Clemson Football: Ohio State should have to live with Big Ten’s bad decisions

Clemson football has no sympathy for Ohio State having to live with the Big Ten’s bad decisions

Clemson football fans aren’t going to give any sympathy to the Ohio State Buckeyes when it comes time for CFB Playoff decisions, and they shouldn’t.

While Ohio State’s athletic department- including coaches and players- wanted to get their season started around the same time as the ACC and SEC this fall, they weren’t given the green light by the decision-makers in the Big Ten.

As a matter of fact, the conference made a complete fool of itself with its wishy-washy statements and apparent lack-of leadership. The Big Ten ultimately made the decision to cancel the fall season- which was met with plenty of opposition by players and their parents- and then ultimately elected to play in the fall, after all.

They weren’t ever able to give a definitive reason why they canceled so suddenly (just a week after releasing their schedules) and then were seemingly appalled and tried to throw the ACC, SEC and Big 12 under the bus for electing to start their seasons anyway without them.

Ultimately, the conference came running back but it was too late from that point. The Big Ten made it a goal for its teams to play eight games, but scheduled no bye weeks in their format. The result? A whole bunch of cancellations and a big mess.

Now, as Clemson football plays their 10th game this weekend, Ohio State is staring at a season where they might play half that total

Somehow, many national analysts have come to the conclusion that we should somehow feel sorry for Ohio State or give them a pass because ‘they’re one of the best teams.’

Well, that may be true. The Buckeyes might be one of the best four teams in the nation, but the horrible news for them is that they didn’t get to prove it. Ohio State has played one ranked team all season (Indiana, who they beat by just a touchdown).

The Buckeyes are just one cancellation away from not even qualifying for the Big Ten Championship game (of course, there is already talk about the conference changing its rules- and why shouldn’t they? They’ve been changing stuff around week-to-week all year.) and they could very well finish the year only playing five regular season games.

Why should a team with five (six tops) games on its schedule get in over a one-loss ACC team like Notre Dame? Why should that team get in over a one-loss Texas A&M team? There’s an argument to be made- and Urban Meyer made it– that Cincinnati has had a tougher schedule than Ohio State.

In the end, Ohio State is on the wrong end of some bad decisions made by their conference. Had the Big Ten elected to start its season relatively on time, they would’ve had weeks to makeup games that were postponed and the Buckeyes certainly would’ve gotten in more games than what they’ve gotten so far.

But that wasn’t the case.

And, as the seeming new rival of Clemson football flounders hoping to be bailed out by the CFB Playoff committee, we believe they should have to live with the Big Ten’s bad decisions.