Ohio State Buckeyes vs Louisiana State Tigers, New Orleans, LA

Ohio St. +3.5
So here it is, the so-called National Championship game. Don’t get too caught up in what people want you to think of this game as, and take it for what it is. Its another Bowl Game and another chance to make some cash. For my money the pick is Ohio St., and here is why. For starters, Ohio St. will find a way to deal with the lay-off, which is overblown. They did not get crushed last year because of the lay-off. They got crushed because their offense was one-dimensional and their defense was suspect. LSU will not, can not, put up the points like The Gators could. In addition, LSU is a few plays away from having 5 losses. Now I know that it speaks well of them to winning close games, and it does, but it also speaks to them playing close games. More power to you if you got OSU at 5.5. If you think the home crowd is going to harm OSU than you didn’t see them take the field in a hostile Beaver Stadium this year. The Buckeyes were unflappable so I don’t see the LSU dominant crowd as being so influential. LSU had a non-cover win against Tulane in the Superdome earlier this year, so perhaps the stadium isn’t so much to the Tigers liking. Lastly, OSU comes into this game the exact opposite as last year. They are supposed to get trounced by the faster, better SEC team, but I just don’t see a beat-down happening.

I have OSU at +13.5 in the last piece of a 3-team Tease, OSU at +3.5 as the last piece of a 3-team parlay and OSU and the Money Line at +145.

It should be noted that I had Florida as a 4-star last year and I am NOT a supporter, fan or even an admirer of OSU.