Big Game Hunting: Ohio State, LSU or Clemson? Take your pick which is the real favorite

In Ohio, they know this is the year. In Bayou Country, everyone’s convinced they’re looking at a team of destiny. And in Death Valley, they’re counting down the days until champs successfully defend their national title.

SHARE Big Game Hunting: Ohio State, LSU or Clemson? Take your pick which is the real favorite
Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence is ready to pull out his Superman cape again.

Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence is ready to pull out his Superman cape again.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

There are three favorites to win it all in college football.

Not one. Not two. Three.

Forget what the playoff rankings say. Forget what one or two or 20 so-called experts tell you.

There are three: Ohio State, LSU and Clemson. Their respective fan bases are certain of it.

In Ohio, they know this is the year.

In Bayou Country, everyone’s convinced they’re looking at a team of destiny.

And in Death Valley, they’re counting down the days until champs successfully defend their national title.

As we enter conference championship Saturday — which essentially began Friday, with No. 5 Utah facing No. 13 Oregon in an enormously important game for the Utes — there are three teams that stand above all others.

One is the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes, who meet again with No. 8 Wisconsin at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Buckeyes already have blasted the Badgers once — 38-7 in Columbus in late October — but the game everyone’s still talking about is their 56-27 mauling of rival Michigan last weekend in Ann Arbor.

It was a validation of first-year coach Ryan Day, whose résumé might as well be a blank napkin compared with predecessor Urban Meyer’s.

“People say, ‘What if you don’t win the [Michigan] game?’” Day said. “There’s no choice. You have to win the game. You don’t have a choice when you’re a Buckeye. You have to win that game.”

And now the questions are coming: Is this the best Buckeyes team ever? Is this the best Big Ten team ever?

Its offense, led by quarterback Justin Fields, moves effortlessly down the field. Its defense, led by hellacious pass rusher Chase Young, has been, for the most part, impenetrable. Its scoring margin of 38.1 points per game is the largest in the land.

It’s nothing unusual that the Buckeyes have the best players in the Big Ten, but this seems like something out of the ordinary.

And yet, no less compelling has been the performance of No. 2 LSU, unbeaten like the Buckeyes and set to take on No. 4 Georgia in the all-powerful SEC. In the scariest league in the country, the Tigers have been killers. They won at Alabama. They took Florida and Auburn down. They’ve done it all.

LSU’s quarterback, Joe Burrow, has been the star of stars, a near-cinch to win the Heisman Trophy. Burrow is a transfer from Ohio State, an Ohioan who couldn’t win the starting job at his dream school, and doesn’t that make his bonkers ascent — 44 touchdown passes this season alone — all the more delicious?

“When I envision myself, I envision myself on a stage like this,” Burrow said. “I don’t know if I envisioned myself in Louisiana at LSU, but [this] is what I’ve always dreamed of. It’s never been my dream to play in the NFL. I wanted to play in games like this — SEC, Big Ten championship games and national title games.”

Burrow will get his crack at the NFL, possibly as the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2020, and so will Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence. The latter quarterback shapes up to be a top pick — maybe No. 1 overall himself — in 2021.

Lawrence, whose No. 3 Tigers take on No. 23 Virginia in the ACC, is widely seen as the best prospect at the position to come around in a long time.

In the capper of the 2018 season, Lawrence was the best player on the field as the Tigers destroyed Alabama 44-16. He could be the Superman who makes this season’s playoff as big of a joke as last season’s was. The same could be said of the entire No. 3-ranked Tigers team, 12-0 this season and working on a second straight 15-0 campaign.

“That’s what keeps the game fun,” Lawrence said. “I guess being, as you would say, on top from what we did last year, up to this point this year, you get everyone’s best shot. There’s really no excuses.”

So take that into Saturday: For college football’s Big Three, there’s no room for excuses. The expectations take up too much space.

BIG 12: NO. 7 BAYLOR VS. NO. 6 OKLAHOMA

The facts: 11 a.m., Ch. 7, Arlington, Texas.

The records: Baylor 11-1, 8-1; Oklahoma 11-1, 8-1.

The storyline: The Bears got up 25 on the Sooners in the teams’ first meeting, but then the wheels came off in Waco, Texas. OU quarterback Jalen Hurts made play after improbable play, and when it was over the usual bullies in crimson were celebrating. This will feel like a play-in game, playoff-wise, if Utah has lost Friday night, though these teams still will want to see LSU beat Georgia.

The line: Sooners by 9.

Greenberg’s pick: Oklahoma, 38-28.

SUN BELT: LOUISIANA AT NO. 21 APPALACHIAN STATE

The facts: 11 a.m., ESPN, Boone, N.C.

