Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

It's the binary world of football for a helmet team... CFP, or shithole.

It's ok though. 12 other B1G teams would have been happy to make it to "just" the Rose Bowl.

This is true.  I personally am a HUGE CFB fan/historian and even I have trouble getting excited about this game.  There is a part of me that remembers that getting to the RoseBowl is all we cared about a couple decades ago but the other part of me knows that it was different back then because the RoseBowl WAS the top destination back then.  It isn't now.  This is a consolation prize now.  My team has been to the CFP half of the years that the CFP has been in existence so it is hard to get excited about anything short of that.  

I think the Rose Bowl still means a lot to the other 13 teams, give or take a Michigan, but I do think by and large there is a little bit more reluctance when you lose your way in.  If Ohio State had suffered a second loss earlier in the season, to Nebraska or something, but then beat Michigan and won the CCG, to get in, I think you might see somewhat more interest

This is also true.  If Ohio State had opened up with the loss to Oregon then also lost to Minnesota and finished on a big winning streak they'd likely* still be in the RoseBowl but I'd be excited about it.  

*likely:
In this alternate universe I'm holding everything else constant:

• Current #2 Michigan would be 10-2 rather than 12-1 and obviously not top-4.  
• Current #3 UGA would be #2
• Current #4 Cincy would be #3
• Current #5 Notre Dame would be #4
• 11-2 tOSU (assuming they beat Iowa in the CG) would be #5 even though a LOT of people would assume that they were substantially better than 13-0 Cincy and 11-1 ND.  

ESPN College GameDay analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit didn't mince words Monday when asked a speculative question surrounding Buckeyes players viewing their upcoming matchup with Utah as unimportant following their season-ending loss to Michigan. Several veterans could reportedly opt out of playing in the game, but as of Monday, Ohio State has not announced any moves.

"Even before we had the BCS and the playoff, the goal was always to go to the Rose Bowl (at Ohio State), (but how often did they actually go? Not very often and yet they still went to another bowl game and they were excited," Herbstreit said during a Zoom teleconference ahead of the College Football Playoff. "I just don't buy into this narrative of meaningless bowl games. These teams have always had goals of getting to the championship and it doesn’t happen all that often, but you don't throw in the towel and say, 'well, we didn't accomplish our goals.'

"I was on a team that did that. We lost to Michigan in 1990. We went to the Liberty Bowl. We had players on our team basically bad-mouthing the city of Memphis to the media and we went down there and they hated us. I don’t blame them for the things that were said. I get being upset and not beating (your) rival, but it’s the Rose Bowl. We used to have to try to deal with a consolation prize being the Citrus Bowl. But it’s the Rose Bowl.

time for bowl game checks for players

any players that have declared for the NFL and hired an agent get a new Ford Bronco if they play in the game

yup, but the stupid kid or his girlfriend might really like that shiny Bronco

I'm almost happy about this. 

I feel like mid-1990's tOSU student me is cursing me for saying this but I'd rather prepare for 2022 than win the RoseBowl.  Some say it is still "The Rose Bowl" but it isn't.  In the 1990's the Rose Bowl was the highest aspiration for a Big11Ten team.  Now it is just the best consolation prize for an also-ran.  Who cares whether or not the Buckeyes win it? 

Seriously, if you (any tOSU fan) had a choice between the following:

• All current players play in the Rose Bowl and tOSU blows out Utah but loses to Notre Dame in Columbus on September 3, 2022, or
• A bunch of Seniors opt out of the Rose Bowl and tOSU loses but beats Notre Dame in Columbus on September 3, 2002. 

Which would you choose? 


*NOTE:  I'm not saying that tOSU WOULD win the RB with all players playing or that they would/wouldn't beat ND based on whether or not they did, it is purely a hypothetical.  My point, however, is that the more seniors that opt out of the RB the more the game will help to prepare the 2022 team. 

The older I get and the more CFB I watch, the less convinced I am of the efficacy of this. I mean, I'm sure there's a non-zero bit of preparation, but I'm not sure it's enough to be notable.

It's a pretty common belief across CFB and sports that talent+PT=down the road success, with more PT at whatever stage more quickly moving someone along that curve.

There's probably a selection bias in my memory, but it seems like the number of "played early, was rough, ended up benefitting in a notable way down the line" stories isn't all that long, and the number of "played early, team took lumps with him, plateaued at just OK/decent" stories feels much longer. And plenty of successful guys are going in either when they earn the time or when the chance simply opens up. (I think Florida sold last year's bowl as "the start of next season" and ...)

And the "play the exciting guy now, it'll payoff" narrative seems really, really appealing. The thing you want now (seeing the player that inspires hope) is also going to lead to a longterm hope payout. It's something fans basically everywhere ask for. Now, with OSU, it's not a choice, and it's unknown, so there's no right or wrong. But I guess this is a long way of saying I'm skeptical that losing young this week means anything more than the slightest better chance of winning in the future (though I think OSU is gonna run ND regardless of if all those guys were there and played like they were supposed to).

EDIT: I didn't even answer the question. I think winning matters. Do the thing that makes the most sense to win the game in front of you. That approach will likely lead to more wins down the road. 

if it's all about NFL $$$, then Aidan Hutchinson should be done with college football

probably shouldn't have played in "the game"