Ohio State really put it on Clemson last night. I know Dabo Swinney is a great coach. His track record has proven that. But I have to wonder if his comments about how OSU shouldn’t have been there took his team’s focus off what they had to do. I’m certain it gave motivation to OSU. People can act like that stuff doesn’t matter, but when you are a competitor and your opponent says you don’t belong, you want to prove you do. It’s the very nature of competition. Just ask Michael Jordan who used to make up stuff people said to get angry and beat them worse. Swinney got what was coming to him last night. I have no idea if his team heard him and followed the leader in believing they shouldn’t have been playing OSU and if that affected their play. We will never know for sure. It doesn’t change what kind of coach he is, but for one night he looked like a fool.
As for whether or not Ohio State should have been there or not, I think we all know why they were there. The playoff was setup to protect the power 5 schools and make sure no non power 5 could win a championship. That way the big schools could control the money from these games. Just like the BCS before it and just like the bowl system before it. It always comes down to the money. Until you get an NCAA basketball type tournament where more than a few teams are invited, it’s always going to be this way. The power 5 don’t want the likes of Cincinnati, BYU, Coastal Carolina, Boise St, and UCF getting money they think only they deserve. All of those teams either this year or in recent years deserved more respect than they got. But that’s not how it’s setup. They had no shot at being invited to one of the 4 spots regardless of how they played. And these big schools know that’s how it’s setup. So why they would complain about another big school having the rules changed to benefit them is comical. The same would happen for Clemson, Alabama, and many other schools. It sort of happened to the perennially overrated Notre Dams as they were allowed in the ACC and allowed in the ACC Championship without playing all their games. And let’s face it. A team in the ACC has a much easier schedule every year than a team in the SEC, B1G, and Big 12. So it’s never going to be an even playing field. I do give Clemson credit for usually scheduling 1 tough out of conference opponent. Not every school does that and since schedules are made so far in advanced, those teams aren’t always as good as they where when they scheduled. They still find a way to job the system though as they put that tough game so early that a loss won’t matter unless that team is one of the final 4. But it’s easier to do that when there is no real threat in your conference.
I thought the B1G botched their whole season. I had no idea if OSU was any good because the season was so screwed up. The cancellation to then subsequent delay was a disaster. I heard someone make a point when the B1G cancelled their season about how these players will now just go and do what they want and potentially have much more expose to the virus. Because without a season, they don’t have that structure of practice and games, along with the accountability of being that guy who went out and got the virus and infected your star QB or RB or someone else. I have to wonder if that’s why some B1G schools were hit harder than schools in other conferences. Did that window of not playing cause players to do things they wouldn’t have otherwise and cause more of an outbreak. Maybe it did or maybe not, but I have wondered that. I just thought it was a huge mistake by the conference and now it has exposed how rigged the whole playoff system is. We all knew it, but very few talked about it. Now everyone will thanks to the B1G.
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