Buckeyes Keep Handing Out Black Eyes to Huskies, Pac-12

When Ohio State canceled a pair of games with the University of Washington football team, this likely guaranteed these schools won't ever play again unless they are somehow paired in the College Football Playoff.

It was a financial decision. It was arrogance. It was just another sign that college football is on a course to destroy everything about it that initially made it attractive to the masses.

The game was built on tradition — and now it's tradition be damned. Every last bit of tradition it seems.

College football has become an incredibly selfish endeavor with these bloated and uppity super conferences in the making such as the Big Ten and SEC more and more willing to fracture all others if they can somehow benefit from it.

They control the money, the TV pairings, the talent pool.

In the process, Ohio State all of a sudden has became the Huskies' chief nemesis on so many different football levels.

The Buckeyes backed out of a pair of contracted games with no notice or discernible conscience, not the least bit concerned about the damage it might do to the UW's ability to reschedule and certainly not inspired at all by the Husky football revival going on under Kalen DeBoer.

This comes not even a year after Ohio State and its Big Ten brethren raided the Pac-12 for USC and UCLA, putting the future of West Coast football in serious jeopardy and ending a seven-decade Rose Bowl arrangement between the leagues.

This happened after the Buckeyes at the very last minute stole — or the word everyone uses nowadays is flipped — South Dakota quarterback Lincoln Kienholz out from under the Huskies after showing no interest in him whatsoever for the longest time.

It's a wonder why Ohio State merely settled for Kienholz and didn't go after much bigger UW quarterback fish in, say, Michael Penix Jr.

This all has transpired since the Buckeyes began recruiting the Seattle-Tacoma area for the first time that anyone could remember, thumbed its nose at the UW while it combed through the Northwest talent and left with a pair of 5-star players in J.T. Tuimoloau and Emeka Egbuka.

Ohio State is doing what USC used to do to the boys from Montlake for so many decades — win a lot of battles and act annoyingly superior about it.

Now doesn't Oregon generally rate as Public Enemy No. 1 for the UW, you might ask?

No, the Ducks have just been getting their rivalry payback and a little more from the Huskies, by answering decades of Don James dominance with similar Phil Knight superiority. That's just quid pro quo.

The idea that Ohio State was ducking the Huskies in canceling games was silly because Woody Hayes' old school has always believed it is better than everyone else, no matter who it is, and holds a 9-3 all-time record against the UW.

However, two of the more memorable Husky program beatdowns against anyone came against Ohio State in 1966 and 1986. In the first meeting, the UW came into Columbus, unleashed powerful running back Donnie Moore for 221 yards rushing and a 2 touchdowns on 30 carries in a 38-22 victory at the Horseshoe that wasn't nearly that close. Twenty years later, James' 1986 Huskies hosted a ranked Ohio State in a nationally televised game, got some serious momentum going and totally embarrassed them 40-7.

What's happening now between Ohio State and the UW is just bad manners and a show of strength coming at the expense of the college game overall.

These Buckeyes have made so many recent uncouth moves at the expense of the UW in such a short mount of time, they have become the college football entity the Huskies and their fan base now loathe the most.

If they ever play again in the postseason in the years ahead, it won't be a respectful, friendly affair.

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