There’s a top shelf in college football. It’s cramped and lofty, and everyone knows its occupants: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State. We’ll start our annual Big Ten preview with this: The Buckeyes may not be a serious contender, in 2021, for the best team in the country. I’ll state that case below. Despite that, Ohio State looks as far ahead of the rest of the conference as it has ever been. The Big Ten, which used to be known as the Big Two (Ohio State and Michigan) and the Little Eight (everyone else) is now the Gargantuan One and the Variety-of-Sizes Thirteen. East Division Ohio State got to the national championship game a year ago before it got seriously challenged, i.e., “had its defense lit up like a pinball machine by Alabama.’’ The Buckeyes got mostly spectacular QB play from Justin Fields, plus an elite RB, WR, and offensive line. All…
Continue Reading: Big Ten 2021 preview: Ohio State again, perhaps not as emphatically
