Tournament of Buckeyes: Play-In Game

In preparation for the upcoming football season, Things and Stuff will be running a tournament of the greatest Buckeye football teams of the modern, or at least modernish, era. You, the good reader, have the opportunity to vote to decide the winner. Seventeen teams have been chosen, and after the play-in game results come in, the sixteen top Buckeye teams of all time will face off in a knockout tournament.

The teams were chosen and seeded based on their regular season record. The undefeated teams went first, and any teams from the year before or after were disqualified. At the humble blogger's discretion, teams two years away could be disqualified if the composition of that team was too similar. For instance, the undefeated 1968 team is in, immediately disqualifying the 1967 and 1969 squads (even though the 8-1 1969 squad would likely have won if they had faced off). However, since the starters on the 1970 squad were principally the same characters, the 1970 Buckeyes were also disqualified.

Some of the choices might seem a bit controversial, such as the 1983 Buckeyes being included at the expense of the Big Ten champion 1984 Buckeyes who finished with the same record. The decision was made because, in the humble blogger's opinion, the 1983 team faced far stiffer competition and was a superior team.

With each pairing, a description of the teams and key players will be given as well as some vital stats. OR stands for Opponents' Records, but is handled in a slightly different fashion. Every win of a team that Ohio State defeated goes in the win column, and every loss from a team that beat Ohio State goes in the loss column. T20 is Ohio State's record against teams that finished in the Top Twenty (when this is possible. For some years, only a Top Ten was recorded). T20E is the extended version of T20, in which the records against the Top Twenty of Ohio State's opponents (excluding Ohio State) are put into two aggregates, one for the teams Ohio State beat and one for the teams that beat Ohio State (this does occasionally happen). In other words, if a 6-3 Buckeye team defeated six teams whose total record against the Top Twenty was 3-4, and lost to three teams whose aggregate record against the Top Twenty was 3-1, that Buckeye team's T20E would be 3-4/3-1.

Other categories include HS, LS, BM, DD. HS, High Score, is the number of times the Buckeye team in question put up the most points that year against an opponent. LS, Low Score, is when the defense held that opponent to its lowest score of the season. BM is Best Margin, the number of times that Ohio State had the best victory margin against that team. Finally, DD is a Double Double, which is when Ohio State had both the HS and LS against the same team in the same game.

Welcome to the Tournament of Buckeyes and thank you for playing! Before we can start the tournament proper, we have to have a play-in game to reduce the field of 17 to 16. Please vote only once, by leaving a comment, and no votes under anonymous will count. The humble blogger will keep his vote secret until the end of voting. The 1983 Buckeyes, led by Earle Bruce, are up against Woody Hayes' 1977 squad for the right to take on the number one seed. Here are the stats and background information.

1977 Buckeyes
9-3; Lost to scUM 14-6; lost to Alabama in Sugar Bowl 35-6

Key players included Ray Griffin, the All-American safety and brother of Archie Griffin, three-time All-Big Ten cornerback Mike Guess, All-American linebacker and future #1 draft pick Tom Cousineau, All-American middle guard Aaron Brown, tackling machine linebacker David Adkins, All-Big Ten defensive end Kelton Dansler, All-American offensive tackle Chris Ward, center Tim Vogler, future All-American guard Ken Fritz, quarterback speedster Rod Gerald and runningbacks Jeff Logan and Ron Springs, both All-Big Ten.

10-0 Miami, FL
38-7 Minnesota
28-29 Oklahoma
35-7 SMU
46-0 Purdue
27-6 Iowa
35-15 Northwestern
42-0 Wisconsin
35-0 Illinois
35-7 Indiana
6-14 scUM
6-35 Alabama

OR 37-5
T20 0-3
T20E 3-14/2-4
HS 4
LS 6
BM 4
DD 2

1983 Buckeyes
9-3; lost to scUM 24-21; beat Pittsburgh 28-23 in Fiesta Bowl

Key Players included defensive backs Shaun Gayle and All-Big Ten Garcia Lane, All-Big Ten linebacker Rowland Tatum, linebacker Orlando Lowry, All-Big Ten tight end John Frank, All-Big Ten linemen Kirk Lowdermilk and Mark Krerowicz, first round draft pick offensive tackle Bill Roberts, quarterback Mike Tomczak and future All-American and 2nd place finisher in the Heisman Trophy balloting tailback Keith Byars.

31-6 Oregon
24-14 Oklahoma
14-20 Iowa
69-18 Minnesota
33-22 Purdue
13-17 Illinois
21-11 Michigan State
45-27 Wisconsin
56-17 Indiana
55-7 Northwestern
21-24 scUM
28-23 Pittsburgh

OR 40-8
T20 1-3
T20E 1-24-1/4-6
HS 3
LS 0
BM 0
DD 0

The results are now in the good reader's hands!