Ohio State Fans Face Tough Season Ahead

In a column titled “Blog…Enough With The Buckeyes!!!”, College Football News columnist Barette Sallee offers a preview of what we are up against this year.

And while I don’t really want to give him the honor of my comments, it pretty much outlines what I expect to hear echoed the entire season. No matter how well we do this season, no matter how badly we beat USC, the Buckeyes will need to overcome this sort of sentiment from the BCS voters.

Naturally, while Barrette points out that we travel to USC for what he terms an “early season beatdown” against USC, we only did it six years after the SEC began adding them to the schedule. He fails to forget however, that while his beloved SEC was playing USC, we were taking on a #1 or #2 ranked Texas.

He is right on one account — we’ve blown our last two shots at the BCS and having done so, no matter how bad we rampage through the season, we will have trouble convincing the rest of the world that we belong in the big game.

More than anything, I’m as frustrated by the schedule as anyone. I think the USC series is great. I only wish our other off-season games were as interesting. And yes, I understand the need for in-state charity games, but somebody please tell me how Troy University got on the schedule. (You have to give Troy credit though, they play LSU two weeks before they come to Columbus.)

Until the BCS initiates a playoff series (don’t hold your breath), the off season schedule is the one thing that we will have to go by. Unfortunately, in BCS terms, it doesn’t look much better down the road. In 2009, we’ve got the home game with USC, an opener against Navy and New Mexico State. While the Navy game is interesting, Navy’s got Notre Dame for their old school football fix. After the USC series, we open a two game series with Miami FL. Other games include Marshall and Eastern Michigan. I’m sure that when they scheduled Miami, they were a good team.

A couple of things have to happen for Ohio State to get the respect it deserves. This year, the Buckeyes need to walk through the season unquestioned. They need to put a serious hurt on USC but even that might not be enough. The Big Ten needs another ranked team and I don’t see one on the horizon (Illinois?). Even if the Buckeyes go undefeated and all other BCS contenders come out two-loss teams, it will only be used against us in the way the SEC claims that losing games proves they have a better conference.

Down the road, the Big Ten needs to get better. It used to be that winning a Big Ten championship was enough to put you in the hunt. Unfortunately, the Big Ten has let us down lately. Teams that could be counted on for a good game - Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State, even Michigan - haven’t held up their end of the bargain. Until they do, it’s only going to get worse.