Tressel outshines Carroll in college football's location nation

This story is going to do things you didn't think possible. It will compliment Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel in a way that insults the OSU football program. It will compliment Southern California in a way that insults USC coach Pete Carroll.

How is that possible? It just is. Trust me. I know how this story ends.

And I know how it begins, too.

Jim Tressel's teams have routinely beaten the teams they should beat. (Getty Images)

It begins with a football game on Sept. 28, 2003. It begins on that day with this score: California 34, USC 31.

Cal was unranked. The Trojans were No. 3. That was the first of six losses to unranked Pac-10 teams the Trojans have suffered under Carroll, a trend that continued Saturday when No. 3 USC lost to Washington. Given how good USC has been under Carroll, that's a staggering number of losses to unranked teams.

Still, Carroll usually gets a pass from critics. He's a great coach. Almost everyone says so.

Meanwhile, at Ohio State, Tressel gets no such free pass. His teams mangle the teams they're supposed to mangle, but the Buckeyes have lost six consecutive games to opponents ranked in the top five, and the country laughs while the locals cry. Just last week, after Tressel's Buckeyes lost to Carroll's top five Trojans, OSU fans dumped their misery into Tressel's e-mail account, causing Tressel to mock them as being "already miserable ... there's no way they're happy."

Tressel is mostly ripped while Carroll is mostly left alone, which means something has been lost along the way: Common sense. Perspective. An understanding of what those two programs are, and just as important, where they are. Use some common sense on the matter, have some perspective, and you'll see the obvious:

Jim Tressel is a better coach than Pete Carroll.

I know what the numbers say. Carroll has won 84.9 percent of his games compared to 81 percent for Tressel. Carroll has won two national titles to one for Tressel. And just nine days ago, Carroll beat Tressel head-to-head. In Columbus, no less.

The numbers say Carroll is better than Tressel, but numbers lie. Numbers say Tim Tebow is the best college quarterback of all time, and that's a lie of Nixonian or Clintonian proportions.

When it comes to Tressel and Carroll, this is the absolute truth:

At a football goldmine like USC, Carroll is supposed to win 84.9 percent of his games. He's supposed to win two national titles in eight or nine years. And he's supposed to beat Tressel head-to-head. Why? Three reasons: Location, location, location.

Look at the consistently dominant programs -- the national champions, the near-champions -- in today's college football: Florida. Southern Cal. Texas. Oklahoma. LSU.

And Ohio State.

What school doesn't belong in that group, from a geography standpoint?

Ohio State.

The Buckeyes have no business beating USC or LSU or Florida, and so bless their heart, they don't. They get smoked when they play a top five team, one usually from the Deep South or from Southern California, because they aren't just playing against USC or LSU or Florida.

They're playing against a stacked deck.

Kids don't want to play for Ohio State because kids don't want to freeze their ass off. You'll find exceptions to that statement, obviously, but save it. Don't give me a recruiting list that shows how a handful of top recruits every year pick Penn State or Notre Dame or, yes, Ohio State. Don't bother. Those are the exceptions, not the rule. Most great players pick a college where it's warm, in part because they live where it's warm. The best players come from Florida, California and Texas. And where are the best college programs located? Florida, California and Texas (and Oklahoma). What a coincidence.

That stuff is obvious, but don't tell me it's obvious. Tell yourself. You're the one who insists Pete Carroll is a better coach than Jim Tressel because he wins more than Jim Tressel -- even as you conveniently forget that Carroll should win more than Tressel.

Yet Carroll doesn't win the games he should. Not every time. About once a year his team loses a game it has no business losing. Carroll got the choke shock out of the way early this season against Washington, but I'm disagreeing with Dennis Dodd on one thing: He suggests Carroll's dynasty is teetering. Not me. As long as he's there, Carroll will win 84.9 percent of his games and the occasional national title. He's the perfect fit for USC because he knows how to attract future NFL talent. Does he know how to coach it, how to maximize it? No. He does not.

Tressel coaches. Tressel maximizes. His teams don't choke or get shocked. Do they lose to the best opponents on the biggest stages? Yeah. They do. All things being equal, the more talented team wins, and Ohio State hasn't been more talented than LSU or Florida or USC or Texas. And Ohio State should never be more talented than LSU or Florida or USC or Texas.

But Tressel does get the most out of his teams. I'm sure of that. Carroll? I'm not so sure about him. The only thing I'm sure of, when it comes to Carroll, is this: He signs guys like Leinart and Bush and White and Sanchez and stud after stud after stud, but it's wrong to say Carroll signs great talent and then just rolls the ball onto the field and lets them play.

Because if he just rolled the ball onto the field and let them play, the Trojans would have beaten Washington.