DALLAS --Outside the media headquarters hotel here , a sign touting the Cotton Bowl uses the Twitter hash tag to declare #DallasBigMoments.
They wish.
The media contingent itself is thin.
No streets are filled with strolling crowds shouting "O-H! I-O!" or Southern California band members playing "Fight On," a tune out of Rise Bowls past, one as much a part of the turning of the year as Auld Lang Syne.
How much the four-team College Football Playoff has reduced in importance all other bowl games, even the Yellow Rose Bowl here between two traditional powers and two of the five major conference champions, is shown by the lack of buzz, hum, or whistling, much less of shrieking, whooping, woofing, and national Tweeting about the Cotton Bowl game.
College football fans of a certain age, which means anyone but millennials, should enjoy the game because of:
- Iconic coaches, for USC John McKay, John Robinson, Pete Carroll; for Ohio State, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer.
- Great running backs, for USC Frank Gifford, Jon Arnett, Mike Garrett, Anthony Davis, O.J. Simpson, Ricky Bell, Reggie Bush; for Ohio State, Hopalong Cassady, Archie Griffin, Keith Byars, Robert Smith, Eddie George, Maurice Clarett, Zeke Elliott.
- Buzzwords, for USC Student Body Right or Left; for Ohio State, 3 yards and a cloud of dust and the UrbanSpeak dictionary of motivational slogans, which are too numerous to list and explain.
This is an infrequently played rivalry, but one as lopsided as Michigan over Ohio State in the 1990s and Ohio State over Michigan in this century. USC has seven straight victories over the Buckeyes.
USC denied OSU the 1979 national championship with former Cleveland Brown Charles White running that Student Body Directional play.
John Cooper went all Roberto Duran, no mas-ing the last minutes of a lightning-plagued home game in 1990 with the Buckeyes down by nine points, although the Buffalo Bills, down by two possessions, won in unfavorable conditions because of late turnovers the very next day.
USC's freshman wonder quarterback of the era, Matt Barkley, out-dueled Ohio State's super sophomore of scandals to come, Terrelle Pryor, in 2009, again in Columbus.
That game has some resonance to Friday's meeting between the teams in USC's Matt Darnold, a possible No. 1 NFL draft pick by the Browns should he renounce his remaining two seasons of college eligibility, and Ohio State's J.T. Barrett, a great college quarterback, tarred by the persistence of inconsistency.
It's also homecoming for Ohio State's Barrett, from Wichita Falls, Texas, running back J.K. Dobbins (LaGrange, Texas) and the Trojans' Ronald Jones II (the Dallas suburb of McKinney.)
It should be an enjoyable game for fans of shootout football. The Trojans have given up far more big plays than the Buckeyes.
Unless Darnold can channel big plays on demand, which created the "It" factor for him in Heisman Trophy talk after last year's Rose Bowl rally against Penn State, Ohio State will win.
Despite the sign, it's not a particularly "BIG" moment for Dallas, but since BIG is the Big Ten's logo, I make it a bigger OSU moment. Buckeyes to win, 42-31.