Last Edited: 9/19/2010 3:55:33 PM by The Situation

Last Edited: 9/19/2010 3:49:41 PM by Deciduous Forest Cat

Last Edited: 9/19/2010 4:26:45 PM by Doc Bobcat

I’m most surprised about the envy of Ohio State by many of our fans. Sure OSU has institutional arrogance, which from time to time gets under my skin, but the hatred has gone over the top. We, meaning 95% of the people on this board, CHOSE to go to Ohio University INSTEAD of Ohio State University (when most of us went to college our admission standards were higher than OSU’s). And we certainly didn’t make that decision because of the football team. THERE ARE 100 DIFFERENT WAYS THAT OHIO IS BETTER THAN OHIO STATE. From the beauty of our campus to the multitude of educational programs that are superior (and yes, in multiple areas they have stronger programs, too), because we didn’t want to be one of 60,000, because of Court Street, or Halloween, or beautiful sorority girls, the 110, or party school, journalism school, or avionics rankings, or because of a true college town too far from cities for students to disappear for the weekends.

Did I root for Ohio yesterday? Absolutely. On High Street wearing Green & White. Was I proud of Ohio for almost pulling it off two years ago? You bet. Will I root for Ohio next time they play? Without a doubt. Do I hope that next time we play the groundwork will have been laid for our program to be one of the best non-BCS teams in the country? I not only hope so, but think it’s quite possible.

Thank you to the players who fought for Ohio’s first and finest university yesterday and left their blood and sweat on the field in Columbus. Your hard work is building a program that one day will be able to consider itself a rival of BCS programs. As frustrated as you and many of us are, look at where we’ve come in recent years (yes, with some setbacks along the way). This is not the Ohio program of the 80s and mid 90s. We’ve beaten Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Pittsburgh. We came within fluke plays of beating Kansas State and North Carolina State. We’ve been competitive with Ohio State and Tennessee, two of the top programs all time. And we’ve gone to as many bowl games in the past 4 years as we have, probably, in all of our previous history. (And for those who are keeping track, if it were legal to go to two bowl games a year Ohio State could do all of these things in one year).

Do things need to happen for us to get stronger? Yes. Should we improve our schedule? In my opinion, yes (more of teams like Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Illinois, Northwestern, West Virginia, Purdue, Minnesota. Heck, even give me Notre Dame once in a while).  Does the MAC need to be thinned out a bit? I think it would help. Too many teams are diluting the talent pool by competing for the same players in the same region for any of the teams to be a consistent challenge to top tier BCS teams. I know it’s dangerous to throw stones from glass houses, but I think Ohio is in a better position to survive that process than many of our MAC brethren.

So, let’s continue to build our football program and get our already successful basketball program to the next level. But let’s also remember that OHIO UNIVERSITY PRIDE IS ABOUT MORE THAN A FOOTBALL GAME AGAINST OSU. We came to Athens because we wanted to be here. We chose to wear green and white instead of scarlet and gray. So be proud. (& for all of the Ohio students wearing scarlet and gray this weekend---have some pride in yourselves, because that’s essentially who you just rooted against)

 And yes, I’ll be rooting for Ohio State to bring the national championship to the state of Ohio.