Tonight, is a huge game for Ohio State! The Buckeyes are in Southern California to face the USC Trojans. I have to admit that my disdain for USC was born in the 1970s. At about the age of 8 I starting hanging around with a kid named Nick Jonson. His family was pretty rabid in their love for the Buckeyes and Nick and I were good friends for some time. The tradition became for me to watch all the OSU games (when the Jonson's didn't go to Columbus) with them. Anyhow, USC has faced OSU 5 times since I was old enough to know anything about football, and they are 5-0 since then. Moreover, they won the first match up 18-17 and denied OSU the 1980 National Championship game with a score of 17-16. (I still believe Charles White did not score on that last drive by USC. It was a beautiful goal-line stand and I think I'm still in denial because of it). USC is leading the series against the Buckeyes 11-9-1. I want OSU to win BAAAAAD tonight!
But here is what's interesting. As much as I'm looking forward to tonight's game, I'm even more excited for tomorrow morning. Why? Well, if the Buckeyes win, I can go to my OSU-saturated church and celebrate with all of the transplanted Buckeyes who live here in Charlotte. I can begin thinking about a third National Championship game in a row, and hope that every SEC team beats up on each other and that the final NC opponent is from any other conference but that one. Of course there are still a few games before then that will be nail-biters, but I will know the chances are still there. My blood pressure will go up every Saturday between now and the day after the Michigan game and have a month of build-up for the big game in January. It will be exciting and stressful.
Which brings me to why I am excited for tomorrow even if they lose. First it won't be against an SEC team, so I won't have to deal with that. As a matter of fact I think a good portion of the SEC would like to see the Bucks win. (They probably think their chances of winning another NC game is greater if OSU is their opponent, so of course they want them to win). More importantly though, if the Buckeyes lose, I can relax. I will still enjoy the Saturday games and suspect the Buckeyes will win most if not all of them, but I won't be wired. I usually don't say this, but every year I get hyped up for the Buckeyes and stress out because of it too. A loss tonight won't be the end of the world. As a matter of fact, it will likely make my football watching more detached but also collectively more enjoyable. Perhaps this is another sign that sports isn't quite as important as I thought it was.
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