My wife work for OSU and next season we will be getting ours, would have had them this year but found out a couple weeks late that she was elligable this season.
Buckeye tickets are not hard to get, you just have to pay for them!!!

[javon white]

I read somewhere that Ohio State's Athletic Department budget is $120,000,000-obviously with that budget OSU is certainly not "a little sister of the poor". Gordon Gee does not want to have a football playoff because that would lead to professionalism-they and other similiarly situated athletic departments appear to be there already. In today's economy in Ohio, is anyone but me concerned that the OSU athletic budget is probably greater than over a third to one-half of Ohio's counties' budgets combined? I think with a $120,000,000 budget that OSU could handle 3 or 4 playoff games. When he was at Vanderbilt, he did away with the athletic department and put it under intramurals as he thought college sports were sending the wrong message and that spending was out of control. I guess he has changed his tune.

Seriously, I wish OSU well in the bowls and forever. But the time for a playoff is now. With a $120,000,000 athletic budget, there is no argument against having one other than to keep a total monopoly on who shares the BCS pot of gold.

[seofan_via_dublin]

OSU has an athletic department that is self funded, and they contribute back to the University budget.

Gee ended the athletic department at Vandy because they operated in the negative and the University had to underwrite the athletic departments budget.

This move worked for Vandy, and would not work at OSU.

OSU is in a very small minority of schools that have self sustaining athletic departments,
They also have more varsity sports than any other in the country,
And football is the only sport that makes money. Men's basketball breaks even.
All 34 other varsity sports are funded by football!

[javon white]

seofan-via-dublin: You are correct that they are self-funding and that they and men's basketball are the only sports that turn a profit. It is the largest athletic department budget in the nation.

In an article published in Street and Smith's Sports Business Daily on October 19, 2007, Jon Weinbach of the Wall Street Journal wrote that it is the "most vivid example of how college sports have turned into a humongous business and created a parallel universe of high-living in the world of academia." The department is a "gold plated island in a region getting roiled by harsh economic forces"-the state of Ohio's median household income fell 9.3% between 2000-2005, one of the worst declines for any state during that span. Meanwhile, in that time, OSU's athletic budget has grown 46% "despite a prolonged downturn in the Ohio economy and several rounds of public-funding cuts to higher education."

According to NCAA data, OSU was one of 19 schools whose athletic department turned a profit in 2006, and the school (OSU) said the department is self-sufficient-it uses sports revenues to pay for its teams and operations.

OSU Athletic Department does a great job. I do not dispute that. Clearly, they are run like a business should be run. That is why it is crystal clear to me that they do not want to kill a golden goose like the BCS and go to a playoff system. I think it is called a monopoly. Maybe that is why President Gee is one of the biggest proponents of the BCS and not a playoff system like every sport, male or female, and division in NCAA athletics has.

With Ohio's economy hurting even more than when the article above was published, perhaps Governor Kasich will look into lavish spending by universities to the tune of $120,000,000 a year on sports instead of cutting needed government services. I seriously doubt it, but it may be worth a look. For what it is worth, I agree with you that what happened at Vanderbilt would not work at OSU, but everything is worth a look now. I know that my children's tuition at the state schools they attend has not gone down during the past four years, despite funding for athletics rising at places like OSU. I am an avid sports fan and an OSU fan. I just find it very hard to swallow President Gee's "little sisters of the poor" reference to those institutions of higher education not as fortunate as OSU. I graduated both from OSU and also from one of those universities described as a "little sister of the poor", and am very proud of being an OSU alumni, but seriously resent the reference to the "little sister of the poor".

[javon white]

I agree wholeheartedly with your playoff suggestion gahs4ever-it would not be that difficult to do so. I also agree with you that it will never happen during our liftetimes. It is amazing that these elite academic institutions with very, very large athletic department budgets cannot devise a playoff system when all the other "little sisters of the poor" in all other sports (mens and womens) in all NCAA divisions can have a playoff.

[seofan_via_dublin]

You read my comments before, I've stared many times that if a playoff is brought in, it should be a maximum of 8 teams.
My examples of negativity are geared toward the notion of a 16 team playoff.

[seofan_via_dublin]

I agree with you for the structure, but the problem will be team selection.

My preference us drop all conference tie ins for the major bowls, and use the BCS formula or something very similar to determine the top 8 teams. These are the teams that are in, regardless of conference or number of teams from that conference.

This year we would have 3 big ten teams, and nobody from the ACC or Big East!

The conference will never vote for that though, so my fear would be that they would pick the 6 conference champions and the top 2 teams that are not.

This will water down the playoff system.

[marshallman]

We Buckeye fans will enjoy another 365 gloating days of sticking it to meatchicken and Michigan. What is it, 3000 days since they last beat the Bucks? I just wish Tressel went for that last TD and went for two. I was really hoping OSU would put 50 pts on them. It makes for a great start to 2011. I hope we can go for 10 in a row now. My only concern is them canning meatchicken. He is the best thing going for OSU. Go Bucks!!

[Dive4Five]

Would the signal to the crowd on the TD's still have been a flag even if they were not wearing the gloves??