The best thing that could happen now is for Florida (or Arkansas) and USC to win out, but Michigan stay #2 in the BCS and end up in a rematch. Best way to create BCS outrage and move closer to a playoff, to have the Pac 10 screwed again, and the SEC once again fall short.
I'm a big Michigan fan (2nd fav team after Texas), but the best team won today. Michigan won the turnover battle 3-0 yet still lost the game, and committed some stupid personal foul penalties, one of which was the play of the game. OSU had the better QB (how about Henne with at least 3 big play bad overthrows, 2 of which were certain touchdowns if the ball was on target) and the better set of receivers/TE's. I don't care if the game was at Columbus, Michigan has only themselves and their mistakes to blame (especially "Chris Webber" Crable.) No excuses, the best team won, and to rematch would simply screw OSU if they were to lose it. Might be different if they had played early in the season, but now it is time to see how OSU stacks up against an out of conference team.
And given how both defenses were shredded, it isn't automatic that these are the 2 best teams in the country. This game brought OSU back down to earth a bit, we now know that no team in college football this year has both an outstanding offense and an outstanding defense. No different than most years. Which just shows once again that this is all a complete joke without a playoff.
Michigan may indeed be the 2nd best team in the country, but they just had their chance, and came up short. Time for someone else to get a shot, especially since we really get too few nonconference matchups of top teams. How many times over the years has the underdog beat the annointed greats in bowl games? No guarantee that Michigan will win the Rose Bowl, even if it is Cal instead of USC. Many decades of history say that a Michigan win isn't a sure thing out there.
OTOH, if OSU and Michigan were to meet again at the end of an 8-team playoff, there would then be zero argument or room for speculation.
Screw the BCS, may it melt down once again.
I think Michigan and Ohio State appear to indeed be the best teams in the nation...but they just played, and you are exactly right. It IS difficult to see exactly how good they are due to lack of common opponents with many other teams.