By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland.com) —
Ohio State and the bowls

• Rose Bowl: Ohio State, co-Big Ten champs with Penn State at 7-1, is out because the Nittany Lions win the head-to-head tiebreaker and the Big Ten’s automatic bid. If chaos ensues and numerous top teams win and Penn State somehow makes the national title game, then … well, that won’t happen.

• Capital One Bowl: This is fairly simple. If Oregon State wins out and takes the Pac-10 title, Ohio State almost certainly will be bumped out of an at-large BCS bid by USC. That would push the Buckeyes to the bowl for the second-place Big Ten team, in Orlando on Jan. 1 at 1 p.m.

• Other BCS bowls: If Oregon State loses and USC goes to the Rose Bowl, Ohio State is nearly assured of an at-large bid, in large part because there are so few other eligible candidates.

The order of selection, basically, is Fiesta, Sugar, then Orange this year, and the Fiesta, despite the Buckeyes playing in Arizona in 2003, 2004 and 2006, would be very interested in Ohio State. The opponent in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 5 at 8 p.m. would be a Big 12 team, either Texas, Oklahoma or Texas Tech.

However, regardless of selection order, there is room for the bowls to make a backroom deal. There’s a train of thought that the Orange, stuck with a mediocre ACC champ, would be very interested in the Buckeyes. That would be in Miami on Jan. 1 at 8:30 p.m.

• Decision time: Nothing will be known for sure until the final BCS standings and the bowl selections are announced on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 8 p.m.

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