No Rose Bowl? No Problem!

Very small chance

Obviously, the goal every year at Ohio St. is to win the Big Ten and ultimately a national championship. The Buckeyes are easily one of the top 5 programs in the nation and 1 or 2 loss seasons are often deemed as a failure. Short of a MNC appearance, the Rose Bowl is the next best post season destination for the Scarlet and Gray. Historically, Pasadena has been THE destination that all Big Ten/Pac Ten schools would aspire to be at. The BCS has changed that somewhat but a trip to sunny southern California is still considered to be a great accomplishment.

This year, it appears that the only way the Buckeyes are going to Pasadena is if they can somehow pass Wisconsin in the BCS standings by Sunday night. This seems to be a pipe dream at best because of Ohio St.’s head to head loss to the Badgers in Madison back on Oct. 17. To be honest, I don’t think OSU deserves it over a Wisconsin team this year. They beat the Buckeye’s up and down the field in that fateful first half and deserve to be slated higher in the standings. In reality, it looks like the Buckeye’s will have to settle for a trip to Miami to face an ACC team or New Orleans to face an SEC team. Is that really a bad option for the team this year? I don’t think it is.

If the Buckeye’s somehow were to jump Wisconsin in the standings, it would almost certainly mean that a matchup with TCU would be on the Horizon. In my opinion, this would be a lose lose proposition for OSU. It would be a game against a non AQ opponent that the Buckeye’s would be expected to win. However, if they lost, we would never hear the end of it from the Mark May’s and Skip Bayless’s of the world. Can you imagine the fallout for a loss against TCU? I wouldn’t be able to watch Sportscenter for a week. Ohio St. and the Big Ten have worked hard over the past couple of seasons to shed the negative image that was created by the national championship game flops.

Going to Pasadena

Last year’s win in the Rose Bowl, and the other big wins by conference members over good competition, have set us off in the right direction. TCU has the talent to beat anybody on any given day and a win against the Buckeye’s would set us back another couple of years in the public perception department. OSU definitely has the superior talent but you never know what you are going to get after a month off.

Assuming that Pasadena is out of the question, it looks as though the Buckeye’s are on their way to the Sugar Bowl. Some say that a trip to Miami for the Orange Bowl is still a possibility but I don’t see how the folks in New Orleans pass up an opportunity to bring Ohio St. and their massive traveling fan base to Bourbon St. A matchup against Arkansas or South Carolina, if they can upset Auburn this weekend, would await the Buckeyes in the Superdome.

We've taken the field at the Sugar Bowl before.

This would be a far better bowl game for OSU to participate in this season. It would give us the opportunity to get that SEC monkey off our collective backs against one of the more beatable foes from god’s conference. With the Buckeye defense hitting its’ stride late in the season, I don’t see how the Razorback’s or Gamecock’s put up the numbers that Florida and LSU put up on us in those title games.

All this jockeying for position could have been avoided if the Buckeye’s would have shown up for the first half against the Badgers. This team had the talent and senior leadership to win a national title this year. Unfortunately one bad half can be the difference in college football. You have to be almost perfect to get yourself an opportunity to play for that crystal football. OSU has to play the cards it was dealt and a trip to a record 6th straight BCS bowl game is a pretty good consolation prize.

An SEC matchup will be far more entertaining and gratifying for the fans rather than a showdown with an upstart TCU team. Hopefully Wisconsin will take care of business and beat the Horned Frogs but for once I am glad it is them and not us in the Rose Bowl.