After just one weekend of college football my Ohio State nightmares have begun. I don't believe that the BCS has yet figured out a way to factor in the perennial weakness of the the Big Ten.

That once-mighty conference opened up in typical fashion, beating up the creampuffs and losing against all legitimate challengers. The Big Ten went 7-3 over the opening weekend, led by Ohio State's 43-0 romp over Youngstown State. The other wins came against Coastal Carolina, Akron, Northern Illinois, Maine, Western Kentucky and, in the only victory over a major, Big East doormat Syracuse. The conference went 0-3 against quality football teams with Illinois losing to Missouri, Michigan State losing to Cal and, for the second season in a row, Michigan busting in its home opener--a 25-23 loss to Utah out of the mighty Mountain West.

Compare the Big Ten to the SEC, the conference--with LSU this past January and Florida the previous season--that has embarrassed Ohio State in the last two BCS Championship games. Not only did Florida stomp Hawaii, a BCS bowler last season, and LSU make mincemeat out of Appalachian State, last year's champion of what used to be called 1-AA and the team that stunned Michigan in the 2007 opener, but three modestly regarded SEC squads beat up on other conferences: Alabama stomped ACC pre-season favorite Clemson 34-10; South Carolina, in Steve Spurrier's fourth season, rolled over ACC neighbor N.C. State 34-0; and Kentucky whipped recent Big East power Louisville 27-2. Pretty impressive opening for the SEC--and that's without even mentioning two pre-season Top10ers, Georgia and Auburn, or Tennessee, which lost to UCLA in overtime.

It is difficult to imagine any SEC team navigating its conference schedule unbeaten and even a single-loss conference season would be an impressive feat. On the other hand, it's all too easy to imagine Ohio State going unbeaten in the diminished Big Ten, especially now that Michigan no longer represents a daunting challenge in the season finale. So Ohio State could lose at USC in the season's third week (between those other out-of-conference testers against Ohio U. and Troy) and still wind up back in the BCS Championship with just one loss, as other, stronger conferences like the SEC and the Pac-10 devour their own.

That could assure a third consecutive season in which the BCS Championship proves to be a dud--a game in which an overhyped and undermanned Ohio State squad disappoints against a speedier, more highly skilled opponent that is also far more battle-tested. I can't handle four months of nightmares. Isn't there any way to spare us another BCS Buckeyes debacle?