The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary » Crimson Tide

Ohio State Buckeyes 2012-2013 Football National Champions!

Eric — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:37:34 +0000

Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes, the only remaining undefeated team, and the team that we have unanimously chosen to be our National Champions for the 2012-2013 Football Season!

The Buckeyes improved all season long and completed their season on November 24th with a 26-21 victory over rival Michigan. Former #1 Notre Dame, the only other undefeated team following the regular season, lost in dramatic fashion by a score of 42-14 to the Alabama Crimson Tide in their bowl game tonight.

College Football has a storied tradition of not having an NCAA sanctioned official national championship. This has resulted in teams claiming national championships every single time any two-bit publication declared them to be the champion. Alabama, as it turns out, may be the worst offender in that regard, claiming as many as 13 national championships. That includes 1961, where they claim a unanimous championship, despite the fact that … [Read More]

National Championship Preview: Alabama -vs- LSU

Eric — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:43:37 +0000

It’s the eve of the most mythical of mythical national championship matchups. The game that no-one outside of the bible belt actually wanted to see again after the ugly 9-6 OT finish in the middle of the season. The matchup that brought to light questions as to why, exactly, Michigan was not allowed a rematch in the 2007 mythical national championship game.

Amusingly, while everyone was busy clamoring that they would refuse to watch the championship game this year, a number of major College Football analysts and writers claimed that fans would watch anyway. “It’s college football at it’s best,” they breathlessly exclaimed, “You can’t help but watch it in the end.”

Well, I have repeatedly argued that I would not, could not, watch that travesty of a championship. To that end, I will not preview the game either. Instead, I provide you with a channel-by-channel listing of everything … [Read More]

Justice, Alabama, and the BCS: Part 2

Eric — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:00:20 +0000

This is the continuation of the article posted this morning looking at a solution to the current problems.

Many people have spilled an incredible amount of ink over the years trying to determine a just system for selecting a national champion. Our own Malibuckeye came up with his own system a while back and expounded upon it in length. I honestly believe there is only one possible method of satisfactorily deciding a champion with all of the proper criteria. That answer is to allow the teams to decide it on the field in a playoff format. But, unlike with many other views, the playoff isn’t the critical factor. The biggest issue is to start to make the regular season important again.

The best way to determine who gets to play in the Division 1A Playoff, while simultaneously allowing fair access to all of the conferences, is to restrict access … [Read More]

Justice, Alabama, and the BCS: Part 1

Eric — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:00:35 +0000

This is the first of a two part article on this year’s BCS problems.

When you think of justice it obviously brings to mind the concepts of the court of law, lady justice, and a jury of your peers. Rarely do people consider justice in college football. They may use words like “fair” and “just” or their antonyms freely, but never in any rigorous context.

What the last 48 hours should have demonstrated to college football fans is that the current bowl system is inherently unjust – meant in the strictest philosophical sense.

What is the definition of justice? Dictionary.com suggests (irritatingly as the fifth definition) “the administering of deserved punishment and reward”. This gets at the very heart of the matter.

The BCS as a system was designed to solve the age old problem of determining who is the college football national champion in any given year. Where … [Read More]