Ohio State Football: TCU should have kept their series agreement

TCU could have played the Ohio State football more but they chose not to.

The Ohio State football team had a home and home series agreement with TCU. Typically, the agreements are carried out and the games are beneficial for both schools. On occasions, however, agreements are not kept for whatever reason and that is what happened with Ohio State and TCU.

Although the series agreement was canceled, the Buckeyes will still face the Horned Frogs. Ohio State’s biggest opponent in their first three games is TCU on the road but it won’t be at their university. Instead, the two teams will meet less than 25 minutes away at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

Now, breaking an agreement is never good no matter the field someone is in but it does happen. Sometimes in sports it is to get an even better opponent at the same time. The head-scratching thing about that is for TCU, Ohio State is an elite opponent and it would be crazy to not go through with the agreement. Yet, they did but why? According to Football Scoop’s Zach Barnett via TCU head coach Gary Patterson, it was because of business:

Patterson has been with TCU for 18 seasons and has been pretty successful during his tenure. He is in charge of the better Big 12 teams, which is great for him but they are not a top team. Therefore, every quality game they can get, TCU should sign up for but apparently facing Ohio State twice is bad business. Okay.

While that was the statement, it comes off that Patterson did not want to lose to Ohio State twice. What does TCU have to lose other than those games? They would have gotten paid millions to be in that series, although they still are getting quite the paycheck, for just the lone game now. Reasons to remain in agreement include getting paid a lot of money, going up against a quality opponent on national television, adding to their Big 12 program resume, and more. There is so much to like for them, just like Ohio State, who shares similar beneficial reasons.

Prior to Saturday’s game, ESPN’s College GameDay will be at TCU. Will the topic of this series not happening come up? It could but the network will probably lean towards focusing on other topics.

If TCU and/or Patterson was concerned about their chances, they should. It does not matter who the Buckeyes have on the field. Winning 900 games in its history does not just happen. Ohio State does not rebuild, they reload.

TCU is going to have its hands full going up against a dynamic running back duo in J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber, two very good quarterbacks in Dwayne Haskins and Tate Martell, and an explosive defense led by defensive end Joey Bosa. Not to mention the next great permanent head coach somewhere in Ryan Day.

TCU can air it out in their offense against most teams but Ohio State is certainly not most teams. As OSU’s most important game in September, there has been plenty of hype surrounding Saturday’s game. However, what has TCU shown to live up to it? Ohio State, on the other hand, has gone through a lot off the field and while on it has a new coach and new starting quarterback have exceled, while the team is playing near flawless football (outside of a few defensive miscues).

Business is business but it would have been nice to have had the TCU home and home series. Since that won’t happen, expect Ohio State to come out with the same focus and drive as they have been as they do what it takes to leave Texas with a lopsided win.