COMMENTARY | It’s looking more and more like the death of the Bowl Championship Series is going to come a year too late for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Even though its won 21 straight games, OSU is still a distant fourth in the current BCS standings. With three formidable teams ahead of the Buckeyes in the form of Alabama, Oregon, and Florida State, it’s going to take a lot more than a 13-0 record this season for OSU to earn the right to play in the BCS national championship on January 6. The Buckeyes need help, and plenty of it. That’s going to be an issue, though, because there aren’t many remaining pitfalls on the schedule for the three teams ahead of Ohio State. Alabama plays a somewhat tough LSU team on November 9, but it’s tough to imagine the Crimson Tide losing a home game to the 7-2 Tigers. Buckeye fans hoping for an Alabama loss are likely going to have to pin their hopes on the Crimson Tide’s November 30 game at Auburn, as the Tigers could be 10-1 heading into this matchup between bitter rivals. Oregon is the most likely team to lose a game over the next five weeks. The Ducks’ dreams of a national title could very well go down in flames on November 7 at fifth-ranked Stanford. The 7-1 Cardinal handed Oregon its only loss of 2012 with a 17-14 victory last November, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they were able to do it again. Assuming the Ducks get past the Cardinal, the biggest test left for Oregon would be a likely matchup against a red-hot Arizona State team in the Pac-12 championship game. No such luck with Florida State, though. The Seminoles have already laid waste to Clemson and Miami, their two biggest challengers in the ACC, and I’d be shocked if they didn’t finish the season at 13-0. If pressed for a tough game that might see the Seminoles get upset, I’d probably choose their November 30 tilt at Florida, only because it’s a rivalry game on the road — because at 4-4, the Gators have been less than impressive in 2013. So seeing as how it is likely that OSU will not be able to jump up to the No. 2 spot in the BCS standings, it would take a perfect storm of events for the Buckeyes to even possibly snag a share of the national title without winning the BCS title game. The only chance for the Bucks would be to demolish whoever they ended up playing in the Rose Bowl, and hope for a close, unimpressive game by the BCS finalists. This farfetched idea would only work if one of the trio of teams ahead of OSU suffers a loss down the stretch, because if they all win out, the Buckeyes will have zero chance at the national title — and that’s assuming Baylor will lose at some point and not become part of this mess at the top of the BCS standings. While I’m glad that the College Football Playoff will be around in 2014 to give four teams a shot at winning the national title, not having a chance to win it all this year is going to be a hard pill for Buckeyes fans to swallow this season. For a team to potentially have 25 straight victories and still be shut out of the national title picture is something that has no place in college football. That being said, it kind of feels like OSU is still on probation. Shaun Heidrick is a Yahoo Contributor who has followed the Ohio State Buckeyes for over 25 years.
Continue Reading: The Travesty That Is the BCS Threatens to Ruin the 2013 Season for the Ohio State Buckeyes (Yahoo Contributor Network)
