With the offseason here it's time for the fun offseason topics and discussions to begin.  And one thought I've been having since the Alabama game is that it seems like the "wrong" OSU teams continue to advance further than the right ones.

2012 v 2013 - Now I'm not saying 2012 was better than 2013 but the 2012 team would have played a significantly weaker Nebraska team in the BIG championship than the MSU team 2013 ended up playing not to mention that the Notre Dame team they would have faced in the title game would have been a much easier win than Jameis's FSU team they would have played if they had beaten Sparty.

Now this is the one on the list that is a little different than the others as the 2012 team was not eligible for postseason play but if they had been I think it's more than likely they would have been holding the crystal ball at the end of the year.

2014 v 2015 - Now this one may sound weird at first but hear me out.  I loved the 2014 season just as much as anyone and maybe the way it played out, amplified by the 3 game run, was the most fun way a season could play out.  But I think most people would agree that 2015 was the better team and that they just lacked the motivation/focus at many points during the season.  Instead if the team before hadn't won it all and instead had come just short, that 2015 team, with all that motivation, might have beaten everybody by 40 and probably would have been talked about the same way people have talked about this year's Alabama team and last year's Burrow led Tigers.  Who knows what a dominate team like that could have done for OSU's reputation.  Nevertheless, we got our title in 2014 and that is plenty for me this one may be the smallest difference of my examples but its just fun to think about what could have been in '15.

2016 v 2017 - I think for me this is the biggest one for me.  The 2016 team made the CFP primarily driven off of the win at Oklahoma only to get demolished by Clemson.  That offense led by Warriner was not very impressive.  Day and Wilson then come in and completely turn around the offense but not quick enough to get a second straight win over the Sooners.  In hindsight I think we would all (at least I know I would have) traded the win in Norman in '16 for one back in the Shoe the year later.  Especially when you look at how weak that Clemson team was there's no doubt IMO that a 4 seed Buckeye team that year could have beat them and then against Georgia in the title game who knows but their strength was their running game and that was the Bullets strength that year.  The only thing 2016 had over 2017 was the better defense with the secondary but as we've seen a good O is more important in today's college game than a good D.

2019 v 2020 - Again similar to before I don't want it to sound like I am complaining about Buckeye success.  The win over Dabo as an 11 seed was one of best Jan 1's I've had in a while along side 2015.  That said however I think its inarguable that last year's team was better.  Maybe the gap is larger due to covid and lack of practice time but there's just no replacing 2 top 3 picks and one of the best backs in school history.  Given that we should have won that Fiesta bowl I would have loved to have seen us go up against Burrow and LSU.  I think we would have faired better than they did at a minimum and I think would have had a serious chance of winning the game.  Also given that it would have been due to a win over Clemson I don't think this year's win would have felt as good.  Maybe some of you like the win over Clemson coming this way better that's fine just personal taste.  But I would have loved to have seen us win last year instead. (obviously both would be better but you get my point)

What do you guys think? Am I onto something or is this all just the ramblings of a crazy man