Urban, definitely. I'd put him as tied for first in the Big 10.

I've had plans to go the Ohio State - Maryland game in College Park for a long time now. It'd be very disappointing to cancel. I guess in looking for a silver lining, if there are no fans, or a reduced amount of fans, it could help Ohio State. They're playing in two of the loudest stadiums in the country this year, Autzen and Happy Valley. Those games will be challenges either way, but playing the game in front of a packed house would certainly help the home team. Hopefully there will be fans in the stands. It won't feel like college football without the atmosphere created by the fans. As for theme songs, I've always liked the Dukes of Hazard theme. Probably my favorite. A close second would be the theme to Vikings 'If I had a heart', and third would be the theme to 'College Football Gameday'. Hearing that always fires me up. Honorable mentions would be 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' and 'Married with Children'.

Yeah, cool. Walking around town the day before the game, I was wearing Ohio State gear, and everyone I met couldn't have been nicer. They went out of their way to be gracious and helpful. Walking around the stadium before the game, several Husker fans invited us to their tailgates. They were genuinely friendly. That didn't happen at any of the other stadiums I've been to. At those other stadiums, the home fans glared at us and/or talked trash. I have no idea how they treat Mizzou fans, but my experience is that Husker fans live up their reputation.

I've been to the 'Shoe several times. I've also seen them play at xichigan, Penn St, Michigan St and Nebraska. Maryland will be #6. It'll be six down, 8 to go. We'll be heading to Minnesota next year. Nebraska fans were really cool, Penn St was really loud, xichigan fans were as rude as you'd expect (although some of them were ok), and MSU fans were mostly gone by the 4th quarter.

That could be said of every team, darth. While the jury is out on MSU with their new coaching staff, all of those other coaching staffs have a consistent and proven track record of fielding solid teams. And the returning players on those teams will be playing with another year of experience under their belt. With the exception of Rutgers, there are no gimmes on Maryland's conference schedule.

Aren't we all homers here, LSUSMC? "Objective fan(atic)" is an oxymoron. But just because I'm a homer, doesn't mean I'm not right. Losing badly to Iowa was not good football, you're right, but neither was having a soft schedule, and then losing to the only good team on it - like bama. What should matter is what each team did to overcome their respective bad football day. Ohio State beat three very good teams, and won a conference title. Bama beat a couple of decent teams, and then sat at home watching other teams play for conference titles. Who did more to overcome their shortcomings? After losing to Iowa, Ohio State beat #12 (at the time) MSU 48-3. They then went on to win in ann arbor by two scores, and then beat #4 and previously unbeaten Wisconsin for the Big 10 title. After losing, bama went home to watch tv, with nothing more than a bunch of tomato cans on their schedule. It is what it is, but just like in 2011, bama didn't deserve that spot.

Yeah, that was unfortunate. It was because of the scheduling deal between the Big 10 and PAC 12. A lot of Buckeye fans weren't happy about it. We've seen lots of regular season games against PAC 12 schools, but very few against SEC schools. Hopefully the 2030/31 series will stay on the schedule. Never been to Sanford.

You seem to like to excuse people a lot. Maybe that's why you're excusing bama's weak resume. By "everyone in the country.." you must mean "everyone in SEC country", because there were a lot of people outside of SEC country who thought Ohio State should've gotten in. The confusion isn't on my part. The question was put forth, right there in the title, "Was 2017 Alabama's resume playoff-worthy?" If there was no question about its worthiness, why was the article even written in the first place? Clearly, there is some doubt about it. Even in SEC country. And the answer to the question is, by any measure, it was not. You can have the opinion that bama's resume was more playoff worthy than Ohio State's, the committee certainly had that opinion - and that's all it is, opinion, but that doesn't make it 'playoff worthy'. 'More worthy than' and 'worthy' are two completely different things. UCF's 2017 resume was more worthy than LSU's 2017 resume, but that doesn't make it worthy. My opinion is that Ohio State's resume was not only more playoff worthy than bama's, it was CFP worthy outright, and the facts support my opinion. But isn't that the whole purpose of this forum? For fans to express their opinions? Otherwise, what are we all doing here? You're dismissed.

