"If we play in and win another NC" is a pretty damn big assumption.
Thinking this as well. Scary I thought the same thing as you and Numby.
Is 2010 in this decade or the next? I know it 'really' is in this one...but don't people usually say like the 90s or 80s or 70s. So I think you'd look at it more like 2000-2009. It's all so confusing though. But we should probably wait for the decade to end until we grade out the decade...although I like the way it is going so far.
I'd love to win another NC that soon, but I think many Buckeye fans fail to realize how DAMN DIFFICULT it is to win one. Coop and Earl couldn't do it, and they had some damn good teams. You have to have everything fall in place, have a little luck, and then you still need a little bit more. To even play in two NC games in a row is so rare that it may not happen for us again ever. Bummer that we lost both of them, but it still is a great acomplishment. I just find it funny that winning another championship seems like it was typed so easily. One thing Ohio State has done in the past 4 years that no other program has done, is not lose to teams they have ZERO business losing to. We lost to PSU, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Florida, USC and PSU since late 2004. The only team on that list that was even CLOSE to suspect the year they best us was Illinois...and they were still good enough for a BCS at-large birth. That's the worst team we've lost to in over 4 years of football. Can ANY other program in the country say that? Really...I can't think of any football program that can.
I think we forget how hard it is, not just to win the huge games, but also to win week in and week out when you aren't playing an elite team. Man, 2002 was awesome...everything just fell into place.
When compared to other teams around the country, Tressel coached teams play flat a lot less often than most. He is able to do as good as I think a coach can in getting kids prepared and up for EVERY game. That's tough to do. That is why we are always close to a NCG. Don't forget that in 2003 and 2005 and maybe even 2008 as well (we'd at least still be in the mix) we were one play away each season from likely being in the NCG. So maybe we will be in another NCG soon, because of what Tressel coached teams do.
But it is not easy at all to do, no matter how easy our Buckeyes or Jim Tressel make it look. Tressel coached Buckeye teams do so well, that I think it makes the expectations even higher. But if it were so easy, lots of programs around the country would be having this same success. But they aren't. So I hope if and when Tressel leads us to another NCG, we don't just look at it as another notch in the belt, and realize how lucky we are to have him and have such a great football program, that is making all of this success look so easy. All you have to do is look 150 miles North and you can see how it really isn't all that easy. Losing to Toledo???
I was thinking the same thing. 
