Thought experiment: OSU Playoff Rematch...
Not gonna lie, I periodically fantasize about beating OSU twice in the same year, the second time being for the National Championship. Imagine that! Permanent series bragging rights... "You can have your 20 years of dominance, we beat you twice in one year--The Game in Columbus and The Game II for the Natty!"
Also, not gonna lie, I like the thought of keeping our current bragging rights for another 360+ days regardless of what happens in the playoffs, so playing them again and possibly losing to them this soon after Armageddon--and on that stage--would be awful.
Ignoring all the "it'll never happen--they'd get destroyed by Georgia" takes, would you like to see these two play again in the playoff (presumably the 'ship and not a semi)? And, if we beat them, what would that mean? What would you do? Conversely, same questions for if we were to lose...
I don't think we'd "flinch" in a rematch, but I do think it'll be more of a challenge since they won't go zero or single-high so much and Day will go for it on 4th and short every time. But, oh yeah--LOL--if they go 2-deep we mash 'em anyway. Plus, their offense will still not have a good power success rate on 3rd and 4th downs. Haha! Anyway, how do you see an immediate rematch going?
November 30th, 2022 at 5:44 AM ^
I don’t like Purdue at all. This game is a no win situation. Win and we should, no accolades outside of our own. Meanwhile the dirty ball coach will have his guys primed to aim low and break backs. Brohms a pos and Purdue’s been dam good at winning games they have no business getting off the bus for. Nothing at stake but a risk of injuries going into games that actually matter.
November 30th, 2022 at 1:40 AM ^
espn literally showed tonite that usc has a 20% chance at making the final 4 while osu has 71%!! no idea what world they are living in.
November 30th, 2022 at 3:30 AM ^
UM has dominated them in consecutive years....they don't deserve another shot at UM..or any shot at a championship
November 30th, 2022 at 5:39 AM ^
And we’d more than likely have Blake back so Knowles would have a real conundrum on his hands. Pick your poison Jim.
November 30th, 2022 at 6:45 AM ^
Nope, keep them out. I don't want them to have any chance at the natty.
November 30th, 2022 at 6:48 AM ^
A different thought experiment: The Big Ten gets rid of divisions and The Game II is played this weekend in Indy.
I think that the conclusion is that Conference Championship games are dumb, and get even dumber with a 12 team playoff, because hypothetical 2-loss OSU is still in the 12 team field.
November 30th, 2022 at 7:17 AM ^
If UM had lost there wouldn't even be a thought of us getting in...Bama would be ranked ahead of UM...get OSU the fk outta here, old news
November 30th, 2022 at 7:50 AM ^
I know there are too few cases in football to do any analyses, but does the whole "it's hard to beat a team three times" (or twice) hold up in basketball? Why do people think it is hard to beat a team twice? Sort of like flipping coins: if you get heads 10 times in a row, the odds to getting heads (or tails) the 11th time is still 50%.
November 30th, 2022 at 8:22 AM ^
I don't want to play them again, nor do I think they've earned the right to play over any top-4 team who has to play in a game OSU doesn't get to. (If USC, before a CCG game is a better team as per the committee's nebulous "criteria" then they're still the better team afterwards, regardless. An apples-to-apples comparison would set that extra game aside.)
That said, if the committee puts them in anyway, and Michigan has to play them in the national championship, then you beat the absolute hell out of them. Beat them twice in the same season to take the Big Ten and the National Championship they were gifted on hype and reputation, and you crater their program in doing so. Losing twice to Michigan in one year and suddenly going down 0-3 in the series would quite possibly end Ryan Day.
I don't think we'll see them though.
November 30th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
I hope we don’t see them. Praying for cosmic/karmic justice to keep them out of the CFP. Not sure the beat down would be as thorough a second time around
November 30th, 2022 at 11:44 AM ^
I mean, screw those guys, really. But if they get a free 2nd shot -- talk about "born on 3rd" -- I have every reason to believe we would beat them again. I don't think anything would take the wind out of their sails harder.
November 30th, 2022 at 1:13 PM ^
This is why I hope the big ten doesn't get rid of divisions. I don't want to play them again each year, the Game should be decisive.