The Ohio Bobcats might not, but The Ohio State Buckeyes would. Ohio State has played home n home series against some of the best teams in the nation.

I'd love to see Ohio State and bama. That'd be a great way to kick off the season. As much fun as it would be to see them play a regular season game at a neutral site, it'd be even better to see a home and home. I'd love to see the Buckeyes play at Bryant-Denny, and the tide play at the 'Shoe. I know that Alabama prefers neutral site games, while Ohio State prefers home-n-home series, but it'd great if it could be worked out. Two iconic teams, playing in two historic stadiums, what could be better? If the playoffs are expanded to 8, and the higher seeds host the lower seeds in round 1, we might see this at some point anyway.

Oh, I'm excused? Awesome. So anyway, Ohio State did deserve to be in. They had a conference championship, a tougher schedule and more, and better, quality wins. Only SEC homers think bama's resume was playoff worthy. It wasn't.

Wait...is that a vols fan talking about other teams sucking? None of the teams I listed have lost to Georgia St.

What are you talking about? In the Big 10 east he'll be facing Ohio State, Penn St, xichigan, and Michigan St. Indiana is no slouch either, coming off an 8 win year. In the cross over games against the west, he'll get 11-win Minnesota, defending west champs Wisconsin, and 2018 west champs Northwestern. Maryland has a tough conference schedule next year.

In my quest to see the Buckeyes play in every Big 10 stadium, I have Maryland on the schedule this year (#6). It just got a lot more interesting.

Nah, because that's only one factor in the equation. Conference championship: +1 Ohio State Strength of Schedule: +1 Ohio State Wins over ranked teams: +1 Ohio State No FCS teams on the sched: +1 Ohio State Bad loss to Iowa: +1 bama Even with that ugly loss to Iowa, Ohio State deserved to be in over bama.

Of course it should've been Ohio State in the CFP that year. With only four spots, a conference championship should be the baseline. For a team to unseat a conference champion, there should be a compelling reason. That non-champion should have a resume worthy of knocking out a conference champion. Bama did not have such a resume. What was Bama's best win that year? Was it over the only 10 win team on their schedule, unranked Fresno St? Was it over 4-loss #18 LSU (who also lost to Troy by the way)? Was it over 4-loss #19 Mississippi St? Everyone else on Bama's schedule was hovering around the .500 mark, including FCS Mercer. Contrast that to Ohio State's wins that year. While Bama only beat one team that reached the 10 win mark (Fresno St), Ohio State beat four such teams, including #8 Penn St (11-2), #15 Michigan St (10-3), and #7 Wisconsin (13-1). Those three wins were better than anything on Bama's schedule, and coupled with a conference championship, should've been enough to get the Buckeyes in the CFP. And the 'just win all of your games' argument doesn't hold water, because Bama didn't win all their games either. Speaking of which, while the Iowa loss was ugly, the Oklahoma game was much closer than some of you seem to remember. Ohio State was leading that game until late in the third quarter. If the Buckeyes had scheduled Mercer instead of Oklahoma, like Bama did, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Ohio State was punished for risking a game against a national championship contender, while Bama was rewarded for playing a middling FCS school. And the sport is the poorer for it. If you want to say that Ohio State didn't deserve to be in the CFP in 2016, that's a fair point; but as I pointed out above, if a non-champion is going to do it, they should have the resume to justify it. 2016 Ohio State had the resume to justify it. 2016 Ohio State beat Big 12 champion #5 Oklahoma in Norman, #9 Wisconsin in Madison, and #10 Michigan. The only loss was on the road to the eventual Big 10 champion Penn St, on a late blocked fg returned for a td. Ohio State's 2017 resume was superior to 2017 Bama, and the 2016 Buckeye resume was even more so. As for these comments about 2014 Ohio State, the Buckeyes had a better record than either TCU or Baylor. The Buckeyes were a 12-1 conference champion, while the Frogs and Bears were both 11-1 conference CO-champions. And Ohio State didn't have FCS schools on the schedule, unlike both TCU and Baylor. Unlike 2017 Bama, Ohio State earned the right to get into the CFP that year. Now that that's settled, why don't we discuss the injustice of division runner up Bama, getting into the BCS national championship game over conference champion Oklahoma St in 2011.

