The End Zone: Ohio State 09-23

9/22/2010

Some games never should be played. No. 2 Ohio State against No. 120 Eastern Michigan on Saturday is one of them. No one thinks it's a good idea, and it could be a disaster.

The World Cup qualifier from 2001 was a poorly conceived matchup: Australia 31, American Samoa 0. The Samoans did not qualify, but most of their players ended up in the NFL. USA Dream Team 116, Angola 48 from the 1992 Olympics was a bad concept, as was the 2009 girls basketball game that ended: Covenant School 100, Dallas Academy 0.

Militarily, the 1982 Falklands War was a lousy bout. It took the UK just 42 days to toss the Argentineans into the ocean. The Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. was grossly unfair — 300 Spartans and a few allies against a Persian army of millions. The Spartans made it to the fourth quarter before being overwhelmed.

In football, we've seen dreadful mismatches. In 1942 we had Ohio State 59, Fort Knox 0 and no gold exchanged hands. The Buckeyes took an 86-0 licking from Michigan in 1902, but recovered and beat Northwestern 70-6 in 1981.

Then there was Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland University 0 in 1916. Cumberland had disbanded its football team, but the school president wanted the money, which brings us to the bottom line here. Eastern Michigan is one of eight MAC schools visiting Big Ten stadiums this weekend. Take your punishment — it pays the bills.