Dear Urban and James, Ohio State is not an “elite” team, PSU is not great, and the Big Ten is not elite either




... Wolverines now key to Big Ten hopes


The college football championship looks again like an SEC-ACC rematch — at least in late October. Right now, the top four teams are Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and LSU.

What is now clear is that the Big Ten is likely to be excluded again, something that will make Jim Delany move into apoplexy. And, it was not just an upset that did this.

Urban Meyer's Ohio State Buckeyes did not just lose to a team that fell in its first three games of the season. It was annihilated, 49-20, just like it lost to Iowa by 31 points last year for loss number two.

Which brings us back to the huge win that the Buckeyes pulled off a few weeks ago, a one-point win over Penn State. After the game, PSU Coach James Franklin said that his team was on the verge of becoming what Ohio State already is: An “elite” team.

Franklin then said that his team was “great,” but had to win games like OSU in order to become elite. After a loss to Michigan State, the Nittany Lions have demonstrated that they are not a great team, either.

And with losses to everyone at the top of the Big Ten, it is clear that the conference is not elite as so many have argued. It was shut out of the playoffs last year, and now, the only hope that the conference has is the Michigan Wolverines.

After a humiliating loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, which was worse than the final score indicated, the Wolverines have rebounded, coming back to defeat Northwestern and winning six consecutive games in the process. The defeated Wisconsin convincingly, but have Penn State on the schedule in early November. Then, of course, they have their major rival, the Buckeyes, at the end of the season.

If the Wolverines came run the table, they could very well end up in the final four. That is, if no other one-loss team moves up in the ranks. Or, if Central Florida, which is undefeated, manages to catch the eyes of the committee.

Right now, the Wolverines are overrated, since Wisconsin -- their only "signature" win, was also horribly overrated, too, and just as the Buckeyes were last week at number two in national polls. LSU, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, Kentucky, and West Virginia could manage some huge upsets and become part of the picture.

What is clear is that the Big Ten, perennially overrated — remember the Buckeyes being blanked 30-0 the last time they met in the CFB playoffs two years ago — is in big trouble now with no undefeated teams.

Should be an interesting six or seven weeks.

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