All Good Things Must Come To End

After four months of regular season games, 31 bowl games and untold controversy, all will finally be resolved in tonight’s BCS Championship game. Okay, so the controversy will probably continue on until next season, but at least the nation will be able to declare a champion. Number one ranked Ohio State faces off at 8:15 EST against LSU in what can be considered a home game for the Tigers.

LSU is the prohibitive favorite and is currently giving four points in most betting lines. Ohio State has not really been given much of a chance, and I think in the wake of the Florida-Michigan upset, that could prove dangerous. LSU has essentially been a shell of the team that dominated over the first month of the season, and has given up 24 or more points in six of last eight games. Without the 48-7 beating administered to Big East champs Virginia Tech (in week 1, by the way) I honestly do not believe the Tigers would be in the championship game. They certainly haven’t looked like a championship team since that first month. Granted, LSU did suffer a significant amount of injuries, but is it fair to assume that a healthy Glen Dorsey would have prevented the defense from giving up 40 or 50 points to Kentucky and Arkansas?

Ohio State is a little bit more enigmatic. The only one-loss BCS conference team in the country, Ohio State basically defaulted into the title game. They lack a signature win. Two of their three best wins came against teams fighting injuries at crucial positions: Wisconsin was without PJ Hill and Michigan’s Chad Henne and Mike Hart were banged up. Ohio State looked dominant in their win over Penn State, but that doesn’t really shed much light into figuring out Ohio State. Additionally, Ohio State loss to the best team it played, which was an Illinois team that was absolutely rocked by USC in the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes seemed to have trouble containing Juice Williams, and while LSU’s quarterbacks aren’t as mobile as the Juice, they could present a similar threat.

After being dominated in last year’s title game, Ohio State is not in any way being given the benefit of the doubt, especially after losing Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Troy Smith and multiple top talent players to the NFL draft. No one is claiming that these Buckeye’s are better than last year’s team, but against LSU, they may not have to be.

The general public seems to overwhelmingly favor LSU (65% in a recent ESPN SportNation poll), with a good percentage of fans (35%) expecting a blowout. I expect LSU to win, but I am more inclined to believe the Vegas line, with a final score in the range of 24-21 or 24-17. Don’t forget how rusty the Buckeyes looked in last year’s National Championship. The long layoff definitely hurts teams, and though Jim Tressel will have surely reminded his team about last year, it is tough to get back into game-time mode after six weeks of layoff.

Enough chatter, though, the game will finally be decided as it should - on the field. Then we can start talking about next year and how USC would have, like, totally kicked the crap out of ______ if they had been given a chance.