Can you hear it? That audible hum of the media hype machine going into overdrive and promising us the greatest exhibition of college football that has ever been seen by human eyes. A game played with such a high level of skill that tears will simply well up in the eyes of anyone viewing the sheer majestic beauty of it all.
In case you haven't heard, Ohio State is playing at USC Saturday.
It seems like every year a few of these games come up. Games that are billed as battles of titans where the losers' national championship hopes are surely dashed and the winner has the inside track for that elusive title.
The problem with these fantasies of grandeur is that they just don't reflect reality. The last few years were littered with examples where games like this just don't meet the hype.
The first fallacy is that two very good teams playing each other will yield a good game. This just isn't true. Often bad teams can provide just as much entertainment.
Lets think back for a moment to the 2005 title game between USC and Oklahoma. The game had everything one could want: Heisman winners, big names and boatloads of talent. The only problem was that USC destroyed the Sooners 55-19 in an utter snooze fest.
SEC games likewise are usually hyped due to the strength of the conference from top to bottom, but tend to be defined by good defense. It's not that a 17-13 game is always unpleasant to watch, but offensive ineptitude (or excellent physical defense) often is.
The hype also fails for early season games because there are so many games left in the schedule.
The 2007 Trojans-Cornhuskers game was billed as the gem of the non-conference season. Had the 1997 Huskers been playing maybe it would have been a game.
In reality USC stomped all over an overhyped middling Big-12 school whose glory days were quickly shrinking in the rear-view mirror.
The Buckeyes' duel with Texas in '06 was hailed as one of the top games of the year. In the end, the Longhorns were staying close to home at the Alamo Bowl and the game came in only as the second most hyped game on OSU's slate.
That is because the 2006 Michigan-Ohio State game was blown up to such mythic proportions one could swear all college football before had been played only as a precursor to that game. Both teams were undefeated and a trip to college football's title game was at stake.
Legendary OSU and Michigan coaches Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler respectively were splashed across SportsCenter as the contest was hailed as the real national title game."" All the history was dug up and Schembechler's death before the game added more to the aura of the game.
When Ohio State came away with a close victory, the rest of the season became just a waiting period when teams bickered for the right to be crushed by the Buckeyes for the title.
Except that it wasn't. Florida destroyed Ohio State, Michigan lost the Rose Bowl and all the words written and spoken about the game suddenly seemed so pointless in retrospect.
As you gather before your televisions to watch this historic face off, remember to just enjoy the game. Don't expect the world because it's only September for goodness sake and there is much more football to be played.
Think the Buckeyes will annihilate USC and bring glory back to the Big Ten or add to their resume of big-time flops? Share your bold predictions with Ben at breiner@wisc.edu
