By Jon Spencer
(Mansfield, Ohio) News Journal
COLUMBUS - Say what you will about Jim Tressel's lack of imaginative game plans, but there's nothing conservative about the Buckeyes approach to ambitious scheduling.
Ohio State's Sept. 10 showdown at home with Texas is one of several nonconference marquee matchups involving his Buckeyes over the next several years.
In addition to completing its home-and-home series with the Longhorns next season, OSU plays Washington in 2007, USC in '08 and '09, Miami (Fla.) in 2010 and '11, Cal in '12 and '13 and Virginia Tech in '14 and '15.
With Division I football schedules expanding to 12 games next year, matchups of such magnitude may fade from view elsewhere around the country.
One more game means one more chance for a team to cripple its hopes of reaching the BCS title game. Such thinking could lead to a decline in creative and challenging schedules.
"I don't know why (marquee games) would fade away," Tressel said. "At 12 games, with eight (Big Ten) games, you need to find good national-scope games.
''I've always believed the biggest positive is that if you make it through the Big Ten, you're prepared to see if you're the best team in the country. I feel the same way about nonconference games."
Tressel pointed out that non-conference games with offensive power Texas Tech and PAC-10 champion Washington State propelled the Buckeyes to the 2002 national title.
''That prepares you, if you can play those kind of guys, and it's great for our fans," he said. ''Win, lose or draw, it's a good thing."
Ohio State-Texas is the biggest nonconference game in the Big Ten this season. The only others that come close are Michigan-Notre Dame and Purdue-Notre Dame.
''I like to see marquee matchups as much as the next guy," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney said. ''From the standpoint of selling television, the more marquee games the better. From a standpoint of putting teams in bowls, not all programs are in the same stage of development."
Tressel has been an advocate of stiff scheduling since his days at Youngstown State.
''I remember in 1989 calling my athletic director and saying, 'I need you to schedule Stephen F. Austin and Georgia Southern. They're playing for the (Division I-AA) championship this year. And if we're ever going to be champions, we need to play teams like that,' " Tressel said. ''He said, 'Are you crazy?' "
The Penguins went 1-2-1 against Stephen F. Austin and 2-0 against Georgia Southern while winning four Division I-AA national titles.
''I think those games got us prepared to (win the national championship) four times," he said.
He hopes the Texas game produces the same kind of momentum.
''Philosophically, Gene (Smith, OSU athletics director) and I feel we need eight home games every other year and seven home games every other year," Tressel said, looking ahead to the 12-game slates. "When you play the likes of Texas or USC or Florida, you're going to have to go away a little bit. But the rest of those non-league games, you're going to have to focus on getting home games."
While many schools from BCS conferences opt to fill that 12th game with a sacrificial lamb from Division I-AA, the Big Ten is negotiating almost exclusively with the mid-major Mid-American Conference.
Ohio State's Sept. 3 opener with Miami of Ohio marks the ninth straight year the Buckeyes have hosted a MAC school. Next year, they likely will face two. Northern Illinois visits on Sept. 2. The originally scheduled bye week, which becomes the 12 game, is Oct. 7.
''Playing at home is probably the biggest (plus)," Tressel said of the matchups with MAC teams. ''We know we need the income to make 36 sports go, and we'd like to help the people in our state.
"One thing that adds to the upside for the (MAC) opponent is that they want to make a statement that maybe they should have been recruited here. The reality is they're going to come in and fight you and play better than they're capable of playing. That's a healthy thing."
