Posted: January 13, 2015
Well, the Ohio State Buckeyes are kings of the college football world. In a game that the Buckeyes won 42-20, it was a game that believe it or not, was not as close as that 22 point victory would have you believe. The Buckeyes whipped the Ducks in every phase of this game and were most dominant on the offensive and defensive lines. If not for the OSU -3 turnover margin, this game would have been over far sooner.
As regular readers of this site know, I am no fan of the Buckeyes and Urban Meyer. But it is very hard to deny that this was a monumental achievement for both the players and their coach. To lose quarterbacks in the manner in which they did, beat an Alabama team widely believed to be the best team in the country, and then turn around and shut down the vaunted Duck attack, deserves a big tip of the cap. This team fought adversity all season and are truly deserving champions, as tough as it is for me to admit that. Well done and well deserved.
Has Urban surpassed Saban? Tough to argue that he has not. It truly pains me to admit this, but this was a masterful coaching job, and not just last night, but all season.
I also admit that I was wrong. I would not have had Ohio State in the College Football Playoff. I thought both TCU and Baylor were more deserving and better teams. In my humble opinion, that is overwhelming evidence that we need to be at 8 teams. I was not alone in my belief that OSU should have been on the outside looking in. At four teams, a loss to Virginia Tech is devastating and in my view, should have been enough to keep OSU out. The committee took into account the potential of this team and that is a big stretch with only 4 slots. With 8 slots, it is much easier to do. Is it that tough to imagine either Baylor or TCU doing what Ohio State did? I could see it. Let’s go to eight!
As for Coach Meyer’s belief that you can not play 15 games with 85 scholarships, there may be some validity to that. I will leave it to the Kristi Dosh’s of the world to analyze if the additional money from going to an eight team playoff is enough to offset losing one of the two directional school games that most power 5 teams play so that we can keep the schedule at 14 games. But I am sure this can be worked out. With this much money involved, solutions are there. As a college football fan, I want more of this playoff thing. This has been a great end to the college football season and I want more of it, and I think 8 teams and one additional playoff round is perfect.