The records: Louisiana 10-2, 7-1; ASU 11-1, 7-1.

The storyline: The teams met once this season, with ASU getting the job done 17-7 on the road. This time at home, should the Mountaineers have an even easier time of it? Maybe not. The Ragin’ Cajuns, led by coach Billy Napier — a candidate for the vacant Ole Miss job —have surged on both sides of the ball since that game.

The line: Mountaineers by 6.

Greenberg’s pick: ASU, 31-24.

MAC: MIAMI (OHIO) VS. CENTRAL MICHIGAN

The facts: 11 a.m., ESPN2, Detroit.

The records: Miami 7-5, 6-2; CMU 8-4, 6-2.

The storyline: The Chippewas were 1-11 last season and winless in league play. The hiring of a big-name coach — Jim McElwain — helped to flip all that in a major way. These teams haven’t met this season, but the Chips did play their butts off against the real Miami — the one down in Florida — in a 17-12 loss in September.

The line: Chippewas by 6½.

Greenberg’s pick: CMU, 27-17.

C-USA: UAB AT FLORIDA ATLANTIC

The facts: 12:30 p.m., CBSSN, Boca Raton, Fla.

The records: UAB 9-3, 6-2; FAU 9-3, 7-1.

The storyline: The visiting Blazers are hot defensively, a tough group that can make this one difficult for Lane Kiffin’s team. Did we mention that the Owls are coached by Lane Kiffin? No one is trying harder to move back into a big-time job than the Kiffster, who has a way of making a splash when all eyes are on him.

The line: Owls by 7½.

Greenberg’s pick: FAU, 34-17.

AMERICAN: NO. 20 CINCINNATI AT NO. 17 MEMPHIS

The facts: 2:30 p.m., Ch. 7, Memphis, Tenn.

The records: Cincinnati 10-2, 7-1; Memphis 11-1, 7-1.

The storyline: This again? These teams just faced each other the day after Thanksgiving, with Memphis — at home that day, too — winning 34-24. The Bearcats played the Tigers evenly, though, except for committing three turnovers. Tighten things up, and this is anyone’s game.

The line: Tigers by 9½.

Greenberg’s pick: Cincinnati, 34-31.

SEC: NO. 4 GEORGIA VS. NO. 2 LSU

The facts: 3 p.m., Ch. 2, Atlanta.

The records: Georgia 11-1, 7-1; LSU 12-0, 8-0.

The storyline: Offensive styles clash, with the Joe Burrow-led Tigers lighting up scoreboards and the Jake Fromm-led Bulldogs taking a much more deliberate route. That has as much to do with the Bulldogs’ weaker receiving core as anything else. Defensively, though, it’s advantage, Bulldogs. This one’s as good as it gets.

The line: Tigers by 7.

Greenberg’s pick: LSU, 30-24.

MOUNTAIN WEST: HAWAII AT NO. 19 BOISE STATE

The facts: 3 p.m., ESPN, Boise, Idaho.

The records: Hawaii 9-4, 5-3; BSU 11-1, 8-0.

The storyline: How about another 96 points like these teams put up in their earlier meeting, a 59-37 Broncos victory in Boise? This might be too big a challenge for the Rainbow Warriors considering BSU is still in play — as are Memphis, Cincinnati and Appalachian State — for the Cotton Bowl bid that’ll go to the top-ranked Group of Five conference champion.

The line: Broncos by 14.

Greenberg’s pick: BSU, 51-21.

ACC: NO. 23 VIRGINIA VS. NO. 3 CLEMSON

The facts: 6:30 p.m., Ch. 7, Charlotte, N.C.

The records: Virginia 9-3, 6-2; Clemson 12-0, 8-0.

The storyline: Here’s a cute little nugget for you — Clemson has won six straight games by at least 35 points, the longest streak in the Associated Press poll era (since 1936). With all due respect to coach Bronco Mendenhall, quarterback Bryce Perkins and the upstart Cavaliers, this isn’t about who wins. It’s about how gnarly the beating is.

The line: Tigers by 28½.

Greenberg’s pick: Clemson, 45-14.

BIG TEN: NO. 8 WISCONSIN VS. NO. 1 OHIO STATE

The facts: 7 p.m., Fox-32, Indianapolis.

The records: Wisconsin 10-2, 7-2; OSU 12-0, 9-0.

The storyline: They’ve already met once, and it didn’t go well for the Badgers. Both teams have played better since that 38-7 affair in Columbus. Can the Badgers block Chase Young and the Buckeyes in the passing game? Can the Badgers’ defenders run with the Buckeyes’ skill guys on offense? Same old questions.

The line: Buckeyes by 16½.

Greenberg’s pick: OSU, 38-20.

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”