One day before Purdue tried to capture its first national championship in men's basketball, I kept thinking how amusing it was that the only two men's teams to ever lose to a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament eventually made it to the national title game a year later (result pending for the Boilermakers, of course).

That led me down another train of thought altogether, as I polled some other 11W staff members of what their college football equivalent would be of losing to a No. 16 seed. Everyone was pretty much in agreement it was essentially Michigan losing to Appalachian State in 2007.

So with Purdue on the verge of completing a redemption arc after the team suffered one of the worst losses in college basketball history a year ago, I pose this question from an Ohio State perspective. 

Would you accept the Buckeyes losing their season opener to Akron, who mind you went 2-10 last year, if it guaranteed they'd be in the national title game a year later (2025 season with the championship in 2026), with the result of that championship bout being a coin flip either way. 

Personally, it's a pretty tough question to answer. The 2024 Buckeyes have legit national title aspirations and have either the best or second-best roster in the entire sport. The jokes that would come from other fanbases after that loss would be relentless and have no end in sight. Fans would demand Chip Kelly take over as interim coach on the spot. 

But flags fly forever, and the damage done from that embarrassing setback would be essentially repaired with the guarantee of getting to a national championship game a year later with the potential of winning the team's first title since 2014. 

So, very reluctantly, I'd probably take the trade. Easy to make a case either way though IMO.