Open-Mic: 2007 BCS National Championship Game—Disappointment in the Desert

The 2007 BCS National Championship Game has haunted me as a Buckeye fan the past year-and-a-half and was only made worse by Ohio State’s loss to LSU in the 2008 BCS championship game. I can’t stress enough how awful my favorite team looked on the field that night in Arizona. We clearly had no business sharing the field with a far superior team from Gainesville.

Shortly after the second half began, realizing that the Buckeyes couldn’t get past the Gators, I started drowning my sorrows in a 12-pack of Rolling Rock. I’d received several calls from friends of mine that night, many of which had little-to-no knowledge of football, to express sympathy (some did so while trying to stifle laughter) over the fact that my favorite team was getting their ass kicked.

The Buckeyes blew the opportunity of a lifetime to put themselves among the elite of college football that night, after so much triumph during the regular season.

On a side note, I was living in California at the time, and I was determined not to miss what I was certain would be a Buckeye victory. I’d missed an opportunity to attend the 2003 Fiesta Bowl because of school, something that I regret to this day, and I wasn’t going to miss out again at the chance to celebrate with the rest of Buckeye Nation. I took two vacation days and stayed with my parents in Phoenix, only to watch disaster unfold.

I’ll never forget waiting in the airport the next day for my flight back to California. Sky Harbor Airport was packed with disappointed Buckeye fans waiting to go home, and there was an eerie silence in the terminal, as most everyone there wore scarlet and gray jerseys, hats, t-shirts and buckeye necklaces.

I was nursing a hangover, and there was a small group of people decked out in Gators gear sitting at the airport bar, loudly celebrating their victory the previous night. 

Upon hearing their celebration, myself and several other Buckeye fans waiting to board our plane looked at each other and nodded with the sad acknowledgement that we’d been thoroughly humiliated the night before.

Since I’d blocked out most of the 2007 BCS National Championship Game and needed something to refresh my memory to write this article, I was forced to relive the pain as I referenced the Wikipedia entry on that game, which can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_BCS_National_Championship_Game

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