Letting Buckeyes play right call
Some see Big Ten’s rule change as cash grab, but shot at title is deserved
For once in college athletics, chasing the pot of gold matched up seamlessly with doing the right thing.
No. 3 Ohio State will take the field in the Big Ten championship game despite playing just five games, thanks to the conference bigwigs making an impromptu adjustment to a rule that had required a team to have at least six games on its resumé in order to qualify.
It is easy to be cynical about the league’s motives. The Big Ten surely wrestled with the nagging concern that it may be left out of the College Football Playoff altogether in these challenging financial times, missing out on the $6-million (U.S.) payday that goes to each of the four participating schools.
One pundit tweeted a picture of the supposed analysis used by the Big Ten to make its decision, which was nothing more than Ohio State (5-0, No. 4 in the CFP rankings) circled with four dollars signs beside its name.
There was only one dollar sign beside No. 8 Indiana (6-1, No. 12), which would have gone to the Dec. 19 title game to face Northwestern under the original rules for this pandemic-affected season.
Still, we’re siding with the Big Ten on this one.
Ohio State is clearly the best team in the conference, perhaps the best team in the nation. The Buckeyes have won four games by an average of 27.5 points and defeated Indiana 42-35 in a meeting that was only that close because of a furious but futile comeback by
the Hoosiers.
While accused of favouritism toward its football powerhouse, the Big Ten rightly pointed out that Ohio State still would have claimed the East division title even if they had played — and improbably lost — Saturday’s now-cancelled game against Michigan because of their tiebreaker edge over Indiana.
It’s worth noting that the College Football Playoff selection committee likely would have picked the Buckeyes even if they weren’t eligible for the conference championship game.
If anything, playing one more game is a bit of a risk when they may have already locked up a spot, though that was dependent on the outcomes of the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference
championship games.
Ohio State actually made the playoff four years ago without playing for the Big Ten title. A three-point loss at Penn State knocked the Buckeyes out of a spot in the conference championship game, but they were still selected for football’s final four. Two-loss Penn State won the Big Ten title, only to settle for a spot in the non-playoff Rose Bowl.
Also, of Ohio State’s three cancelled games, only one (Nov. 28 at Illinois) was because of COVID-19 cases within the Buckeyes program.
The Nov. 14 game at Maryland was scrapped because the Terrapins had a spike in their numbers. Michigan was forced to back out of its traditional season-ending showdown with the Buckeyes because of at least 40
cases linked to the Wolverines.
Rest assured, Ohio State desperately wanted the chance to deliver another beat down of its fiercest rival.
The Buckeyes have won eight straight games in the series, and most of those haven’t even been close. They scored 56 points at Michigan’s Big House last year, and 62 at the Horseshoe the year before.
“There’s a lot of hatred that goes toward that logo,” Ohio State guard Wyatt Davis said. “All the stuff we have to do during the off-season, all the situps and push-ups, everything, there’s a lot of stuff that is definitely geared toward them.”
Thankfully, the Buckeyes will now get a shot at No. 15 Northwestern (5-1, No. 14). The Big Ten made the proper call on that one.