Hope

This post has nothing to do with Barack Obama. That might interest some of you. It also has nothing to do with music, which seems to interest many of you. Instead, I'm writing about college football, much to the chagrin of my regular readers.

The BCS standings came out this week. Ohio State has somehow climbed its way back into the top-10 with a drubbing of Michigan State. So, there is hope in my Buckeye heart that the USC embarrassment will soon be forgotten.

In case you did not catch the game on Saturday, Ohio State opened a big old can of you know what on the Spartans. This was supposed to be the year that Mark Dantonio led his team to victory over his mentor, OSU coach Jim Tressel. This was supposed to be the first in a stretch of difficult games for the Buckeyes. Instead, Ohio State jumped out to a 28-0 lead behind Terrelle Pryor and Beanie Wells on its way to winning 45-7.

I wish we were visiting R's family in Michigan this year for the holidays. Her cousin likes to talk trash about the Buckeyes, but Ohio State has now won ten in a row versus MSU and are 6-1 versus the team from up north under Tressel. R's cousin tried to convince me that Michigan State had some great sophomores after I informed him of the Buckeyes great recruiting classes. The sophomores weren't so great on Saturday, were they Eric?

Now Ohio State has a chance to put themselves in prime position for another Big Ten run if they beat Penn State at home this Saturday. Penn State always plays tight in Columbus, so I like our chances. This could lead to another BCS championship, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

On top of all this, Mizzou's run has ended. Sure, they could still win the Big 12 North and maybe win the conference championship (which would be good for Ohio State in the national championship picture), but their shot at their own national championship is gone. Time and time again, the Tigers have proven that they are not ready for the elite teams in their conference.

The crazy thing is how quiet this town has become in two short weeks. The night they played Oklahoma State, we could hear the stadium very clearly from our bedroom. Then the game ended. Silence. Mizzou lost. It was even quieter this past Sunday as folks recovered from the previous night's shellacking at the hands of Texas.

Mizzou's dreams of a national championship and a Heisman for Chase Daniels are gone.

Now I don't have to hear how great Mizzou is compared to Ohio State. I can remind the folks here that Ohio Stadium seats 40 thousand more seats than Faurot Field. Heck, it seats more people than live in COMO. I can point out that OSU became the fifth school to record 800 victories this season. I can remind them of seven Heisman trophies and seven national championships. Enough. Mizzou can go back to 7- and 8-win seasons, and I can go back to cheering for a powerhouse.

Anyway, as i said before, the BCS rankings came out. They don't mean much since many of the top teams still have to play each other. Never have the top two teams of the initial rankings ended up in the title game. The crazy thing is that Florida (at #10) and OSU may have the easiest path to the top two spots despite being ranked at the bottom of th top-10. Stranger things have happened.