As if there wasn’t enough at stake for the University of Washington football team this weekend.
A win over No. 10 Ohio State would thrust the Huskies into the college football’s national spotlight. It would give the Huskies a 3-0 start and their first top-25 ranking since 2003. It would make the preseason goal of reaching a bowl game seem a lot more realistic. It would expedite the plans for a Jake Locker bronze statue on Montlake Ave.
But now the Huskies have to play for their conference’s reputation too? Every college football season, fans, coaches and players like to argue about who the best conference is. No one can hang with our speed, says the Southeastern Conference (which backed it up in last year’s national championship game). No one is as tough as us, says the Big Ten (which didn’t).
“I have a great deal of pride in our conference, and I always think it’s been kind of misrepresented around the country,” Huskies coach Tyrone Willingham said. “The only way to change that is to do well when you play out of conference teams.”
Of course, whichever conference earns the made-up title of best conference will have to back it up come bowl season, but September is when the jockeying for position begins.
A Washington win over Ohio State wouldn’t mean big things for just the Huskies, it would help the Pac-10 lay claim to this year’s title as college football’s big dog. Think about what it would mean if a team that has been down and out in recent years, one that was picked to finish ninth in the Pac-10, beat the mighty Buckeyes, winners of 20 of their past 21 games.
The Pac-10 is currently 13-3 in non-conference games this year. And while that stat does include such mismatches as top-ranked USC against Idaho, it also includes Cal beating Southeastern Conference power Tennessee and Oregon embarrassing Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Pac-10 would have had a perfect second week of the season if not for egg Oregon State laid at Cincinnati last Thursday.
“It’s too bad we didn’t hold up our end of it,” Beavers coach Mike Riley said. “I think the conference is the strongest it has been in a long time. I think some of the teams that have been a little bit down like Washington are whole different units. I think our conference is really strong and really good.”
Ohio State is probably coming into this game feeling the need to stick up for its conference as well. As much as Buckeyes fans enjoyed Michigan’s back-to-back home losses to Appalachian State and Oregon, the defeats didn’t do much for the Big Ten’s reputation.
The loss to Appalachian State is particularly embarrassing because the school is in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly called Division I-AA). The loss to the Ducks was a thorough beat down in a “must win” game for the Wolverines.
Somewhere, some Ohio State fan must have felt a little uneasy while buying their Appalachian State T-shirts (apparently big sellers in Columbus after the upset). We know you hate Michigan and all, but how does it reflect on your conference when a school that was recently making news for admitting Miss Teen South Carolina (look it up on Youtube.com if you don’t know what I’m talking about) is celebrating a win on the field of your conference’s preseason favorite?
And let’s not forget Ohio State’s embarrassing loss to Florida in the BCS Championship game, or the drubbing USC handed out to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
“I think you just have to focus on the game at hand, but I think there is some conference pride at stake in these games,” Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “Obviously the Big Ten wasn’t represented very well in the bowl season last year with the way things went with us and Florida and Michigan and USC, so it’s one of those things where you want to win for your conference as well as your school.”
So, there you have it. When Washington and Ohio State kick off at Husky Stadium Saturday, it will be 21 teams — there are 11 teams in the Big Ten, I’d explain but it doesn’t make any sense to me either — whose reputation are at stake.
No pressure, Huskies. It’s only the whole nation watching.
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