Quick Hitch...  

How the fuck do we know that Michigan and Ohio St. are the best two teams? Explain this to me. They are undoubtedly the best teams in the Big 10, and the midwest with Michigan's win over Notre Dame. If Ohio St. beat Michigan again and won the title, they would have the weakest resume of any national champion I can remember. Because really, who the fuck is Michigan? They stormed a shitty Notre Dame team and a Wisconsin team which has played a single ranked team ALL SEASON, and lost that game.

Ohio St. would have beat TWO ranked teams. One of them would be a Texas team breaking in a new quarterback. The other would be a pair of victories over a Michigan team that had only proved that they weren't as good as the Buckeyes.

Fuck it, you're smarter than this. Tell me you watched that game and didn't think that Ohio St. was absolutely, positively, the superior team. Shit, the Wolverines are lucky they didn't get run the fuck out of that stadium. With a center who could snap the ball, the Buckeyes beat them comfortably.

It's a NATIONAL championship. We can watch, and speculate, and do all that bullshit, but the only thing we can KNOW are the results. Well, the results are in. Ohio State is better than Michigan. They are. They beat Michigan 7 times out of 10, but if they lost a rematch they would be the lesser team? Really? If this game wasn't definitive, what's to say the next one would be. Also, both these teams have been prepping for this game for over a month, so the lay-off for the bowl game wouldn't make much of a difference.

If Sparty hangs on against Notre Dame, and UCLA doesn't blow it, then the Irish have 3 losses and NO ONE is saying boo about Michigan.

And you know what? I am sick of this "good loss" or "bad loss" bullshit. Losing is fucking losing. It's that simple. I don't think anyone thinks that Oregon St. is really a better team than USC, so really USC fucked up. It's that simple. However, extenuating circumstances explain some losses. Like Arkansas against USC, that was an impossible game for them, I can understand that loss. Michigan simply got beat. No other way to describe it. Frankly, while it was only 3 points to be country's best team, this would be called a "bad loss" for me, because they definitely got beat, and if anything were lucky it was that close. Oklahoma losing to Oregon? That's not a bad loss. Remember Fresno St.'s "good loss" to USC last year? Yeah, then they shit the bed and couldn't stop losing the entire next season. Fuck it, Illinois was as close to beating Ohio St. as Michigan was, so do we count that as a win for them as well? No. They lost. So you know what, don't lose. And if you do lose your final game against your most bitter rivals for a shot at the national championship? Fuck you, go home.

If Ohio St. beat Michigan again (and they would) their title would be tainted. If they beat USC or Arkansas or Florida, it would not be, because they would have DEFINITIVELY beaten the best teams in the country. Say Ohio St. wins handily. Say Notre Dame loses to USC and then loses a bowl game to Florida or someone. Say Wisconsin loses their bowl game too, maybe to Auburn and maybe it's not close. Well, then Ohio St. will have won a championship based on their dominance of a team without a truly impressive win all season. And what if Texas loses a couple more? Than would Ohio St. have won a title without beating any legit team all season? Is this what we want.

A rematch provides the potential for a national title leaving me wanting more. A different opponent does not. If another opponent beat Ohio St. they'd be undisputed champs. If Michigan did, especially if it were close, they'd just be tied for the year, hardly compelling. If Ohio St. beats another top program, than they are definitely champs as well. Since they already beat the two second ranked teams in a row, that's impressive.

We have been wrong about juggernauts before. An Oklahoma team that everyone thought was world caliber being destroyed by USC, a Miami team that people were talking about beating NFL teams losing to Ohio St. Those are examples of the past five years. Alabama beating another Miami juggernaut is a classic. I want Ohio St. to play the best teams in the country. I want them to prove to me how good they are. They already beat Michigan, and they have nothing to prove to me on that measure.

The best two teams played already. But those were the best two teams based off our perceptions, our feelings about them, our intuition. But games are decided on the field. That one was decided. So let's try something else. Maybe Ohio St. beats whoever they play, and if so, they're the champs. But let's make the effort to fucking find out.