Preface: I went to bed, at 4PM, as a kid after the 1996 game ended.. I hate losing this game as a fan... I have spent the last 45 hours as mad as I've been in a while, but reality has a way of setting in eventually. I was convinced the 12 team playoff era would be dumb, punish teams for being elite, and reward teams for mediocre weeks, and it's all playing out. It's an NFL season now; CFB is not what it used to be, and the old things just don't matter like they used to.
Go with this thought exercise:
Fielding makes his two chip shot field goals, and OSU grits out a 16-10 win with another goal line stand. The OSU fan base is happy for 15-20 minutes then livid the worst UM team in 15 years nearly beat us, but hey a win is a win.
What that win also means is a trip to Indy to play our 7th game in a row, and 3rd "match up" game in the trenches in a row. Meanwhile, Oregon, after running out of gas in game #8 in a row themselves at Wisconsin, got a nice bye week and a relatively easy romp through Washington at home.
OSU was probably not going to have any gas in the tank this weekend against Oregon. The CCG are stupid - we already saw Oregon vs OSU and UGA vs Texas: this is just adding wear and tear to playoff teams. OSU was likely going to end 11-2 instead of 10-2, and then host Bama or South Carolina the following week, which would be game #8 in a row without a bye. That's probably an L, folks with both of those teams having a week off and OSU physically limping in. So, I guess we can all revel is our glorious 16-10 win over a bad Michigan team. 11-3, bowing out in first round to the SEC.
OSU and Tennessee now get a nice bye week and time to heal/prepare. We can now beat UT, or bow out to the SEC at 10-3.
Kirby Smart is 1-6 against Bama. He choked in 2021 with the best defense ever to grace a CFB field... but he's got two rings. He also immediately goes to bat and defends his schedule when he loses a tough game. You can dislike him for it, but that's what CFB is now.
Ryan Day is 1-4 vs UM, but if he gets a ring it won't matter in 2024. That's what CFB is now.
TL;DR: a bye week is more valuable for this team's goal of #nattyorbust than beating Michigan. This is why CFB is dumb now. Also, the primary difference between Ryan Day and Kirby Smart is the latter recruited a good field goal kicker.
