LSU tops Ohio State 38-24 to become the first two-time BCS champion – Part 8

It speaks volumes about the state of college football in 2007 when a team reaches the BCS national championship with two losses. Louisiana State University became the first team to do so with two losses. Ohio State did it with 1 loss.

Should the Tigers have been there? Georgia, Southern Cal, Missouri, West Virginia, and Kansas thought they should have been selected over LSU. Every one of them was wrong in the end. Either one of them should have replaced Ohio State, not LSU.

The LSU Tigers kicked out Ohio State for the second year in a row. The Buckeyes started fast and couldn’t even begin to finish what they started. It wasn’t even a decent street fight. After going up 10 points early, Ohio State’s No. 1-ranked defense gave up 31 straight points to lose 38-24.

Early in the second quarter, LSU blocked an Ohio State field goal attempt before marching for a touchdown, then intercepted a pass to march for another score. Last year, Ohio State started with a 7-0 lead against Florida before suffering an even more lopsided 41-14 loss. Ohio State’s legacy in their 9 bowl games against Southeastern Conference teams is terrible, the Buckeyes have yet to win a single stinking win.

Ohio State’s loss to LSU made it the third team to lose 2 BCS title games. Oklahoma and Florida State have also lost 2 BCS title games. It’s not that the Jim Tressel-led Buckeyes can’t win a national championship. They beat Miami 31-24 to win the title in 2002. They can’t seem to pull it off against SEC teams, who are 4-0 in BSC title games, making the SEC the ONLY undefeated conference among the top 6 conferences.

For me, the game was a big disappointment because it was not competitive for a national championship. A snapshot during the game says it all to me. The TV crew shows a close up of 3 Ohio State players talking about their misery.

I look closely at the many stars on their hooves and think, wow, Louise, between them they must have over 100 stars on their hooves. These are for individual efforts in recording a 100-yard rushing game, scoring a touchdown, intercepting a pass, recovering a fumble, or whatever. Who cares? Stars on helmets cannot block and knock down.

I’m thinking, “This must be the trusted mastermind for individual glory at Ohio State.” Here these guys are big shots with stars on their helmets getting their noses ripped off on national TV in the title game. Good grievance. Soccer is a team sport.

Given their woeful performance, I think Jim Tressel and the Ohio State glory brigade need to rest before even the stars on their helmets are put to shame. I really don’t give a shit how many stars Jim Laurinaitis has on his head. As far as I’m concerned, LSU removed them.

Having spent the entire college football season doing weekly recaps and numerous articles on statistics few want to believe, I’d like to point out for the record that Ohio State went 11-1 playing against no top 20 team while LSU played 8 top 20 teams in playing time and beat 7 of them, losing only to Kentucky on the road in triple overtime.

Did LSU deserve to be in the national championship? Absolutely. Are they the real national champions this year? Absolutely. Bring any other arguments to the field and resolve them there. Ohio State found out who the best team is this year. Who is to seriously say that if they played LSU next week, they would get beat up like LSU did at Ohio State?

(Editor’s note: This is the eighth and final article in a series on the results of the 2007 bowling game.)

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley