Worthy BCS foes to settle the score

It is finally No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Florida tonight for the Bowl Championship Series national title in the game everyone outside of Michigan and Boise, Idaho, can’t wait to see.

It is finally time these schools met, at University of Phoenix Stadium, in the concluding act of an exciting season that ended with, among other bizarre things, Nick Saban going to Alabama.

It seems like a year ago this game was concocted in a caldron of controversy, and it actually has been 51 days since Ohio State played its last game.

Not that Buckeyes Coach Jim Tressel has been lounging around in his sweater-vest robe.

“We have been working pretty hard since the day the season was over,” Tressel said last week. “You try to practice as fast as you can. That’s all we were allowed to do. We weren’t allowed to go out and have a scrimmage with another team.”

The passage of time, though, has cast the title game in a more tolerable light.

The rancor that enveloped this BCS computer-date matchup Dec. 3 -- after Florida Coach Urban Meyer politicked for his Gators, and Tressel refused to cast his final vote in the coaches’ poll, and Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr called that “real slick” -- has somewhat subsided.

Boise State finished 13-0 and some think, despite its schedule strength ranking of 100, it is being deprived of something.

But Michigan not playing in a rematch against Ohio State does not seem quite a federal crime now that the Wolverines were pureed by USC in the Rose Bowl.

Maybe Ohio State vs. Florida is a reasonable expectation for a title game and not a reason for an insurrection.

Maybe the decimal-point pushers who maneuvered Florida to No. 2 and Michigan to No. 3 stumbled toward something equitable.

Anyway, if you believe the oddsmakers and talk on the street in the nearby town of Buckeye, it wasn’t going to matter who the opponent was going to be tonight.

Ohio State is going to win, win big, and then it’s going to be up to authorities in Columbus to keep the peace.

Ohio State was No. 1 in August, never let go, and appears on a Ted Ginn Jr. fast track to go wire to wire to the national title, joining in recent history: USC in 2004 and Florida State in 1999.

Tonight’s game, though, has the same kind of vibe as the last time they played the national title here in January 2003.

No. 2 didn’t have a chance in that one either, and No. 1 was being christened beforehand as one of the juggernauts of this era.

No. 1 that season had won 34 consecutive games.

But an upstart team that night -- Ohio State -- had other ideas and shocked Miami in a double-overtime thriller.

That precedent alone gives Florida a chance.

So what is tonight about?

It’s about Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, a fifth-year senior, putting the exclamation point on his turnabout career and going out with a national title after winning the Heisman Trophy. He can do it the way Charlie Ward did it at Florida State in 1993, and Chris Weinke did at the same school in 1999, and Matt Leinart did at USC in 2004.

Although Smith is 25-2 as a starter, it’s being 26-2 as a finisher that counts.

“I don’t determine my legacy,” Smith said this week, “the only thing I control is what I do on the field.”

The game is also about overriding preconceived notions and foregone conclusions, like the one that concludes Ohio State will win in runaway fashion.

Look at the numbers? Florida’s chug-a-long offense, averaging only 28.85 points a game, is going against an Ohio State defense that gives up only 10.42.

How do you sell that soap?

How is Florida going to score? Is back-up quarterback Tim Tebow going to win it on a drop-kick?

“We haven’t won in the right fashion, I guess, or we didn’t have pretty wins or whatever it was,” Florida cornerback Ryan Smith said. “We have been kind of behind the scenes all year. This is nothing new to us.”

The cat-and-mouse baiting went on all week.

What does Florida fear more, Smith’s arm or his legs?

“We are not afraid of Troy Smith at all,” linebacker Brandon Siler countered. “That’s not what this is. He is a great player. He has a great arm and he can run the ball. Those are definitely strengths. Don’t get it confused. We are not afraid at all.”

And Smith’s response?

“I wouldn’t want to play a group of guys that would have fear,” Smith said.

This game is also about two coaches from Ohio, Tressel from Mentor and Meyer from Ashtabula.

Both grew up worshiping Ohio State football, both were assistants under former Buckeyes coach Earle Bruce.

In only his sixth year, Tressel seeks his second national title at Ohio State -- two more than Bruce won.

With victory, Tressel would saddle up next to USC Coach Pete Carroll as the second dominant coach of the young century.

“I grew up in Ohio,” Tressel said. “I coached in Ohio. Of course it would be more of a dream than some other place miles and miles away.”

Meyer is in that place miles away, in Gainesville. His allegiance is with the Gators, although he used to carry a buckeye in his pocket for good luck.

After graduating from Cincinnati, Meyer earned his master’s degree in sports administration at Ohio State in 1988.

To prepare his team for the opponent, Meyer likes to pump in crowd noise over the loudspeakers at practice. This week’s noise included that Buckeyes staple and sing-along romp, “Hang On Sloopy.”

“I turned around and said ‘Can you imagine that?’ ” Meyer said this week. “That’s when it really started to sink in.”

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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HOW THEY COMPARE

*--* OSU CATEGORY FLA 36.3 Scoring 28.9 10.4 Points given up 13.5 229.7 Passing offense 237.8 180.1 Rushing offense 160.3 409.8 Total offense 398.1 179.5 Passing defense 194.3 93.5 Rushing defense 74.5 273.0 Total defense 268.7

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