While I agree that Ohio State will win more than 10 games this year, to suggest the big 10 is full of cupcakes is ignorant at best. 6 of the Buckeye's 9 conference opponents went bowling last year; and they'll be playing 3 of those 6 on the road, including at penn st. a whiteout at happy valley is one of the most difficult environments in college football. and lets not forget, that ninth conference game, against iowa in 2017 and purdue in 2018, kept the Buckeyes out of the cfp those years. had the Buckeyes followed the sec model of playing 8 conference games and a cupcake in november, bama wouldn't have that 2017 national championship. it's disingenuous to scoff at a 9 game conference schedule, when you've got games against sunbelt and fcs schools in late November. I mean seriously, here's the sec non-conference games in November: ut martin, ul Monroe, umass, new mexico st, alabama a&m, Louisiana rajin Cajuns, Georgia southern, Wofford, troy, and Louisiana tech. those are November games, not September. how about replacing those games with games against the other sec division. maybe then you won't sound so hypocritical when you talk about cupcakes.

but they like you.

no tissues needed, but it sounds someone needs some ointment.

who said they weren't? I was just saying they didn't earn the opportunity. and no one here is crying, I was just responding to darth and jtf's comments on my post about how much talent there was on that 2017 Ohio State team.

yeah, Ohio State played poorly at iowa, no question, but I don't know that i'd characterize the Oklahoma game as 'lost bad'. it was a 4 point game in the 4th qtr, and the sooners made a couple plays to stretch the lead. it was a competitive game throughout. But also in 2017, the Buckeyes beat #7 wisconsin, #8 penn st and #15 michigan state. What was bama’s best win that year? #18 lsu, who also lost to troy? A 4-loss miss st team? A florida st team the finished the season with 6 losses? Ohio State had a bad loss on their schedule, but they also had much better wins than the tide, and a conference championship. The tide didn’t earn their way in, they backed in over teams that were more deserving.

Yeah, they ended up giving Big 10 champion Ohio State's CFP slot to some sec also-ran. Total injustice.

I've seen a couple of mock drafts that have Joe Burrow, Chase Young and Jeff Okudah as the first three picks in the draft. That'd mean the top three picks in the draft played for Ohio State in 2017. That 2017 team also featured top 4 picks Denzel Ward and Nick Bosa.

As a Buckeye fan, I’d like to weigh in here. If Vol fans want someone to blame for Charles woodson beating Peyton Manning for the heisman, I have a candidate, Ohio State qb, Stanley Jackson. Despite the score, Ohio State was the better team on the field in ann arbor in 1997. Jackson threw two pics that day. One in the endzone to woodson as the Buckeyes were going in for a score, and the other was a pic 6 (to another player, not woodson). Those two plays caused a 14 point swing , in a 6 point game. Instead of a 21-13 Ohio State victory, it was a 20-14 loss. Take those two plays out of the equation, and Ohio State heads to the Rose Bowl as Big 10 champs, while xichigan heads to the citrus bowl. Instead of a split national championship, Nebraska stands alone. Without an outright Big 10 title, without a Rose Bowl bid, and without that undefeated record on his resume, Charles woodson does not win the Heisman trophy, Peyton Manning does. Having said all of that, I like Stanley Jackson, but there is no denying those two plays changed college football history. Incidentally, Charles woodson was not the best cornerback on the field that day, Antoine Winfield was. Anyway, Go Bucks, and eff the skunkweasels.