{mosimage} The end of the long and winding road to the BCS Championship has been reached and with it a consensus on how this season will end (for better or worse).

If 1 loss Missouri beats Oklahoma, they play 1 loss West Virginia (if WVU beat Pitt) for the BCS Championship. If either team loses, than 1 loss Ohio State will be waiting to take their spot. If both somehow lose, than a 2 loss team will fill a void as well.

How these unwritten agreements are reached is beyond me. Apparently West Virginia and Missouri deserve it more than OSU, according to many mainly because OSU lost later in the year than the other 1 loss teams. I just look at past, present and future NFL talent on OSU roster and it's clear to see that whether people feel OSU has earned it or not, they are certainly a worthy foe.

I also happen to follow college recruiting closely and know that OSU gets better prospects, talent wise, than either Mizzou or West Virginia. WVU and Mizzou have improved, specifically WVU, but you won't find too many players OSU REALLY wanted on either squad.

Missouri has done a great job developing talent and WVU has too. The Mountaineers also benefit from "at risk" prospects they bring in, granted that they work out (Noel Devine).

Here is ESPN's Projections for all Draft Eligible players for the 2008 NFL Draft:

As you see, OSU has 3 guys in the top 15 of the draft. While you can't see #'s 33-50 because it's "exclusive" info, let's just say OT Alex Boone is very, very, very close to being a projected first rounder. That gives OSU 4 guys in the projected top 33 (or so).

Compare that to West Virginia and Missouri who have a combined 0 players on the list and logic tells you Ohio State would not only make the game close, they might actually some how get lucky and win it.

But hey, maybe NFL scouts are complete idiots. They've been wrong before. My viewing experience says these prospects are all big, fast, strong and athletic much like the entire team.

I look at West Virginia and they have tons of speed at the skill positions. It's good they are fast because they sure are small.

WVU RB Noel Devine could certainly be a 1st round pick in a couple of years. But for your stud freshman I raise you an experienced sophomore, OSU RB Chris Wells.

USC leads the NFL 1st round projections list with 4. LSU has 3.

Ohio State will be better on both the offensive and defensive lines, compared to both schools.

Where both WVU and Mizzou have the upper hand is the QB position. Todd Boeckman played solid all season until the Illinois game (plus a rainy cold day at Michigan). I hear it's not rainy or cold in a Dome. He could work his way into draft status next year, but right now he needs to close out strong or else he'll be looking behind his back.

At 6-5 245 pounds has has surprising speed. As far as straight line speed, he's as fast as Troy Smith. He is not nearly as elusive or agile, though.

If you get pressure on him, he can make mistakes. Whether or not WVU or Mizzou would get a bunch of pressure, that's hard to say. Wisconsin got some and Illinois got some, but that's it. The Buckeye offensive line is talented and experienced.

In addition to Gholston at DE Ohio State has sported a young DL. DE Lawrence Wilson was supposed to be the star of the line this year, alongside Gholston. He got hurt early in the year but will be back for the Bowl game. That's a scary thought.

Other key DT's have been injured and after 55 days of rest the line would be better than it had been all season. Last year the layoff for a healthy, overconfident team was bad. This year it would be welcome.

Whatever, if Mizzou and WVU win OSU will have to face a tough foe in USC at the Rose Bowl. That will be fun. More fun for me would be watching OSU face the West Virginia offense. I'm not sure who is going to win the Mizzou game. My head says Oklahoma but my gut right now is leaning towards Missouri. Regardless, a shot at either would be nice.

The BCS is frustrating and so are the the add wizards who vote for it. Part of me thinks people simply don't want OSU in the title game because they laid an egg last year. You hear OSU does not deserve the chance because of their schedule, but that's just a code word for Florida. And the fear for haters is that if OSU plays either of these teams they could easily win, thus ruining the OSU bashing fun.

Maybe that's going too far but it's the only way I can make sense of a possible lame duck championship game.

Bottom line is we need a playoff so we can stop wasting time telling each other everyone's programs sucks. That's what every of these debates come down to. Missouri has had a good year. So has West Virginia. Let's throw them into an 8 team playoff mix and have some fun. Hell, we'll even let one of these teams play Hawaii in the first round to give them false hope.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

#5WhiteGirl said:

All this talk about NFL draft picks is HOGWASH! This is not the "Future NFL Player" championship, it is the COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP! People who love college ball would love a bowl which consisted of "underdogs" who have great talent, and in the case of WVU, a rich college football history. The main reason WVU is ranked about OSU is because we lost to a to 20 team and OSU lost to an UNRANKED opponent!

report abuse vote down vote up

November 29, 2007
Votes: +0

Lloyds Apple said:

	Currently, USF is ranked #25 in the AP poll and #21 in the BCS. Illinois is ranked #15 in both polls. David vs. Goliath is fun. David vs. David....not so much. I can't remember any championship game with as little future NFL talent as a Mountaineer/Tigers game would bring.
	report abuse vote down vote up

November 29, 2007
Votes: +0

Flu said:

This could possibly be the worst reason I have seen on why someone doesn't want to see the WVU v. Mizzou matchup. Seriously. First off the matchup would be exciting as two high-powered offenses would be going at it. However, I guess you would rather watch slow ass Big 10 football. I'm sure Michigan is loaded with NFL talent, however, when going against the spread they got killed by Oregon AND Appalachian State .... at HOME. Using your train of thought, since Michigan has more NFL prospects, they should probably be playing in the championship game over WVU or Mizzou. How dumb can that be? Miami also has some players on the list. How was their season? Why do we even bother playing the games if these so called top prospects are the whole reason we watch or already dictate the outcome. See, there's this thing called coaching and schemes that also influence a game. That's why WVU has been so successful with 3 and 4 start athletes. I could go on about how dumb this train of thought it is but it's obviously not worth. Someone ready to go down this path to begin with obviously is too delusional to think rationally anyway. Maybe if all the studs on Ohio State would have took care of business at Home, at night, with the championship hopes on the line we wouldn't be talking about them being left out. Maybe if USC wouldn't have choked while being 40 point favorites at HOME we wouldn't be talking about all their wasted talent. However, reality is a bitch.

report abuse vote down vote up

November 30, 2007
Votes: +0

Lloyds Apple said:

I never mentioned Michigan, a team OSU has beat 5 of the last 6 years. Obviously NFL talent should not be an overriding factor, but in looking at title games in the past, it was a given. Hell, when a "slow" Big Ten team faced Miami in 2002, Miami sent 6 guys in the first round. OSU sent 14 guys to the draft the next year. Last year's game vs. UF and OSU sent plenty of guys. OSU's top guy, Ginn, got hurt on the first play. Of course, USC has in the past and so did the Texas team with Vince Young. This article came about after reading countless forum posts talking about how Mizzou or WVU would kill OSU. My point is, just look at top end talent, and you can see this is unlikely. Maybe that is dumb rationalization but to me it makes sense. Ohio State is not slow. You are missing the whole point. The NFL does not like slow guys. So your generalizations are wrong. I'll be glad to compare NFL combine 40 times at the end of year if you want to. Vegas likes Ohio State more than Mizzou or WVU too. They are as unbiased as they come, even if they are wrong sometimes.

report abuse vote down vote up

December 01, 2007
Votes: +0

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment