The Stage is Set: OSU vs. Notre Dame

2 days ago

I think I said this already last week, but I will be the first to admit that I didn't stay up all night to watch the Penn State/Notre Dame game on Thursday night. It had been a long day and as soon as I saw Michigan State was going to easily handle Washington in their basketball game, I totally checked out. I was in bed by 8:00 PM and pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out!

Friday night on the other hand was a bit different. With the snow falling down outside and a nice glass of bourbon in my hand, I flipped on the TV and settled in to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Texas Longhorns.

I wasn't entirely shocked to see that Ohio State won against Texas. To be honest, I thought it was going to be more of a blowout game, but Texas kept it pretty close in the first half only to fall behind in the second half. To be fair, they didn't look that dominant against ASU. No offense Arizona State, so I wondered how they would handle this game.

Especially after the Ohio State steamroll of Oregon just about a week ago.

With the 28 to 14 win over Texas, that means that (6) Ohio State and (5) Notre Dame will be facing off for the national championship. Can you believe that? Let's think about this for a second now. If we were still using the old system, where only 4 teams were involved in the playoff, these two teams wouldn't even be in the running for a national championship.

Let that sink in for a bit...

I think this is prefect proof that they may have gotten it somewhat right for once. Sure, there were teams crying about being left out, but you are always going to get that I think. Personally, and this is likely an unpopular opinion (especially in Ohio), but I think OSU should be giving a great big thank you to Michigan right about now.

I believe that embarrassing loss to U of M is the catalyst (aka kick in the ass) Ohio State needed to get them to this point. It was a wake up call, make no mistake, and it was a wake up call that earned them the right to play in the national championship game.

Of course if they do win, the Wolverine faithful will be pointing out that they beat the National Champion, but for the most part, the OSU fanatics won't care.

Come next Monday night it is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. My gut is telling me Ohio State is going to win, but if they don't come in at 100%, it's going to leave an opening for Notre Dame to make it a game.

I honestly haven't watched Notre Dame too much through the regular season. I think they are a well coached team, I just don't know if they have the explosive plays to take them to a national championship.

I guess we will see!