Difficult Ohio State season becomes an unbeaten one

• The Buckeyes are ineligible for a bowl game due to NCAA sanctions
• The attendance of 105,899 was the largest for an Ohio State-Michigan game
• Drew Basil kicked four field goals and Carlos Hyde ran for 146 for Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio – They have done everything they could, and now there is nothing left for them to do. It is up to history to judge the 2012 Ohio State Buckeyes. Also, the Associated Press poll voters.

They are unbeaten forever. Unbowed forever. Unblemished forever.

They are also a symbol. And a dilemma.

"We can play with anybody in America,'' Urban Meyer was saying late Saturday afternoon. "As of today."

A nice, warm feeling for a coach and his team to have. But that'll probably have to be good enough.

The sanctions from the memorabilia-for-tattoos scandal really kick in now. No BCS championship awaits. No Big Ten title game. No bowls, Rose or othewise. The Buckeyes will watch as others go on. Saturday was goodbye, and if that must be said by an Ohio State football team in November, the best way to ease the pain is to beat Michigan 26-21.

"At least,'' linebacker Ryan Shazier said, "that made it better.''

And that'll have to be good enough.

"You always want more. You've come this far,'' linebacker Zach Boren said. "It's kind of hard to swallow. It's bittersweet. At one point, it sucks. But in another way, we did everything we could. We won every game, and that's hard to do."

"When it finally hits us, it's going to hurt that we can't be a part of it,'' tailback Carlos Hyde said. "We're going to be at home, knowing that we could have been there.''

These Buckeyes are a symbol for the basic injustice of punishment by the NCAA, which aims straight and true, but almost always at the wrong target. As far as we know, none of the current players have ill-gotten tattoos. As far as we know, Urban Meyer has never covered up any malfeasance. Others did the deeds, and yet this 12-0 team is the paying for them.

"We've been playing this game all our life,'' Shazier said. "For us to get robbed the way we did; nobody that did anything wrong is here anymore.''

There was an interesting scene here after the first quarter Saturday. The 2002 Ohio State national champions were introduced and carried their coach, Jim Tressel, off the field on their shoulders, a poignant show of loyalty and respect. But the irony was impossible to miss. Those unbeaten Buckeyes were celebrating an undisputed championship that these unbeaten Buckeyes will not be allowed to pursue -- because of what happened on Tressel's watch.

This Ohio State team is also now a dilemma for the AP poll. If Notre Dame loses, leaving the Buckeyes the lone unbeaten, does No. 4 Ohio State get voted up to No. 1, and a share of the national championship?

That would be wrong. No team should win a championship by sitting out the bowls, while everyone else plays. The Buckeyes deserve sympathy, but not that much.

But that was not the thought to be selling around here Saturday evening. The Buckeyes see a different scenario.

"If the AP feels generous enough, and I think they should,'' wide receiver Jake Stoneburner said. "That's reality – if Notre Dame loses, we're the lone man standing.''

Meyer was asked straight out: If Ohio State is the lone beaten, should the Buckeyes be No. 1?

He paused. He pondered. He paused some more.

"Just trying to picture the headline here,'' he finally said.

"I don't know enough to ... the quote I'd like out there is I think this team could play and compete with any team in the United States of America as of now. I didn't say that several weeks ago, because we couldn't.

"I understand (the question) but I'm not going to get into the what-ifs. You can't control what you can't control ... we're 12-0. I'm going to see to it that when you walk into that Wood Hayes facility, this team will never be forgotten, because they deserve that.''

So they were happy with what they could be happy about, on this final day of Ohio State's season.

The crowd poured onto the field afterward, fathers taking pictures of young sons that will soon dot walls throughout Ohio. Shelley Meyer standing by the ramp slapping hands of the players.

Later, her husband explained that the growth of defense and special teams is why he now considers the Buckeyes among the elite and had the numbers to prove it. Ohio State shut down the Wolverines to 60 yards, 21 plays, four first downs and no points in the second half. Michigan's Denard Robinson rushed for 124 yards the first half, and minus-2 the second.

"It's not just some coach up here opening his big mouth,'' Meyer said. "It's statistically analyzed for you.''

He also said the theme this week had been to go to where the "air is rare,'' and only unbeaten teams live.

"Once you're in there, it smells different, it tastes and looks different,'' he said. "I'm hoping the guys get that taste and they want to do it again. Because once you taste that, it tastes really good.''

Hyde understood. "Next year, we're going to come out hungry and try to get to where we were supposed to get this year.''

Hyde would probably not be watching the Big Ten championship between Wisconsin and Nebraska, "because it'll feel like we should be there.''

Stoneburner said he would have no rooting interest in the bowls. "Just for Notre Dame to lose.''

Meyer said he could only think of much he admired his seniors, and what they did for his first Ohio State team, pushing the Buckeyes from 6-7 last season to 12-0, through the shadows of probation. "The most selfless group I've ever been around,'' he said. "Maybe we'll get 19 bronze statues somewhere.''

Boren said he is wary of the coming days, when there are no games left to play.

"In the next couple of weeks, it will hit home for good then. In a perfect world, we'd be playing in the Big Ten championship game. We did what we could. The NCAA isn't going to give us anymore games.''

The perfect season, fair or not, was over.