OSU/OU Bedlam series and potentail playoff ramifications

 

Oklahoma State’s Chance of Making the Playoffs-ZERO!

 

If you watched the OSU/TT game this weekend, you heard best of the windshield wiper’s in announcing. One minute they were claiming that if OSU didn’t dismantle Texas Tech, they had no shot at the party and then within half a breath, they fawned about how great their defense was and that it was one of the best in the country and deserved a shot at the party. Thus, the term windshield wipers. They don’t have a clue and shift their quote, “expert opinions’ based on the scoreboard and nothing else. If they’re right, they proclaim self-congratulations and masters of the airwaves, but if they’re wrong, they shrug it off as if they never made such a ludicrous claim. So, what is the real story and what are OSU’s chances of making the Big Dance? Zero! Why?

One. There is one more week of play and it’s going to be wild! #2 Ohio State and #6 Michigan will square off for the Big 10 rivalry and a shot at the play-off. I would like to add, while I’m an OSU fan, I do not consider this the biggest rivalry in college football. If you watched FOX this weekend, you’d swear that was the only rivalry game coming up. Makes me sick. OSU/Michigan have met 116 times. Michigan leads the series 58-51-6. OSU/OU have met 115 times. OU lead the series 90-18-7. Hmm. At this rate, I’d have to live to be 134 for OUS to tie the series. Harvard and Yale have met 137 times. Yale leads 68-61-8. So, hey, brain surgeons, it isn’t the oldest rivalry in the country! And since 2000, Michigan has only won three times. They have been anything but sterling in the last twenty years.

 

Let’s look at the match-ups and the potential consequences. One thing to note before moving on, Cincinnati’s biggest win was against Notre Dame.

#1 Georgia will take on lackluster, 3-8 Georgia Tech. #3 Alabama will square off with their in-state rival, 6-5 Auburn. #4 Cincinnati will play 7-4 East Carolina. #5 Notre Dame takes on lackluster, 3-8 Stanford. Finally, #7 OSU will welcome, <cough,cough> #10 OU to Boone Pickens stadium.

 

Georgia will dismantle Georgia Tech. By all rights, Alabama should crush Auburn, but then we know how that series goes. Remember the saying, “Hey Bama, got a second?” While that was a fluke play, I don’t see a repeat occurring. Alabama will take down Auburn and meet the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship game. And no matter how that game shakes out, both of them will be in the play offs. That locks up two of the four slots. So, who will land the last two?

 

If Ohio State throttles Michigan, they nail in the third spot. If Michigan pulls off a win in Ann Arbor, they will fill the open slot. That leaves one and only one vacancy available.

Notre Dame and Stanford should be a laugher the way the Irish are playing. Stanford will gladly cash their check and call it a season, locking them in the final spot. Or have they? Cincinnati still has to play East Carolina, which shouldn’t be a push over. Could be one of the better games this weekend. But even if they win, and even though Cincinnati beat Notre Dame in the regular season, when you break down strength of schedule, Notre Dame wins this, hands down or do they? The only other ranked team they beat was Wisconsin and barely skated by a lowly Florida State. Thus, depending how their games shake out, believe me, there will be mass hysteria on why one of them didn’t make the final show. One of these will lock up the final gate.

 

So, where does that leave OSU/OU/ Outside looking in. If OU wins, which current history shows will happen, OSU has won a whopping four games in the last twenty years, discussion of OSU going to the show dies. Doesn’t give one a warm fuzzy, does it? Nope. If OSU manages to win, it will only mean a better bowl game. The only way for OSU to even be considered is if they blow out OU, Georgia falls asleep against Georgia Tech and falls to Alabama, Alabama lays an egg with Auburn then loses to Georgia, Wait a minute. They both can’t lose to each other can they? The way the NCAA operates, anything is possible. Cincinnati decides to be nice and gives East Carolina a pass and Notre Dame decides to be benevolent and give Stanford a bonus by drinking too much green beer and not showing up. That is the only way OSU has a chance at being in the play-off series. Could it happen? Well, anything is possible just like the Texas Rangers winning the World Series in 2022. I’m not getting my hopes up!