As human beings, we can sometimes have an almost pathological need to be liked. We don’t necessarily want to like everyone else but we mostly want them to like us.
It’s no fun to be disliked.
And yet…you, the Ohio State fan, are disliked right now. You are hated by people you’ve never met and people you never will meet. All of us are. This is the price of following a successful sports team that just won a national championship.
Even if the Buckeyes were playing the role of the plucky underdogs in last year’s College Football Playoff, it’s not as if Ohio State hasn’t enjoyed a great deal of success over the years. That success breeds unkind feelings in others, who are either avaricious for their own team’s success or merely fatigued at seeing the Scarlet & Gray always at the pinnacle of the B1G and/or college football mountain.
Sometimes I’ll see fans of other schools openly rooting against Ohio State when we’re playing out of conference or against someone completely irrelevant to their own team’s fortunes. My initial gut reaction is to be offended. Hey, those jerkwads should be neutral! Then I remember that the Buckeyes probably just beat their team by four touchdowns for their 11th straight win in the series, and it makes sense.
Or it could mean that they recently watched Ohio State beat their team in a big game and they’d like nothing more than to wipe that smile off Urban Meyer’s face. (Oh, hai Oregon and Alabama!) Seriously, the Ducks lost to the Buckeyes both in a fairly recent Rose Bowl and now in the CFP championship, so how much do those Oregonians hate you right now? So much. Sooooo much.
They would literally beat you to death with their best pair of Nikes if they could.
And when you think of it in the above terms, it’s much easier to wrap your arms around all of that delicious hate and give it a nice, warm hug. Breathe it in. Savor.
Being successful produces a weird reaction in others that makes them want to see you fail. The more success you have, the harder and farther they want you to fall. Nobody hates a .500 (or worse) team except its own fans.*
(*Caveat: unless that team is Michigan)
In order to cultivate that hate and grow it, Ohio State must continue its successful ways or win even more games and titles. Every square inch of that hate is bought and paid for with excellence on the field and in recruiting. The loathing of other teams' fans is a byproduct of Buckeye achievement.
Nobody hates a .500 team except its own fans.
If you don’t like the hate, you are implicitly acquiescing to a drop in performance, because that’s the only escape route it has.
The inverse also holds true, which is why so many of the Buckeye fans I know have kind of a soft spot for programs like Minnesota or Northwestern. They’ve been mediocre-to-bad for so long that they’re just seen as this non-threatening little brother that you can’t help but root for, especially against teams with better track records of recent success, like a Wisconsin or a Michigan State, or a school with more historical accomplishment, like Nebraska.
This will be the best year to experience that hate. Ohio State is coming off a championship and returns not only most of its starting lineup from last year, but the Buckeyes should also welcome back Braxton Miller to the field. That's like discovering you're the sole heir for some distant billionaire relative and then winning a million bucks in a scratch-off lottery ticket a few days later.
The Buckeyes are likely to be ranked No. 1 as long as they keep winning. The rest of the country will join our fellow B1G schools’ fans in hating Buckeye Nation as long as Ohio State rides in the CFP's pole position.
National ESPN and Big Ten Network broadcasters will get a little louder and more excited when teams give Ohio State a game or take an early lead (lookin’ at you, Eric Collins).
Everyone will seem against you at times. And that’s OK. It generally signifies that everything is going well.
If the Buckeyes stay undefeated and make a run in the postseason, that hate will intensify and grow more visceral. It’ll bombard you from everywhere, especially if you’re not within the insulated cocoon of Ohio. I’ve lived among the haters in Florida since 1999. I’ve heard some pretty rude stuff and it’s about to get exponentially worse.
But that’s fine. I look forward to that, because every ounce of hateful venom spewed my way is another drop in the ocean of Buckeye accomplishment. It’s like liquid hate.
Gather it up. Pour that hate into your bath water and soak in it. Let it fuel your rabid fandom even more and elevate you to previously unexplored altitudes of euphoria.
Is it Sept. 7 yet?
