Picking Oregon to Win It All

Well, the national championship game is being played in nearby Arlington tonight. Kickoff is in about an hour.

Oregon and Ohio State survived the semifinals on New Year's Day and are playing for the title tonight.

They've met eight times before — most recently in the 2010 Rose Bowl. Ohio State is 8–0 in those games.

It really should be a good game. It matches two Top 10 offenses — Oregon is ranked third in the country, Ohio State is ranked ninth. I expect a lot of scoring.

Ohio State's defense is ranked well ahead of Oregon's. The Buckeyes are 17th in the nation; the Ducks are 84th.

I guess those rankings suggest that Ohio State will win the game tonight. Perhaps the Buckeyes will. They have already surprised me twice, beating Wisconsin in the Big 10 championship and then Alabama in a national semifinal — both pretty handily, too — despite being without their injured quarterback. Impressive.

But, really, I'm inclined to pick Oregon. The Ducks have the Heisman winner, and they buried Florida State, the defending national champions, on New Year's Day. That's pretty impressive as well.

So I pick Oregon to win. Perhaps it will go to overtime. Even if it doesn't, I expect it to go down to the wire.

Enjoy.

Bowls: 7–8

Season: 213–58