Have at it:

Men of the Scarlet and Gray Ballot – Week 2

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	17
2	Boise St. Broncos	–
3	Oklahoma Sooners	-2
4	Wisconsin Badgers	8
5	Baylor Bears	–
6	South Florida Bulls	–
7	Stanford Cardinal	-4
8	Florida St. Seminoles	1
9	Alabama Crimson Tide	-5
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	-3
11	West Virginia Mountaineers	14
12	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-2
13	BYU Cougars	–
14	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-1
15	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-1
16	Arkansas Razorbacks	5
17	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	–
18	Texas A&M Aggies	-7
19	Houston Cougars	–
20	Florida Gators	–
21	Virginia Tech Hokies	-15
22	Michigan St. Spartans	-7
23	Iowa Hawkeyes	-7
24	Missouri Tigers	–
25	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-2
Dropouts: Oregon Ducks, TCU Horned Frogs, USC Trojans, Georgia Bulldogs, Texas Longhorns, Nevada Wolf Pack, Notre Dame Fighting Irish

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Personally (and I guess that’s a good caveat for OSU writers to add to every one of their posts, lest fans of other schools get offended and decide to use one person’s words to castigate an entire fanbase) I hope the truth comes out and if the consequences for that are harsh, so be it. Bad news does not get better with time. Treat it like a band-aid and just RIP IT OFF ALREADY!

That having been said, a lot of schools have been having a lot of fun at our expense over the last few months. Justified fun, to an extent, but fun nonetheless. Come on, it’s not like we didn’t join in with the world outside of USC (and ESPN) giggling a bit when they finally got hammered for the Reggie Bush-O.J. Mayo deal. It comes with the territory when you’re dominant. I was actually somewhat pleased – Tom Brady’s involvement notwithstanding – in 2002 when the Patriots beat the Rams in the Super Bowl – they’d been a pathetic franchise my entire life. Now of course, I hate them and so do most people outside of Massachusetts. Why? Because they’re dominant. Also, THEY CHEATED!!!

Which brings me finally to the point. Remember what the Patriots did the season that Spygate came out? Here are three things that are most relevant to this discussion:

1. They got punished, not harshly enough in the eyes of many.
2. They lost the Super Bowl.
3. On the way to the Super Bowl they pretty much annihilated everything in their path.

The last part is particularly vivid in my memory. They didn’t just beat their opponents. Once an opponent was beaten, they beat them a little more. It was like watching myself playing Tecmo Super Bowl with the Raiders against, well, the Patriots, only it happened almost every game!

And I hated them for it.

Here’s the thing: I would have hated those Patriots anyway. I was convinced they were a bunch of cheaters, they only won those three Super Bowls by spying on the other sidelines, Bill Belichick was the son of Lucifer, you name it. But I bet Patriot fans freaking LOVED IT. Remember the first half of the 1996, 1997, and 1998 seasons when OSU was beating teams 72-0? Good times, right?

Speaking only from my perspective as an Ohio State football fan, I would enjoy a season in which Tressel grew a goatee, dyed his hair black, started wearing sweater vests with no undershirt in order to show off some (questionably acquired) prison tats, and started throwing deep in the third quarter when up by 50. A man stands before you – he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy. Sweep the leg. I want them out of commission.

Screw it – things will stay this way no matter what happens. Tressel could resign tomorrow, the athletic department could voluntarily dissolve itself and all OSU sports teams for five years and people will still hate us. We may as well have a little fun with it while we can.

When I started MotSaG and invited people to contribute, I always wanted their contributions to stand on their own and I didn’t want to stop anyone from posting how they feel about the Buckeyes. But this post stepped over those bounds and I feel that it doesn’t reflect properly what MotSaG is and stands for.

I read this post after Jeremiah posted it and I didn’t think the reception would be so vitriolic. Jeremiah has told me he wishes he could have expressed himself more eloquently. He likes to pose questions that cause people to stop and think but sometimes those questions come out awkwardly. I know him personally and know where he’s coming from but you readers don’t know him the way I do. You can only infer what his point of view is through what he wrote. He wanted to pose a question about the dilemma college football fans are faced with but went about it in an abrasive way. It’s just how he is.

Jeremiah stands behind his statements. We debated taking the post down but decided it should be kept up for posterity. Comments have been closed but the post will live on. We may revisit this topic in the future with a more nuanced post. But for now we are going to move with our lives. Life is too short to get worked up.

There’s a small chance that you’re just some mischievous troll who pokes around blogs dedicated to teams other than your own looking for opportunities to take cheap potshots at whatever miscellaneous pseudo-scandal is currently plaguing them.  If that’s the case, I’m glad you’re here too.  Even though I’ll never understand your motivations, I like to assume that there is some value in everyone’s existence.  For instance, it was recently discovered that cockroach brains produce antibiotics far more effective than current medicines.  I would gladly support cracking open your skull in the name of science.

Anyway, here a few OSU-related things about me that may come in handy in the future:

1. I am 100% sold on Tresselball. Yes, it can lead to frustrating white-knucklers on a near-weekly basis, but it’s hard to argue with results.  We win a lot of games this way, and the underlying principles are sound.  Despite its inherent conservatism, it’s still flexible enough to take advantage of the individual talents of players.  While there’s probably no way to prove this, I’d bet that most of the breakdowns under this philosophy are on the execution side rather than the scheme side.

