After another weekend of shocking upsets to the top ranked teams in America the Ohio St. Buckeyes have somehow snuck into the top spot in the AP Poll, the Coaches Poll and the BCS Poll. The Buckeyes are essentially the #1 team in the country by default, they are amongst the few undefeated teams left in the country and were the highest ranked of these squads in the preseason. This equals the top spot.However, in my weekly poll I have them outside the top 11 essentially because they have yet to beat a good team. And looking at their schedule I do not see how they will ever make a dramatic climb in my poll when the teams ahead of them will continue to beat better squads. By any standard of calculation or reasoning the Ohio St. Buckeye schedule has been a cake walk and will end up being amongst the weakest schedules of any top team.
Schedule Thus Far
Currently the Buckeyes 7 wins. Amongst these 7 teams not a single team received a sole vote for the AP poll. Not one is ranked anywhere near the BCS top 25. Discounting the 1-AA Youngstown St. (5-2) victory their opponents combined record is 15-19. Their best victory came against Purdue whom was throttled by Michigan this weekend and whose only victory over a .500 team is against 4-3 Central Michigan. In simpler Purdue is not good. The Buckeyes have played no one of consequence and certainly have yet to beat anyone which would prove to you that they should be considered the #1 team in the country.
Schedule Going Forward
The Schedule going forward is significantly more difficult than the already completed 7 games but to put it bluntly the Buckeyes will never have a signature victory during this season unlike last seasons victories over 1 loss Michigan and the Texas Longhorns. Let's do a week by week rundown to show that Buckeyes will not have a signature victory during the regular season.This week their opponent is 5-2 Michigan St., a squad who lost to Northwestern. No more explanation necessary.
5-2 Penn St. follows, in Happy Valley. This is one of the Buckeyes 2 chances to proclaim a big time victory, however, the Nittany Lions are currently ranked in the low 20s in the poll and outside the BCS top 25. A win against Penn St. would mark the Nittany Lions third loss of the season. Not your ideal signature victory.
5-2 Wisconsin is next. And while they should be 7-2 when they head to Columbus (Northern Illinois & Indiana), the Badgers have failed to show up in their other two big games this year. Why should a victory be proclaimed anything dramatic.
5-2 Illinois is next in Columbus. The Juice and Co. face Michigan this weekend, I expect a loss and even if they do garner a victory over the Wolverines it will still be a victory over Ron Zook and unheralded Illinois a team who lost to Iowa whom was on an 8 game conference losing streak.
Finally the showdown at the Bighouse vs. the #25 (BCS rank) Michigan Wolverines. The Wolverines are the only team in the Big 10 outside the Buckeyes to be in the BCS top 25 and if they run the table they will continue to move up and will be on 9 game winning streak and they are the arch-rival. But there is no looking past the Appalachian St. loss and the no show against Oregon. Topping the 39-7 Oregon margin is highly doubtful.
Now throw in the fact that most of these teams remaining on the Buckeyes also have to play each other and the chances of a signature victory grow even slimmer. Any number of these teams in this stretch of 5-2 squads could finish with loss total of 5 or 6 at the conclusion of the season.
What's the Conclusion?
So what can we learn from all of this? Putting it bluntly the Big 10 has done nothing to prove that anyone in the conference is particularly good this season. The Out of Conference victories can be considered thin at best and the parity around the league has left no top tier rival for Ohio St. At the end of the year the Buckeyes only chance for beating a team with less than 3 losses is if Purdue runs the table and given their performance at the big house last week that is highly in doubt. Thus, at the conclusion of the Big 10 season if the Buckeyes finish unblemished we will still be able to proclaim the same thing about the Buckeyes, and that is we have no idea how well or where they stack up against the rest of the country. All we will know is that they pounded their meager out of conference schedule and were able to outlast all the rest of the not so great Big 10. So unless the Buckeyes lose a ball game before the start of December, the first time we will know exactly how good this team is will be when they suit up for the National Championship game.
Update: Here's a detailing of how porous the Big 10's Out of Conference Play has been.
Comments
They beat Texas at Texas (ranked #2 at the time), #2 Michigan, #24 Penn State, and #13 Iowa. That schedule is significantly tougher than 2007's.
Their starting wide recievers (Ginn and Gonzo) were both drafted in the 1st round, so they weren't slow either.
The Buckeyes were simply outcouched in the NC game against Florida; it wasn't a factor of experience or speed. However, those factors may play a much larger role if the Buckeyes make it to the BSC Championship this year.
However, I do think this notion of conference strength is getting out of hand. Here's a data based break-down of conference strength.
As for the remaining undefeated teams, who have the beaten? Everyone they've played. And while you might question if an OSU or ASU would beat LSU, there's little doubt that OSU, ASU, and most of the other unbeatens would take care of business against Oregon State, Stanford, Kentucky, Colorado, etc. which is more than [insert whichever team(s) you believe are better than the current unbeatens] can say. Winning trumps whining.
The season is long and it's not over. I think a better thing to get your knickers in a twist over is that there have be 67 games this year of IAA vs. IA, that's good for no one.
Watch Saturday Night Live, and you're likely to see a parody.
Watch College Football this year, and you're likely to see parity, as in, less disparity between teams.
As for conference strength its tough to make an argument for the Big 10. Sure they have a solid OOC record, but the majority of those wins came against MAC teams. In addition no Big 10 teams have any standout wins. Only standout losses such as the Duck smackdown of the Wolverines.
I agree with the general 1-AA thought but it was proven that they can completely ruin a top ranked teams season, so I can't kill a team with one 1-AA team on their schedule, cause frankly they just might be better than a team like Duke.
Also, you will not see USC anywhere near my rankings, so I'll give you Stanford.
Thanks for the ole grammar check, tis changed...
Sorry, that is all.
Their resume would look a lot better if they could get a quality loss at the hands of Stanford, Oregon State, or Auburn, eh?? Don't blame the Buckeyes for having a sick D and WINNING all of their games. A win is better than a "quality loss" against anyone else.
Not every team can be lucky enough to play in God's League and lose 12 games to SEC schools, yet be ranked number 1 because you have 12 quality losses.
As a result of this blowout game, all of the sudden the Buckeyes are no longer considered a prominent National Champion contender to hacks like SimonOnSports. If anything consistency and a dominant defense should warrant the current ranking, even if this team does not prove to be flashy.
This is one Florida resident who will be watching a Buckeye National Championship against a one-loss SEC team. Unlike last year, the Buckeyes will 'shock' ignorant bloggers and this SEC is so tremendously great notion will go by the wayside.
I said no such thing. All I've said is that the Big 10 has done nothing this season to prove that it is amongst the elite conferences. Both the Human Polls and Computers do not have a significant amount of Big 10 teams ranked and thus don't think the conference is very good either. Thus what I am saying and what you would have gotten, had you actually read the post, is that at the end of the regular season the Buckeyes will not have been forced to defeat an elite team and thus when they face an elite team in the NCAA Championship game you will be unable to predict just how good they are.
I may suck at grammar, but atleast I know when I attempt to criticize a post I should actually read it prior.
statistically prove it & i'll be a believer!