Ohio State has won 11 games this season. That’s put us in the No. 4 spot in the country as of this week. It’s earned us the only hardware we were permitted to win this season.
And it’s prompted a lot of discussion about where a 12-win team that’s not allowed a postseason game will end up in the rankings.
Twelve wins would be outstanding. It would serve notice to the rest of the conference about who will be the team to beat in 2013. The rest of the country will be on notice as well, and Ohio State could top preseason rankings next August.
This week, I am not interested in 12 wins.
I am interested in just one.
At the start of every football season, I do two things that take me all the way from the first game through the bowl game. I pick — or have someone pick for me — a buckeye, that sits in my right front pants pocket for the duration of the season. And I pick one of my bracelets that goes on my left wrist and does not come off until Ohio State’s season is over.
I was aware that there was no possibility of a Big Ten championship in 2012. I knew that there wouldn’t be a trip to a bowl game of any kind.
And the sting of losing in Ann Arbor — something I hadn’t felt since 2003 — was still painfully fresh.
I normally pick one of the generic bracelets for the season. I don’t want to de-value the other games, and I don’t want to feel like I’m writing off everything that happens in September, October or the first couple weeks of November.
But this season, obviously, is different. Saturday is our championship game. Saturday is the bowl game. Saturday is the opportunity to ease the pain from last November.
It’s been the one I’ve been waiting for. And that’s why I picked the bracelet that’s been on my wrist since Aug. 31.
One game. This game. It’s time.
Killer Nuts Tailgating 
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