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How ironic it would be if Ohio State earned a B1G Championship this year

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:

I’ve got a bucket of cold water in my hands that’s ready to be dumped.

I don’t often carry such an object, but for this circumstance, I felt it was necessary. There was another publication that produced a story on Saturday night with a headline that stated Ohio State was still alive for a national title.

That was after the Buckeyes were destroyed at Iowa. The take was so hot that I had to take a screen shot of it and send it to my wife, who enjoys mocking the College Football Playoff prognosticators (myself included). She, like many on social media, got a kick out of it.

So here I am, left to dump cold water on a take so hot that even the internet couldn’t take it seriously.

Ohio State isn’t getting into the Playoff in 2017.

That dream died on Saturday in Iowa City. With the exception of the 2012 season in which the Buckeyes weren’t eligible for postseason play, it’s the earliest that they’ve have been out of Playoff contention in the Urban Meyer era.

But despite the Playoff-crushing loss that the Buckeyes suffered on Saturday, there’s another dream that’s still alive. Ohio State controls its own destiny to a B1G Championship. That’s something the Buckeyes have only accomplished once since Meyer got to Columbus.

How strange it would be if it happened again in 2017.

Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

The highs and lows of Ohio State’s 2017 season have truly been catastrophic. The peaks were the preseason buzz about the new-look offense and the once-monumental Penn State win. The valleys were the Oklahoma collapse and the aforementioned Iowa beatdown.

It’s not unlike the 2016 season. Those peaks were the Oklahoma victory, the come-from-behind win in Madison and the instant classic against Michigan. The valleys were the Penn State devastation and the disaster against Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl.

But the difference was in 2016, there were still plenty of people who felt Ohio State could win a national title through one half of football in the Playoff semifinal. This year, that idea faded in the first week of November (contrary to what some wrote on Saturday).

RELATED: Urban Meyer stunned, looking for answers after Iowa loss

National titles — not B1G titles — are the goal at Ohio State. The Buckeyes might be the only B1G team that could win a conference title and the season could still be deemed a failure. Penn State’s season certainly wasn’t a failure when it missed out on a Playoff berth after winning the B1G Championship last year.

Lord knows what a B1G title would mean to Michigan.

Ohio State isn’t Michigan though. Barring a complete meltdown in Ann Arbor in a couple weeks, the Buckeyes are still a notch above the Wolverines.

Ironically enough, however, both of them are in the same spot now. Technically, both can still make it to Indianapolis. There was some hack writer who threw out this idea on Twitter.

But that scenario doesn’t mean anything if Ohio State loses to Michigan State on Saturday. Regardless of what the oddsmakers think about that game — Mark Dantonio is pretending not to care that his team is a 16-point underdog — that’s not such a far-fetched possibility.

The question is how OSU responds without national title aspirations. To Meyer’s credit, he’s done a tremendous job of coaching his team up in those scenarios. The 2012 season was a prime example of that, as was the 2015 season when the Buckeyes beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

With a nice mix of NFL draft prospects and young talent, it’d be stunning if OSU checked out. Then again, it was stunning how awful the Buckeyes played in Iowa City. That matched the deficit from the Clemson debacle last year. It was also their second double-digit loss of the season.

RELATED: Ohio State women’s water polo Twitter throws shade at football program, Urban Meyer

In his 16 seasons as a head coach, Meyer suffered multiple double-digit losses in a season twice before Saturday. The first of which was 2002 at Bowling Green. Meyer then left for Utah at season’s end. The second time Meyer’s team suffered double-digit losses was 2010 at Florida.

We all know what happened after that.

Nobody is saying that Meyer is going to leave Columbus after the 2017 season. That take would be even hotter than arguing why the Buckeyes’ Playoff hopes are still alive. I probably don’t have a bucket of water big enough to put out that kind of heat.

Meyer can still end the season on a different note. The Buckeyes can run the table, beat Michigan once again, win a consolation prize in Indianapolis and clinch their fifth New Year’s Six bowl in as many seasons in the Meyer era. For most programs, a finish like that would be celebrated.

But at Ohio State, that’d be one bittersweet Gatorade pour waiting for Meyer.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.