Ohio State football: 5 reasons the Buckeyes will beat Oklahoma

5. The Sooners struggle against out of conference opponents.

The Big 12 is something of an illusion in college sports. The conference is always chock full of high expectations in every coming season and yet they manage to fall short more often than not.

In fact, this past weekend was a solid indicator in terms of the current status of the Big 12. West Virginia, Baylor, and Texas have already taken a loss. West Virginia and Texas were slated to be top competitors in the conference.

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Texas gave up 51 points to Maryland and West Virginia let up 31 points to Virginia Tech.

This illusion is likely derived from teams that are exciting to watch due to the high scoring games and talented players to show for it. However, this has proven to be smoke and mirrors. Teams in the Big 12 can get away with playing incompetent defense until the real games begin.

The Sooners represent a good example of that. Last season, the third ranked Sooners lost to fifteenth ranked Houston. Of course, this was followed by the Buckeyes putting up 45 points on them. The Sooners have lost by 20 or more points in bowl games in two of their last three seasons.

The Buckeyes present a unique challenge for the Sooners that they rarely get to play against. In a game where the Sooners will be tested on both sides of the ball, it’s hard to imagine that the one dimensional team comes out on top. The Bucks’ defense will be their strong point as the Sooners struggle to put up points whilst allowing the Bucks to score easily on the other end.