Transitive Flop Theory

[osugrad21]

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My "Ohio State Transitive Flop Sweat" Hypothesis

by DC Trojan
on Oct 3, 2008 9:07 AM PDT
I hit the television last night in just enough time to catch Utah's rally against Oregon State. Aside from wondering how it was that the Utes' defense managed to stop the Beavers when it really counted, it made me think that there's potentially an epidemiological explanation for Oregon State's collapse at the last minute: an outbreak of transitive flop sweat.

With this hypothesis, I propose that Ohio State arrived in Los Angeles as a carrier of transitive flop sweat. There are two main properties of transitive flop sweat: firstly, it results in getting beaten in a game for which you should have been competitive at a minimum, and second, it transfers to the winning team so that they botch their next game.
Obviously USC contracted a serious case of transitive flop sweat, as demonstrated in Corvallis - no need to revisit that, as the case history is well documented.
It appears that USC was able to transmit the transitive flop sweat to Oregon State however. While the Beavers' case was mild and late breaking, that could be explained by their relatively healthy conditions in Corvallis, where there is a lower level of ass-sunshining and plenty of fresh air. (And ready access to veterinary -grade meds, not that I'm implying anything or anything...) But late-breaking or not, the fact is, there was a little eau de flop hanging around the Beavers after they were this close to bringing down another ranked team.
The next test of this hypothesis will be Utah's game against Wyoming - although with the best will in the world, I don't know if that's going to be enough of a test to see if there's been a hand-off from Oregon State as opposed to showing if Wyoming is an antidote.

[BuckeyeNation27]

right

[Dryden]

That's an interesting hypothesis. I traced backwards to see where it might have originated, and I think it may have been born in Ann Arbor. There were a lot of upsets in the Southern Conference last year, before Georgia Southern traveled west and dropped it on an unsuspecting 2-9 CSU team.

Week 1, 2007: U-M passes it to App St.
Week 4, 2007: App St. passes it to Wofford
Week 8, 2007: Wofford passes it to Elon
Week 10, 2007: Elon passes it to Furman
Week 11, 2007: Furman passes it to Georgia Southern
Week 12, 2007: Georgia Southern passes it to Colorado St
Week 13, 2007: Colorado St passes it to Wyoming
Week 1, 2008: Wyoming passes it to Ohio U
Week 2, 2008: Ohio U passes it to Ohio State
Week 3, 2008: Ohio State passes it to Southern Cal
Week 5, 2008: Southern Cal passes it to Oregon St
Week 6, 2008: Oregon St passes it to Utah?

[schwab]

Good stuff Dryden. What happens now that Utah completed the circle and beat UM this year?

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Originally Posted by schwab

Good stuff Dryden. What happens now that Utah completed the circle and beat UM this year?

There is a gigantic hole in the very fabric of the universe.

[JCOSU86]

Originally Posted by DC Trojan

There are two main properties of transitive flop sweat: firstly, it results in getting beaten in a game for which you should have been competitive at a minimum,

Originally Posted by Dryden

Week 2, 2008: Ohio U passes it to Ohio State
Week 3, 2008: Ohio State passes it to Southern Cal
Week 5, 2008: Southern Cal passes it to Oregon St
Week 6, 2008: Oregon St passes it to Utah?

I don't think OU should have been more competitive that they were.

[MililaniBuckeye]

Originally Posted by schwab

Good stuff Dryden. What happens now that Utah completed the circle and beat UM this year?

Utah didn't get the transistive sweat until after they had already played Michigan...

[HailToMichigan]

Originally Posted by Dryden

That's an interesting hypothesis. I traced backwards to see where it might have originated, and I think it may have been born in Ann Arbor. There were a lot of upsets in the Southern Conference last year, before Georgia Southern traveled west and dropped it on an unsuspecting 2-9 CSU team.

Week 1, 2007: U-M passes it to App St.
Week 4, 2007: App St. passes it to Wofford
Week 8, 2007: Wofford passes it to Elon
Week 10, 2007: Elon passes it to Furman
Week 11, 2007: Furman passes it to Georgia Southern
Week 12, 2007: Georgia Southern passes it to Colorado St
Week 13, 2007: Colorado St passes it to Wyoming
Week 1, 2008: Wyoming passes it to Ohio U
Week 2, 2008: Ohio U passes it to Ohio State
Week 3, 2008: Ohio State passes it to Southern Cal
Week 5, 2008: Southern Cal passes it to Oregon St
Week 6, 2008: Oregon St passes it to Utah?

Dude, not our fault. We got such a bad case of it from Notre Dame in 2006 that it took two games to get rid of it entirely. Weis is probably like the Typhoid Mary of flop sweat. In fact an epidemiologist probably oughta take a look at this because USC got the other half of our ND case in the Rose Bowl and gave it to Stanford the next year, and who knows how many times it's split off. We could be looking at a flop sweat pandemic.

[Dryden]

Originally Posted by JCOSU86

I don't think OU should have been more competitive that they were.

True. Not every single one was an outright upset. But each of those games either had lead changes in the 4th quarter or had the dog showing a lot more fight than they were expected to.

[ScriptOhio]

Who gave it to Florida?

Mississippi 31, No. 4 Florida 30

[UpNorthBuckeye]

I've heard this called the "up and down" theory, too. You see it in the NFL a lot. bad one week, good the next.

Which is why after Wiscy stunk up the Big House, they are due to play out of their minds this weekend.

In Other words, we have about a quarter to diffuse their anger and take the fight back out of them.

as protection, the Buckeyes oughta do the Jump song on the sidelines. Big time. Take their song (aka their "mojo") from them.

Tough game = big win for tOSU

[Taosman]

Utah will not go unbeaten. They have to play at New Mexico then TCU and BYU. BYU game is a "rivalry" game. They could lose all of those games. BYU has a great chance to go unbeaten.
Basically, this is all more about a greater diffusion of talent in college football. The starters on most teams are relatively even. Depth determines the better teams.

The unexpected should become the expected.

[GoodLifeSean]

Originally Posted by ScriptOhio

Who gave it to Florida?

Mississippi 31, No. 4 Florida 30

This was more of a case of the speckled chokes, passed to Jesus of the Swamp (tm) and Co from the Vols.

[Yertle]

I'm hoping that Wisky has a case of Michiganstatitis, not the ups and downs. Of course, the Up-and-Down theory says they'll be red hot tomorrow night and give the Bucks more than they can handle. The Michiganstatitis theory says that as soon as the wheels start to come off on a season, things start to look more like a circus than a football game. I'm praying for Michiganstatitis.

[Taosman]

We're gonna have to beat Wiscy, they won't self destruct. Get up early and keep the pressure on.