Buckeyes Idle But Get Share Of Leaders Title
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — What's brewing with the 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes ...
BUCKEYES BUZZ: Despite not playing on Saturday, the Buckeyes did get some good news.
By virtue of Penn State losing to Nebraska, Ohio State captured at least a share of the Big Ten's Leaders Division title. The Buckeyes need only win one of their remaining two games — Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Wisconsin, home at noon the following week against Michigan — to clinch the outright title.
Of course, the Buckeyes cannot play in the title game because of NCAA sanctions. They can, however, win the trophy which goes to the winner of the division.
POLL DANCING: Apparently the Buckeyes didn't beat "bye" badly enough.
Ohio State's week away from games dropped it a spot in the latest AP Top 25 released Sunday.
Alabama's stunning home loss to Johnny Football and Texas A&M dropped the Crimson Tide from No. 1 to fourth. Oregon (10-0) took over the top spot, with 45 first-place votes and 1,485 points. Second is Kansas State (10-0) with 14 first-place votes and 1,451 points. Notre Dame, 10-0 after yet another squeaker, picked up a single nod for No. 1 and 1,382 points. Behind 9-1 'Bama (which had 1,259 points), came Georgia (9-1), tied for fifth coming into the weekend with Ohio State.
The Buckeyes received 1,212 points, just 11 back of Georgia. Rounding out the top 10 are Florida, LSU, Texas A&M and Florida State.
Also representing the Big Ten are Nebraska at No. 16 and Michigan at No. 23.
First, Ohio made the Top 25, then it lost and dropped out. Then fellow Mid-American Conference member Toledo came in at No. 23 but dropped right back out after a home loss on Tuesday night to Ball State.
Now yet another MAC school made the rankings: Welcome to Kent State at No. 25.
The last time the Golden Flashes made the grade in the poll, in 1973, Don James was the head coach and Jack Lambert was at linebacker. A graduate assistant on the team was the captain the year before, a guy named Nick Saban. You might have heard of him. Now is the head coach at Alabama.
SO MUCH FOR A SHOWDOWN: Last week in this space, Periscope profiled the chances of Indiana, which was playing a meaningful game for the first time in years when it hosted Indiana.
Well, that didn't work out that well for the Hoosiers.
Montee Ball and James White ran for 359 yards and five touchdowns and Ball moved into second place on the career touchdown list, leading the Badgers to a 62-14 rout.
The Badgers will return to the Big Ten title game for a third straight year.
Wisconsin finished with a school-record 564 yards rushing and crushed the Memorial Stadium record for an opponent — 441 yards set by Michigan State in 1974 and matched by Northwestern in 1999.
Meanwhile, Nebraska retained the inside track to the Legends Division title by beating Penn State 32-23 on Saturday. It marked the second straight week and fourth time this season the Cornhuskers have overcome a double-digit second-half deficit to win.
This time they came from 14 points down to beat Penn State 32-23 Saturday, with Taylor Martinez throwing a 5-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Turner early in the fourth quarter for Nebraska's first lead.
"We've got a lot of heart," QB Taylor Martinez said, "and we know we can come back from anything."
Nebraska owns the tie-breaker with Michigan with games remaining for the Cornhuskers against Minnesota at home and Iowa on the road.
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