FanHouse OhioState

With all due respect to my esteemed colleague here at FanHouse, I have to point out that Ray Holloman missed something in his post on the Penn State victory over Ohio State Saturday night. Not to worry, though, Ray; so far, it appears that a lot of other people have missed it too.

I know, based on seven of the Nittany Lions' first eight games, you all were expecting JoePa's harriers to drop 45 points and 500 yards of offense on the Buckeyes. Since I predicted a 34-31 Penn State victory, I was a little shocked too at how low the score was. (I hedged my bets in the middle of the afternoon, of course.) It turned out much more like both teams' Purdue games, in which Penn State only scored 20 and Ohio State only put up 16.

How did it turn out that way, though? After last week's Terrelle Pryor explosion in East Lansing and, well, Penn State's season, where were the offenses in this game? I mean, if a football game ends up with a 13-6 score and neither team putting up 300 yards of offense, they must be two mediocre teams, right? Don't good teams save their best performances for their best opponents?

They got their bachelor's degree from Florida and their master's from LSU, but Saturday night Southern California handed Ohio State a brand-new degree: the Doctor of Failosophy. Yeesh. What a curbstomping. If you really need me to tell you what to do with the Buckeyes now, I'll be happy to do so, as long as you tell me something first: Who turned the computer on for you?

Don't just sell, pards; eject. There are at least two teams in the Big Ten playing better football than the Buckeyes right now.

I saw a distant early warning last Saturday, and it's wasn't the Ohio-OSU game. It was the fact that South Dakota State beat Youngstown State almost as badly as the Buckeyes did. Sure, Jim Tressel rested his starters when the game was in hand and probably didn't want to show up his former employer too badly. Even if Tressel had rested his starters for the whole game, they ought to be able to out-perform a squad that was playing Division II ball four years ago. You've got problems on offense, Coach, and they're not all in Beanie Wells's shoes.

So where does the savvy investor in the non-existent football futures market go now?

Yes, Ohio's quest to surpass Alabama as the home of the nation's most sadly deranged college football fans continues apace:

"Tressel Hayes Huffines -- sounds as sweet as an OSU victory over Michigan," Brent Huffines, 27, said Sunday while cradling the 3-day-old boy in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ohio State University Medical Center.

But wait, there's more! Tressel Hayes Huffines is the sixth Ohio child in the past four years to be named "Tressel". All of them await a life wherein they seethe with impotent rage at their boss Meyer Spurrier Randomlastname but are powerless to do anything but watch as he runs off with their wives, adopts their children, and burns down their house Keyser Soze style. But Huffines alone will punch some random South Carolinian who wanders into the wrong McDonalds one fateful morning and intercepts an apple pie destined for one of his buddies.
(Disclaimer: Michigan fan, owned by Ohio State, you are my daddy, etc etc etc. At least I'm naming my hypothetical kids things like "Howard," which is a completely plausible first name, if one destined to get the poor thing's face kicked in on a regular basis.)

You'd have no idea by watching CBS' coverage of the Xavier-Ohio State game, but the ending of it was soaked in controversy. After a wild sequence of two Ohio State missed shots, Xavier pulls down a rebound with ten seconds left and a two point lead. Greg Oden is the nearest Buckeye to the ball and violently shoves the Xavier player out of bounds:



No intentional foul or flagrant foul was called. Xavier would miss one of two at the line, OSU would hit a game-tying three, and the rest is history. If the refs had decided a flying shoulderblock that sent a Xavier player into the photographers was a two-shot-and-the-ball foul we have a 9 over a 1. Instead we just have further evidence that the state of NCAA basketball refereeing leaves something to be desired. Like competence.

UPDATE: CBS just addressed this on their studio show; they did have a better angle that showed Oden could plausibly be construed as going for the ball. So it's a closer decision and the "competence" rip above was unwarranted. For livid OSU fans in the comments: yes, I'm a Michigan fan; no, I'm not rooting against OSU after last year's 3-6, Bill Simmons ripping on the league, the dual Rose/Fiesta fiascoes, and the torrent of negative publicity after the "open letter" Jim Delaney sent out. Win all you want; I just thought that was a really bad call. Still think so.

Buckeyes basketball coach Thad Matta committed one of the most disgusting acts I've ever seen a coach commit (and I've watched lots of Bob Knight games) during Sunday's Ohio State-Wisconsin game. There's no visual evidence of it online yet (if you've got some, leave a link in the comments), but here's how FoxSports.com columnist Jeff Gordon describes it:

Ohio State coach Thad Matta sent his chewing gum flying onto the court during one of his theatrical outbursts. Then he scooped up the gum and put it back in his mouth.

(It seems the Big Ten has the five-second rule, too.)

Yes, Matta yelled something, his gum came out of his mouth and onto the floor, he picked his gum up, and he nonchalantly put it back into his mouth. I don't know if he thought no one would notice, but the CBS cameras caught it, and believe me, people noticed. MJD noticed at Deadspin. Tom Keegan noticed at KUSports.com. Memphis Bengal noticed at Sports Frog. Now Matta has to win the national championship. That's pretty much the only way his 2006-07 season will be remembered for anything other than gum-gate.

It's No. 1 vs. No. 2 as Wisconsin takes on Ohio State today at 4 p.m. ET on CBS, but that's not what makes it a big game. The polls in college basketball don't mean a thing, but what does mean something is that the conference championship and a top seed in the tournament are on the line.

Ohio State would clinch the Big Ten with a win. A Wisconsin win only evens the Badgers in the standings with the Buckeyes, but it would give Wisconsin the season sweep and the likely top seed in the Big Ten Tournament. And more important than that, the winner of this game will have a very good case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, while a No. 2 seed would be the best-case scenario for the loser.

All of that is why this is the hottest ticket in Ohio State basketball history. Seats that normally cost $14 are going for $125, and $26 seats are going for $400.

The key, I think, will be Wisconsin's outside shooting. For much of the season that's been the Badgers' biggest weakness, but they're doing it well recently. If they hit their shots from downtown, the Badgers will beat the Buckeyes again. But I don't think they'll hit enough of them.

Prediction: Ohio State 70, Wisconsin 60

The BCS got lucky. Score one for mankind. When it was all said and done on Sunday night, the national championship game was decided by the voters. What a novelty. Those pesky computer polls found a way to deadlock Michigan and Florida and defer to real live breathing humans to decide who plays for the national championship. The polls made the final choice.

The BCS is still a joke. Using polls to determine who plays for the national championship is still really dumb. But fortunately, the two most deserving teams are headed to Glendale, Arizona to play for all the marbles.

Anyone who's a proponent of a playoff couldn't possibly support Michigan's effort for a rematch. They lost to Ohio State in the last round. It's time for the next one and Florida deserves to be there. Are the Gators dominating? No. Could they have stayed on the field with Auburn's 2004 team? No chance.

The latest BCS standings were released minutes ago and I'm more confused than ever. As expected, Ohio State stays at number one followed by Michigan and USC. I don't think anyone is surprised that Michigan jumped the Trojans. They have been far more impressive than USC.

What is a surprise is that West Virginia jumped Auburn. I'm not saying they shouldn't. In fact, I don't disagree with them being ahead of the Tigers at this point in the season. They are undefeated and play in a surprisingly competitive Big East Conference. With Louisville and Rutgers still left on the Mountaineers schedule, they'll have a chance to justify their lofty ranking.

I admit being shocked last week when Auburn was fourth in the first BCS standings. Beating second-ranked Florida was huge and jumping to seventh in both the Coaches and Harris polls led me to believe the Tigers would fall somewhere around there in the BCS.