Ohio State should be burned down, and the soil sewn with salt

Being a Penn State fan, or really I suppose this could go for a fan of any school in the Big Ten besides Ohio State, I really hate Ohio State.

What they have done to damage the reputation of the Big Ten is really incalculable.

The past two years they have made it to the BCS National Championship game. Whether or not it was merited, they were one of the teams selected (not gonna get into the whole, BCS sucks we need a playoff bit).

Both of those years they were not only beaten, but blown out, once by Florida, once by LSU (coincidentally both SEC schools, however I think that is merely coincidence).

By being blown out these two years, as the perceived consistent leader of the Big Ten (which is false) they've by default ruined the legitimacy of the entire conference.

They haven't really had a significant bowl win since really either 02 (when they beat Miami for the championship) or 03 (when they narrowly edged Kansas State for a Fiesta Bowl win). The BCS win against the Irish isn't really anything special considering the Irish only need like 3 losses for a guarunteed BCS bid, and the fact that the Irish haven't won any bowl games since the 80s when Lou Holshtz was their head coach. Come to think of it, they themselves decided not to play in any bowl games at all for about 50 years from the 20s to the 70s.

But the simple fact is this. Ohio State, at least/especially over the last few years, has been built only to win in the Big Ten. Anyone remember the year they beat the Irish in a BCS game, they previously lost to Texas in the regular season (and Penn State).

So naturally, they will go to these games. In fact, despite having two losses this year (USC, and Penn State again) they probably will go to a BCS game again, and get blown out.

And another thing. I'm tired of the SEC constantly, consistently, and most of all, incessantly being touted as the be-all and end-all of all awesome college football conferences. The fact of the matter is their basement sucks (Tennessee -- who lost to Wyoming, Mississippi State, Arkansas), they never play good out of conference opponents (often times much worse than the ones the Big Ten plays, at least the Big Ten usually schedules FBS teams), and once bowl season does in fact come around, they only do about as good as the other conferences, which is to say around .500. Ok, so Alabama and Florida are elite teams, so are Penn State, Texas, and USC, they don't seem to be in the SEC. OK, so they produce alot of NFL defensive players, so do the Big Ten and Pac Ten. It's really quite absurd the levels this conference is elevated above the others. Oddly enough it's probably karmic payment for that one year undefeated Auburn was left out of the national championship game. Nowadays it seems every single SEC fan is screaming "INJUSTICE" if the entire BCS Bowl series isn't filled with SEC teams. The funny part about that is the players themselves don't know the meaning of the word. They just don't learn it with their Basket weaving majors.

Damnit, I said I wouldn't go there, but you know how you fix all that crap with the conferences claiming their #1 team should go to the big game, Playoff. It's not that hard. Just an automatic berth for Big Ten, SEC, Pag 10, Big 12, ACC, Big East, and then two at large. 8 teams, that's only 3 rounds. simple.

Damn Ohio State for ruining this for any other Big Ten team's future hopes at a National Championship. I guess Mr. Sweatervest didn't want anyone else to join in on the fun.

--Knuttel

**Update 9:30 pm**
Here are the conferences as they stand currently
The ACC has 8 of its 12 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and none eliminated from contention. There are, however, none with less than 2 losses.
The Big 12 has 7 teams out of 12 eligible for a bowl berth, with 2 eliminated from contention, and two more dangerously close.
The Big East has 5 out of 8 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and one eliminated from contention.
The Big Ten has 6 out of 11 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and 3 eliminated from contention.
The Pac 10 has 5 out of 10 teams eligible for a bowl berth, and 2 elminated from contention.
The SEC has 6 out of 12 teams eligible for a bowl berth and one eliminated from contention.

What does this say? It says the ACC has a lot of good above average teams, none terribly weak, but none terribly good. There is currently a three way tie for the Coastal division lead. The Big 12 has some good teams, but the bottom is staggering. 3-7 Baylor, 2-8 Iowa State, 4-6 Kansas State, 4-6 Texas A&M. The SEC is pretty much a reflection of that; particularly the SEC West (which features undefeated Alabama), 4-6 Arkansas, 3-6 Mississppi State, traditionally strong Auburn at 5-5. The Pac 10 is doing its best Hamlet impersonation (there's something rotten in the state of Washington) -- 1-9 Wasu and 0-9 Washington. USC is unquestionably the best team, but their loss is to second in the Pac 10 Oregon State, who Penn State beat. The Big East is in a similar situation with the ACC, in that no team wants to win the division, the problem though is none of them are particularly good. With that much parity, to already have an eliminated team does not bode well for the rest of the conference. Which leaves the Big Ten. The Big Ten is currently in a three way tie for first place, 9-2 Michigan State, 9-1 Penn State, and 8-2 Ohio State. Each only has one conference loss. The six automatic bowl berths are most among conferences that don't have a conference championship game, because they do not have 12 teams. The teams already eliminated were an Indiana team that is never expected to anything really, a Purdue team that nearly pulled an upset in Oregon, and a Michigan team in transition. Wisconsin fell off the map once conference play started, but still sits at .500.

Also to consider, once bowl games begin, the only one of these conferences that does not have any "home" bowl games -- a bowl game in the immediate geographic area -- is the Big Ten. There is the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, but that is a crappy bowl game that features, if any Big Ten team, the one in seventh place in the conference. The overwhelming number of games are played in Florida, Texas, and California. This creates home games for, essentially, the SEC, ACC, and Big East; the Big 12; and the Pac 10, respectively. There are even more games in the southern states -- those that hold SEC and ACC teams such as Georgia and Louisiana, games in the general south west, and all up the west coast, for Pac 10 teams. Now, I know bowl games are seen as "vacation" to alot of people (sportswriters, coaches, etc), and few people plan to travel to the freezing Midwest, or (cold) Pennsylvania, for a bowl game, but this should put a serious hamper on the ability of Big Ten teams to compete in these games, and the fact of the matter is they usually do remarkably well, not even considering something like this. Sometimes I wonder if Jim Tressel's soul is darker than Urban Meyer's for doing something like this to the conference.