Someone had to pay for the way the Ohio State players felt after losing last week, so it was probably fitting that last season's upset winner over OSU was in town Saturday at the Horseshoe. The Buckeyes demolished Purdue with six first half touchdowns to celebrate Ohio State's 89th Homecoming Game, shutting out the punchless Boilermakers 49-0. Six different players scored touchdowns for the Buckeyes, and the OSU defense didn't allow the Purdue offense to cross midfield until after halftime.

Asked after the game if the memory of losing to the Boilermakers last year made this game special for his players, or if the team was just angry about last week's loss, Jim Tressel admitted he didn't know for sure, but his theory was that "the most recent misery probably trumps past misery."  If that's the case, then schooling Purdue was just a bonus for the Buckeyes (7-1, 3-1).

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- Saturday, October 23, 2010

- Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio

- Purdue at Ohio State

- 12:00 p.m. (ET)

- TV: Big Ten Network -



Ohio State has a score to settle with the Purdue Boilermakers, but they'll be battling both the hangover of last week's loss to Wisconsin and a rash of injuries to their defensive personnel when the two teams meet Saturday on Homecoming weekend in Columbus. After upsetting Ohio State in West Lafayette last season, the Boilermakers will surely not be lacking for confidence, and the Buckeyes are coming into the game very thin at both safety and linebacker. The pressure in this game won't be as great as it was a week ago, but what pressure there is will all be on the guys in the scarlet jerseys.

A short month ago no one would have expected the Buckeyes (6-1, 1-1) to be looking up at Purdue (4-2, 2-0) in the Big Ten standings when their October meeting rolled around, but that's where they find themselves. The Boilermakers dropped non-conference games to Notre Dame and Toledo to go 2-2 before Big Ten play began, but have been a mild surprise so far in conference action. They ended Northwestern's unbeaten run at five games with a 20-17 upset win over the Wildcats two weeks ago, and then downed Minnesota last week 28-17, in a game that wasn't that close.

Second-year Purdue coach Danny Hope went 5-7 a year ago, but finished the season strong after a 1-5 start. Ohio State leads the all-time series between the schools 37-13-2, and the Buckeyes are 25-5-2 against the Boilermakers at Ohio Stadium.

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The BCeStimation is a weekly column that predicts which 10 teams will make it to the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Rose Bowl and National Championship game. 

A quick prelude to this week's BCeStimation:

I was in Columbus for the Nationwide Better Health Marathon this past weekend and spent the majority of Saturday at the running convention, our hotel room (that didn't have ESPN, are you kidding me?) eating ungodly amounts of pasta, etc... In short, I wasn't able to watch as much college football as I usually do, so this week's article might not be as detailed as past articles. I'll get back into the full swing of things next week, and hopefully the Buckeyes will follow suit.

Now, it's starting to look like the Big Ten has four legitimate BCS caliber teams, and it's very hard to choose which two will get the nod. I try to take off the Scarlet glasses for this article. I also hate Wisconsin. These are just random thoughts. Let's stop and get to the picks before I get carried away.

Orange Bowl: Florida State vs. West Virginia

Same matchup as last week because both teams held serve.

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Author John Feinstein has a book about golf called A Good Walk Spoiled. I thought about that title on the 500 mile drive back from Madison on Sunday after a football game spoiled for me an otherwise spectacular weekend of college football in Wisconsin. If you're up for some bad digital photography and some travelogue about game day (and GameDay) in Madison for Ohio State-Wisconsin, carry on. (If revisiting that day is just not where you want to be, consider sleeping on it for a couple more days and coming back.)

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