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Urban Meyer predicts who will play in the Big Ten Championship Game

Joe Cox|
FOX Sports analyst Urban Meyer dropped an early Big Ten Championship Game pick on The Triple Option podcast.
FOX Sports analyst Urban Meyer dropped an early Big Ten Championship Game pick on The Triple Option podcast. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Ohio State BuckeyesOregon Ducks

Former head coach turned FOX Sports analyst Urban Meyer dropped a Big Ten Championship Game matchup prediction on The Triple Option podcast. Meyer extensively praised one of the two teams he's picking, and in fact, projected that these teams, which don't meet in the regular season, will play each other in both the B1G title game and in the College Football Playoff. Meyer's picks? Ohio State and Oregon.

Ohio State

Meyer waxed rhapsodic about his former employer, Ohio State. He pointed out the excellent work of OSU head coach Ryan Day. "If he wins one more game, it's a higher winning percentage than Knute Rockne," Meyer noted, in regard to the legendary Notre Dame coach. "What he's done, it's the best coaching job," continued Meyer. "You replace two coordinators, replace a quarterback."

Meyer went on to call Ohio State's defense "elite." He pointed out OSU's work in holding Washington and Demond Williams Jr., to six points. Despite opening with Texas, Ohio State's defense is holding opponents to 229.3 yards per game, good for eighth in the nation. Perhaps wilder, Ohio State has not allowed a red-zone touchdown this season. Opponents have reached the OSU red zone seven times and have a pair of field goals to show for it. Ohio State's red-zone defensive stats are the best in the nation by a wide margin.

Oregon

Meyer took the Ducks as his other Big Ten title game participant. "I think it's going to be Oregon-Ohio State, they're going to play twice," said Meyer. "They're going to play in Indianapolis and they're going to play in the College Football Playoff."

Oregon's own defense has been steady, giving up only 238.2 yards per game, which is 11th best in the nation. The Ducks are 12th in total offense (503.8 yards per game) and seventh in scoring offense, with 46.6 points per game. Oregon coach Dan Lanning is mentioned in the national Coach of the Year discussions and the two Big Ten standouts could well be on the collision course in Indianapolis that Meyer predicted.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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