Gave: Give 'em credit, OSU carries Big Ten to national championship
Go ahead, admit it: You were actually rooting for Ohio State to slay the dragon of the SEC, Alabama, weren't you? Those two straight sacks on 'Bama's final, ill-fated drive nearly brought you off the couch at the end of a long and memorable day of college football, didn't they?
And you'll do it again just as fervently on Monday when the Buckeyes, so reviled in our part of the country, try to do the same thing against Oregon with the national championship on the line in Arlington, Texas.
Of course, the PC thing to say right now is that you really weren't cheering on the Buckeyes as much as you were hoping that the Big Ten wouldn't yet again live up to everyone's expectations and flop when the competition stiffened at bowl time.
This is the time of year, after all, when conferences establish their reputations. And for most of the last decade, which includes seven straight national titles, the SEC has dominated college football.
Then the calendar struck 2015, and a funny thing happened. Wisconsin, of the Big Ten, won a see-saw battle with SEC power Auburn in overtime in the Outback Bowl. Then Michigan State, of the Big Ten, staged an improbable and phenomenal comeback over Baylor, a Big 12 co-champion that was snubbed by the college football playoff selection committee. And Ohio State barged from a 15-point deficit to a fairly comfortable win over Alabama, the alleged best team in the nation -- until New Year's Day.
That put an exclamation point on an extraordinary day for the Big Ten. In fact, when you consider the news conference a couple days earlier in Ann Arbor, when Michigan introduced Jim Harbaugh as its new coach, this was one of the best week's ever for Big Ten football.
And now we're all pulling for Ohio State to keep it going for one more game. Then we can line up at the shower.
Kidding aside, and with much due respect, everyone in this conference, from Ann Arbor to Iowa City, Madison to Happy Valley, owes a debt of gratitude to Ohio State and what coach Urban Meyer has done in three rather tumultuous and impressive seasons in Columbus.
(Pardon me. I just read the previous paragraph aloud and threw up in my mouth a little bit.)
Meyer knew how to beat the SEC because he'd done it routinely, winning two national titles while coaching Florida. In fact, the Gators' 41-14 win over Ohio State in Meyer's second year there kicked off that streak of seven straight national titles by SEC teams.
But perhaps the biggest challenge of his career to date, despite the impressive record he compiled since arriving at OSU, was convincing his players they were not only worthy of this opportunity in the inaugural college football playoff -- but capable of doing what nearly everyone said was impossible: beating an Alabama team that seemed primed for a fourth national title in six years under coach Nick Saban.
Meyer was able to do that, he said, thanks to a titanic assist from Wisconsin. The Buckeyes were enjoying their pre-game meal last Thursday when Badgers kicker Rafael Gaglianone's 25-yard field goal in OT beat Auburn, 34-31.
"I'll tell you when I think the tide turned a little bit," Meyer said, probably not intending the pun, "when Wisconsin beat Auburn."
Wisconsin, which the Buckeyes -- using a third-team quarterback in his first collegiate start -- beat 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship game. Auburn, which rolled up a ton of yards before narrowly losing to archrival Alabama, 55-44, in their annual Iron Bowl clash.
If Wisconsin, a team you dominated, could beat Auburn, why couldn't Oho State beat Alabama? That's precisely the kind of logic coaches avoid, at least publicly, when confronted by it from fans and media. Yet here Meyer was using it with his team.
And it worked. Of course, it helps to have great players -- the kind who can play anywhere in the country, not just in the Big Ten because they're not fast enough to play in the SEC or the Pac-12.
Meyer has been able to broaden and level the recruiting playing field for OSU, bringing in players like Georgia's J.T. Barrett, the freshman quarterback who had replaced the injured Braxton Miller so efficiently until he was injured in Ann Arbor in the last week of the Big Ten's regular season. And Florida safety Vonn Bell, among many others from SEC country.
With speed to match any team and any conference in the country, Meyer was able to spread his offense to stretch defenses sideline to sideline, like he did Florida. He added even more tempo to his offense at Ohio State. At the same time, he deployed two long-established trademarks of successful Big Ten football: a dominating offensive line and a power run game.
The results are undeniable. Just ask Alabama, which lost to a bigger, faster and better team -- from the Big Ten.
This is a watershed moment for a conference that is no longer being mocked and maligned to the point of national ridicule. It's also a wake-up call for the SEC.
But as bad as things were in bowl season, with Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and LSU all losing, the SEC isn't going away. It will remain a conference to be reckoned with, and we all know that. But here's what the all of college football knows and understands as well: The Big Ten is here to play, too.
