Once Again, Another Ohio State Loss

I've gotta admit, as an Ohio State fan, I'm not using to losing this bad. Growing up, I remember all the good times like when they won the Rose Bowl against Jake Plummer and Arizona State, the 2005 victory over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, and of course, the 2003 National Championship. A game I was at by the way, and to this day, the best sporting event I have ever seen live in person.

But these last two years have been tough. Twice now I've gone from on cloud nine when the final BCS standings are released, to completely downtrodden after the championship game. And do you want to know the absolute worst part? In both games, Ohio State jumped out to early leads, last year with the KO return for a touchdown by Ted Ginn and this year with Maurice Wells's 65 yard TD run, and from that point on, just looked awful. So there I am jumping around like a madman yelling about how good OSU is, and half and hour later, I'm watching something else. Don't be calling me a fair weather fan now, it's just I can't take the pain of seeing a team come so close and end up so far away.

With the 38-24 loss to LSU, the question becomes now if you're a Buckeye fan like me, how do we fix something like this? Is it the coaching? I don't think so, what Tressel has done for OSU has brought them great success, just not in the pinnacle of when it matters most. If you want my opinion, I think the Big Ten needs to fix how they schedule games. Finishing the season right before Thanksgiving and having 50+ days off until your next game just doesn't make sense to me. It seems in all sports, the team that rests usually doesn't do as well as the other team who plays later into the season. Another example outside of college football is the Boston Red Sox this past baseball season. The Rockies swept both Philadelphia and Arizona on their way to the World Series. The Red Sox on the other hand, had to fight through a grueling 7-game series with Cleveland just to take the ALCS. And what happened? The Red Sox, because they had played more recently than the Rockies, ended up sweeping them in four games and winning their second World Series title in four seasons. So I'm pleading with you Mr. Big Ten Commissioner, please fix the schedule so things like this don't happen again. Otherwise, at least when it comes to OSU these past two years, that maybe the BCS will look somewhere else when deciding who plays in next years national championship.

Picture courtesy of: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3186010&sportCat=ncf