Like in many recent years, Ohio State would be a perfect participant in an eight-team playoff model. Not surprisingly, that's what many Buckeyes this season would take over the Sugar Bowl.
View full sizeIf Ohio State was part of a BCS playoff, the Buckeyes could be facing Antoine Hicks and Texas Christian in an opening-round game.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State could be preparing for a college football playoff game with TCU next Saturday. That type of scenario sounded great to Buckeyes' junior center Mike Brewster.
"I'd love a playoff," Brewster said. "The way I see it, teams get better as the season goes on. Nobody plays their best football at the beginning of the season. Everybody is always getting better and if you're going to be the best team in the country, you need to play your best football at the end.
"So I'd have an eight-team playoff, or however they'd do it. Hopefully, [it will happen] someday, for these young guys in high school. I'll be an old man."
The debate over the college postseason is ongoing. In a preseason ESPN survey of 135 college football players, 62.2 percent wanted a playoff. But the majority of major conference commissioners, including Big Ten boss Jim Delany, on a panel in New York this week, continued their opposition.
Regardless of your views on the matter, two truths are pretty clear when it comes to Ohio State, one on each side of the argument.
One is that no team has benefited more from the BCS system than Ohio State, with the Buckeyes' Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl showdown with Arkansas the ninth BCS bowl bid for the program in 13 years of this system. With a major fan base, the ability to draw strong TV ratings and recent dominance in a BCS conference, if the Buckeyes are pretty good -- with no more than two losses -- they're almost guaranteed a prestigious bowl spot.
The other is that, this season, like in many recent years, Ohio State would be a perfect participant in an eight-team playoff model. Not surprisingly, that's what many Buckeyes this season would take over the Sugar Bowl.
"I'd want a chance at the national title," senior captain and defensive lineman Cameron Heyward said.
The Buckeyes started the year ranked No. 2 with legitimate national title hopes. A terrible first half at Wisconsin in the seventh week of the season, in the first week that the Buckeyes were ranked No. 1, wiped away those title dreams. Their relatively weak schedule the rest of the season brings their other 11 wins into question. Yet they tied for the conference title in a year with three quality Big Ten teams.
A playoff would prove how good the Buckeyes are, or aren't. It would have kept titles hopes alive over the last half of the season, adding intrigue and intensity to every regular season game. They would have been playing for their playoff lives. Instead, the Buckeyes were hoping for an unlikely miraculous set of dominoes to give them that chance -- or they were settling for a bowl game that has nothing to do with determining a champion.
Now, the Buckeyes are embracing that bowl and that opportunity. But they don't deny the alternative.
"I wouldn't be mad at a playoff," senior receiver and captain Dane Sanzenbacher said.
During this run of six straight conference titles and six straight BCS bowls, the Buckeyes have twice finished the regular season No. 1 and played for the title, losing to Florida after the 2006 season and LSU in 2007. In an eight-team playoff scenario, the Buckeyes would have been involved in an eight-team playoff either four or five times in these six seasons.
You can debate whether the Buckeyes would have deserved those chances. In some seasons, like this one, having two undefeated teams at No. 1 and No. 2 means a playoff may merely complicate what worked out as a legitimate title showdown. Yet you can't debate, in a playoff system, Ohio State would have been given more opportunities.
In a scenario where champions of the six BCS conferences earned automatic berths and there are two at-large teams, the Buckeyes would have played in four playoffs, with these first-round games:
• 2005: No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 5 Oregon
• 2006: No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 Wake Forest
• 2007: No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 West Virginia
• 2009: No. 7 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Texas
In a scenario where the top eight teams in the BCS rankings, regardless of conference affiliation, made a playoff, the Buckeyes would have been involved in five of the last six years, including this season.
• 2005: No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 5 Oregon
• 2006: No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 Boise State
• 2007: No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 Kansas
• 2009: No. 8 Ohio State vs. No. 1 Alabama
• 2010: No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 3 TCU
"Obviously, we're grateful that the bowl system is there," senior defensive tackle Dexter Larimore said. "It's fun to play in these games. But truthfully, as a competitor, you want to keep fighting for that national title.
"We had one mistake against a very good team, and they played us very well, but you have that one mistake and all of a sudden to be considered out, it's pretty tough. That's kind of what makes college football exciting right now, but you put us in a playoff system, and we continue to get better, you never know what could happen."
In the scenario where the Buckeyes would have been left out this season -- as the No. 6 BCS team in the ratings, but edged out for the two at-large spots by No. 3 TCU and No. 4 Stanford -- the Buckeyes would be right where they are now: getting ready for a nice bowl game.
In the other playoff scenario, the Buckeyes could have a final chance to prove if they're title worthy after a tension-filled end to the regular season.
"It stinks," Brewster said, knowing what Ohio State could be in line for. "But it's how college is right now. So you've got to go with it."
Two Buckeyes named All-Americans: Senior cornerback Chimdi Chekwa and junior center Mike Brewster were named first-team All-Americans on the Football Writers Association of America team announced Saturday. Five teams had two first-team players -- Ohio State, Auburn, Oregon, LSU and Oklahoma State.