Ohio State/Michigan and the Wild World of the National Championship

Let’s not kid ourselves. The entire country is anxious for this weekend’s matchup of Ohio State and Michigan. The top two teams in the nation. So let’s not pretend like we’re not going to talk about it. (By the way, it’s amazing to think that this is the first time they’ve faced each other ranked first and second in the nation.)

Yes, it will be an awesome game. But I think the issue lies with Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel’s stance that to play in the national championship game, you must win your conference.

Now Tressel is not saying this to make both teams feel good. He’s saying this because he believes that his Buckeyes are going to win the game. And he should.

But this notion comes up every year, and around this time of year it comes up every day.

What if the top two teams in the country are in the same conference? Which they just might be this year.

Why should Michigan, or Ohio State be penalized for losing late in the season to the first or second ranked team in the nation? If you go by the polls, and which team America’s coaches, sportswriters, and computers think is the best in the nation, then the number two team should lose to the number one team!

So why does that eliminate it from the talk of a national championship? It shouldn’t. But who, in the name of Brutus, can tell which one of these one-loss teams is actually better than the other? Who’s to say that if Michigan and Ohio State had to play an SEC schedule they wouldn’t slip up somewhere along the way?

I know, there are a lot of questions.

In basketball, two teams from the same conference can meet in the final game without either one of them winning their conference tournament. Why? Because they have a playoff system to determine the best team. Pretty wild.