2. I hate the BCS. And that’s an understatement.  After more than a decade with the oft-tweaked system in our lives, I think it’s safe to say that it has not been a significant improvement over the old way.  It has created more problems than it’s solved and turned what was once a day full of top-notch match-ups into a weeklong excuse to employ Mark May during which maybe two good games occur.  It’s essentially the same thing that happens when someone at Saturday Night Live says, “We should make this into a movie.”

3. I think Sully should enter every game inside of a giant egg. Just saying.

4. I’m not sure I want Michigan to ever be good again. I know I’m supposed to want them undefeated when we play so that the win is more satisfying for us and the loss more heartbreaking for them, but have you ever actually tried to cheer for them against anyone else?  I just can’t do it; the hate is too strong.  There was a time when Michigan was always going to be at least good, and during that time I believed that was the best thing for the rivalry.  But now that I’ve seen what it’s like when they’re pretty terrible… I kind of like it.  With the new divisional format and Nebraska joining the fold, Michigan’s success may not be the requirement for national conference respect it once was.

Well, I better wrap this up and get back to orientation before I miss where they keep the highlighters.

Later.

I’ll let him introduce himself however he likes but we should be seeing content coming from the Cloud of Dust shortly. Join me in welcoming Jason into the fold.

(via 30fps)

- You probably already read this, but we are posting it for posterity’s sake and as a show of our agreement and support for the growing anti-Herbstreit movement: Herbie the Impaler from Ramzy Nasrallah of Bucknuts and Twitter fame.

- Another thing that you already knew but must be linked for completeness sake – Tate Forcier has left Michigan for greener pastures. While his announcement is ripe for mocking, we will observe the proper amount of mourning before making light of the situation. Also: that is one weird family.

- Overworked from pushing away Razorback linemen like they were so many bothersome gnats, Cameron Heyward had to have surgery to repair a hyper-extended elbow. We have the technology…

- There are eight NFL hopefuls in the year’s senior class. I think most of them will be drafted and hope to see Cameron Heyward go in the first round.

- Jamel Turner – The once future Buckeye has had a somewhat tragic trajectory since committing to Ohio State but things are looking up for Turner, including a long shot at returning to Ohio State. Godspeed.

- Finally, this may have little interest to most readers, but those of you (us) that are fellow bloggers or Twitterers that have encountered the occasional dissenting opinion on a blog post or tweet will get a kick out of Jeff Pearlman tracking down a commenter who had some not-so-nice things to say about an article Jeff wrote about Jeff Bagwell.

In that vein, I’d like to do a quick reader poll. I know I could dig into my logs for this information, but this is a quick and dirty poll — how do you visit the site (and read the content)?

First of all, if you’re new to the site, Welcome! Drop a note in the comments how you found the site and what you think. Whether it was following a link from another site, from a Facebook or Twitter link or Google search, we salute you. You can learn a little more about the site, including our commenting policy (updated!) and our writers (hint: some of the writers need to update their blurbs). If you’ve been around for the last few years we thank you. We have the best readers in world.

As for the next few months, content here will take on a consistent schedule. We won’t be deviating from the format during the season we’ve had in the past. We’ll have game previews and reviews, we’ll have open threads and prognosticating contests and we’ll be reporting and commenting on most comings and goings in Buckeyeland. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing for the actual games each week. Last year we participated in the Live chats that a handful of sites participated in and had quite a good time. For now, we’ll probably continue that trend unless something else presents itself.

We’re also social. We love social networks! They provide so much, especially when you get essentially unfettered, uncensored access to people (athletes) we watch every Saturday. So that’s why I’ve got a Twittering Buckeyes page so you can see what current and former Buckeyes are on Twitter and what interesting or inane things they’re saying. You can catch some of us on Twitter (I’m i_aint_yer_pa, sportsMonkey is monkeyPi and YNBA is teamyzerman). Follow us! We also have a Facebook Page, because it’s 2010 and your dog has a Facebook page. For the love of all that is holy, Like us!

Another thing I wanted to mention was the increase in new OSU blogs that have entered (and promptly left) the Ohio State Blogoshoe in the past few months. I’m sure you’re aware of the new Sports Nation blog, Along the Olentangy (I would have went with “On the banks of the Olentangy” but that would be a rather unwieldy URL). Other new sites that have appeared on the Blogroll recently include Inside The Shoe, The Ohio Sports Journal (which is edited by a good friend of mine) and The Duane Long Report (I know Duane’s been around for a while but I just recently started following his blog). And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our good friends over at uber OSU blog Eleven Warriors just went through a major overhaul of their site.

So where does that leave us? I don’t know if it came through the past year or two, but the monkey and I got pretty burned out blogging about the Buckeyes. As anyone will tell you, it ain’t easy to do this week in week out. We have real jobs (and are doing EVERYTHING we can to keep said jobs). That’s why I brought on three new bloggers in the last year or so. We needed an infusion of new blood and excitement and I think we’ve accomplished that goal. I also think the monkey and I are getting back into the groove. At least we hope we are.

So that’s where we are on College Football Eve’s eve. Is it Thursday yet?

(Also: Don’t forget to vote for your favorite preview video! The polls close tomorrow!)