Urban Meyer lets Ohio State, Big Ten think big again

NEW ORLEANS -- If Ohio State players had any doubts whether they could beat Alabama, Urban Meyer made sure earlier results on New Year's Day sunk into them.

Wisconsin beat Auburn. Michigan State rallied to beat Baylor. Two teams Ohio State had defeated in the Big Ten just beat two high-profile opponents. Meyer hit on those points during the Buckeyes' pregame dinner and again on the team bus.

"Maybe the Big Ten isn't that bad," Meyer said. "Maybe the Big Ten is pretty damn good, or certainly getting better. The mind is a fragile thing. ... There's no doubt that when we saw Wisconsin beat Auburn, that was a major, major moment for us to win this game."

Ohio State, beaten by Virginia Tech in September and working with its third-string quarterback, punched Alabama in the mouth and didn't back down in a 42-35 victory even after trailing by 15 points early.

The Big Ten, beat up and kicked around for so long, will be playing for the chance to win its first national title since 2002 -- and the first ever College Football Playoff National Championship.

The SEC West, proclaimed by some as the best division ever in college football, ends the bowl season with a 2-5 record.

For the first time since the 2008 season, there is no Alabama or Auburn in the national title game. For the first time since the famous USC-Texas Rose Bowl in the 2005 season, there is no SEC team playing for the national championship.

Meyer started the SEC's run to eight consecutive BCS title games. Meyer has ended it with Ohio State's return to prominence.

"I don't know about a passing of the torch," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said moments after getting a congratulatory handshake from SEC executive associate commissioner Greg Sankey on the Superdome field in SEC country. "I have tremendous respect for SEC football. They've done it on the field. UCLA [basketball] did it in a period of time. North Carolina [basketball] had some good years when I was there. Big Ten has had their day. SEC has had their day. Maybe it's a new day. Who knows?"

If the first day of the College Football Playoff semifinals taught us anything, it's this: The sport is better off deciding the games on the field.

In the old BCS era, we would be preparing right now for an Alabama vs. Florida State national title game. In the playoff era, we'll be getting Ohio State vs. Oregon.

That doesn't mean the playoff is perfect. But in a wide-open college football season such as this one, it's refreshing to play two more games to decide the national champion. The CFP Selection Committee correctly rewarded Ohio State for improving as the year progressed.

"It shows you crazy things happen in the playoffs," Ohio State defensive lineman Michael Bennett said. "Sometimes there are more than two deserving teams. I think Alabama is an incredible team but I think we developed into a better team. I think everybody is complaining about the playoff system, but this is why they have it, for moments like these."

Make no mistake: Ohio State players got sick and tired of the SEC talk. They respected the SEC, but as Buckeyes quarterback Cardale Jones put it sarcastically, "We were playing the best team in the history of the planet in the best conference."

Bennett put it more bluntly. "I'm tired of hearing about the SEC. I respect them. They have a lot of great teams in their conference. But to hear they're the perennial conference, I don't feel that's true. We showed what we can do and what the Big Ten can do," he said.

Right before our eyes, Meyer is changing the mindset of the Big Ten. Imagine what happens when Jim Harbaugh joins Michigan.

Jones admitted he was no fan of Ohio State calling a trick play when wide receiver Evan Spencer threw a 13-yard touchdown to Michael Thomas right before the half. Why?

"We don't need trick plays to beat those guys," Jones said.

Jones was right. The Buckeyes desperately needed an effective running game against the nation's No. 1 rush defense. All Ohio State did was run for 281 yards and average 6.7 yards per carry against Alabama, which entered the game allowing 2.8 yards per carry.

Jones repeatedly beat Alabama's secondary with third-down conversions, often on 3rd-and-longs. In the first half alone, Ohio State was 7 of 10 on third downs.

When Alabama took a 21-6 lead, Ohio State didn't blink because the Buckeyes realized they weren't getting stopped, they were making mistakes. Alabama only had that large lead because of two turnovers and two stops in the red zone. The Buckeyes simply scored 28-straight points.

"The one thing that the new quarterback does is he has a tremendous arm," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "And they have some very talented receivers. And the two things that were very apparent is those things became very apparent in the last two games because of the quarterback. ... It wasn't so obvious when you watched the film all season long that they had these great skill players that could really make plays down the field."

There will be second-guessing on Alabama's end after this loss. Most notably there's this question: Why did Derrick Henry (97 yards on 13 carries and 54 receiving yards on two catches) only get 15 touches in the game? Alabama abandoned the running game late in the first half and never became effective at it again.

That second-guessing shouldn't discount Ohio State was simply the better team on Thursday. In the weeks leading up to the semifinals, Delany avoided talking about the Big Ten's struggles in recent years. The Big Ten looked dead early. I said as much on Sept. 13 after Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan all lost high-profile games that day entering the conference season.

All along, Delany simply wanted a chance for a team to get in the playoff based off this year.

"There shouldn't be a narrative each year," Delany said. "It should be its own year. ... It's a new cycle for all of us. We feel good to have been included. We're a long way from September. Our teams have gotten better. The season has played out. We didn't have any predictions. We just wanted to see the season play out."

Interestingly, Meyer -- of all people -- made a play call at the very end Thursday that seemed to doubt his team's chances. In one of the strangest calls you'll ever see, Meyer elected to have Jones throw deep from midfield with a seven-point lead, 1:57 remaining and Alabama down to two timeouts.

Meyer justified it by saying Alabama had no safeties deep and Ohio State wasn't going to run the ball effectively. But when the Crimson Tide regained possession and threw one last Hail Mary, "I just kept thinking I screwed this thing up," Meyer said.

When Sims' final pass was intercepted, the Big Ten's inferiority complex officially disappeared. The Big Ten can finally, truly think big again.