Like most boys growing up in Ohio I wanted to become the next great Buckeye... score the winning touchdown to beat hated rival Michigan and roll onto the Rose Bowl to drill a PAC 10 team like USC.
For me that never happened, I went to college at Toledo and had to update my wardrobe to include a lot of blue & yellow. That color combo is tough to find in the closet of any self respecting Buckeye fan...That's a topic for another day.
As a sports journalist my job is to report the facts in an accurate and unbiased manner. Don't misconstrue my dislike for USC as a chance to take a shot at a program still dazed following another loss to an unranked team.
As a Buckeye fan I get the feeling OSU football is like a national toothache...annoying, painful to watch and in desperate need of extraction. Extraction from National Title talk. It's almost as if the voters are looking for a reason to knock the Buckeyes back in the weekly rankings.
OSU loses in the final minutes at home to (at the time) #3 USC by the final score of 18-15.
What followed has become typical after recent losses by the Buckeyes to top ranked teams...A week of: "Tressel is behind the times", "Buckeyes can't win big games", "Buckeyes aren't that good", the list goes on and on. Basically it was a week of Buckeye bashing on a national level.
Of course there was much love given to USC freshman QB Matt Barkley and his leadership on the Trojans final drive which lead to the game winning score. It was deserved, he was poised and confident under pressure in the final minutes.
The AP Top 25 poll released a day after Ohio State lost to USC was as follows:
1.Florida (56) *
2. Texas (1)
3. USC (1)
11. Ohio State
*First place votes
Dropping the Buckeyes three spots for barely losing to USC at home was harsh....One spot...maybe two would have been more like it, but why give USC a first place vote? Sure they did what was expected and beat a lower ranked team but rewarding them with a first place vote was wrong.
The following week #11 Ohio State does what is expected and hammers unranked Toledo 38-0 at a neutral site in Cleveland. What thanks do the Buckeyes get? A slap in the face and a ticket to the 13th ranking.
What were they supposed to do just to remain at number eleven...Beat the Rockets by 80 or more?
Hours after Ohio State dismantled my Alma Mater the USC Trojans do what they seem to do real well of late...lose to an unranked team. Pete Carroll's group falls on the road to Washington 16-13 thanks to a 22 yard field goal from Huskies kicker Eric Folk with 3 seconds on the clock.
As the next AP Top 25 Poll saw the Buckeyes fall, despite a win, the voters did get it right by dropping USC from #3 to #12.
Will the national media in the days ahead put USC under the microscope as Ohio State was last week?
Probably not.
They should.
Suffering a loss to an unranked team has become a pattern for USC the past few years:
2009 #3 USC 13 Washington 162008 #1 USC 21 Oregon State 27
2007 #2 USC 23 Stanford 24
2006 #3 USC 31 Oregon State 33
2006 #2 USC 9 UCLA 13
Ohio State has fallen into a funk as well...losing to top ranked teams on a national stage:
2009 #8 Ohio State 15 #3 USC 182008 #5 Ohio State 3 #1 USC 35
2008 #10 Ohio State 21 #3 Texas 34 (Tostitos Fiesta Bowl)
2007 #1 Ohio State 24 #2 LSU 38 (BCS National Championship)
2006 #1 Ohio State 14 #2 Florida 41 (BCS National Championship)
Once since 2006 a ranked Ohio State team has lost to an unranked opponent:
2007 #1 Ohio State 21 Illinois 28
I'll borrow a line from Lance McAlister a sports radio host in Cincinnati..."Riddle me this Batman".
So, riddle me this Batman, which is worse? Losing to a higher ranked team in a big game or losing to an unranked opponent during the regular season?
Getting to the big game and losing is much more respectable than suffering a huge upset loss during the regular season.
Is Ohio State deserving of criticism....Sure...But not to the extent they have been drilled the past few years.
Why has USC gotten a pass for it's shortcomings?
