Could Ohio State Beat the Cleveland Browns? (No. Obviously.)

Every year, college and professional fans debate whether Really Good College Team X could beat Really Bad Professional Team Y. Could Alabama beat the Jaguars? Could Kentucky beat the 76ers?

The answer, of course, is always no. College teams are never better than professional teams. Even the most legitimate of all the debates—2014-15 Kentucky, one of the best teams in college basketball history, vs. the 2014-15 76ers, the worst team in NBA history—wasn't even close, as evidenced by my investigative NBA 2K journalism.

This year, the question is whether the Ohio State Buckeyes could beat the Cleveland Browns. The answer, again, is no. But Ohioans seem to think otherwise.

62 percent of Ohioans polled by PPP believe Ohio State would beat the Cleveland Browns. https://t.co/4JRxQq5vDi pic.twitter.com/Bq86bVmw9i
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) October 6, 2016

Some of these answers, just like the question, are surely tongue-in-cheek, but there are also definitely people who think the Buckeyes could beat the Browns, because the Browns look like crap every week, while OSU is putting up point totals in the 70s.

Unlike basketball, in which the best ever college team's ceiling is probably higher than the worst ever NBA team's floor, a college football team could never, ever beat a NFL team. The game is too physical, and there are too many professional players involved for the college players to keep up.

Don't believe me? Let's take this unit by unit.

Quarterback

The Browns have a very rich history of terrible quarterback play, but even the most committed Ohio State fans would have had to admit that Robert Griffin III beats OSU quarterback J.T. Barrett. RG3 went down with an injury in Week 1, however, forcing Cleveland to start rookie Cody Kessler and giving some fans fuel to argue that the Buckeyes have the better QB.

But even though Kessler is just a year out of college, he has spent half a year training against NFL defenses with the kind of speed Barrett has never encountered, not even against SEC teams. And if Buckeyes fans still aren't convinced Kessler is better than Barrett, then perhaps the Browns can switch wide receiver Terrelle Pryor back to quarterback. Remember Pryor? He might be the best quarterback in Ohio State history, and he's not even playing the position in the NFL.

Advantage: Browns

Running Back

Ohio State's Mike Weber is going to be an outstanding NFL running back someday, but right now he's just a redshirt freshman. He's averaging 7.28 yards per carry in four college games. On the other hand, the Browns' Isaiah Crowell is averaging 6.5 yards per carry against NFL defenses. Not to mention how much stronger Crowell's offensive line is than Weber's.

Advantage: Browns

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Curtis Samuel, Noah Brown, and Dontre Wilson are solid receivers, but would they be able to get open easily against an NFL secondary? Heck, Samuel is OSU's leading receiver and is technically an H-back. The Browns would have easily won this matchup if Corey Coleman, their rookie wide receiver, hadn't gotten hurt, but even with just Pryor and Andrew Hawkins as their first-team receivers, the Browns have a much better chance of getting open.

Advantage: Browns

Offensive Line

This is where the physicality gap would really show up. Forget talent—the Browns would be vastly superior to Ohio State in the trenches because their players are just so much stronger. The Buckeyes might have the best line in the Big Ten, but the Browns have one of the best linemen in Big Ten history in Joe Thomas. The O-line would make the Browns' skill position players look even better.

Advantage: Browns

Defensive Line

Carl Nassib was the best defensive lineman in the Big Ten last season, and he's gotten even better in the NFL. He's now listed as a starter for the Browns. He and the rest of the Browns' front seven are simply faster and stronger than anything the Buckeyes' offensive line has seen in college.

Advantage: Browns

Linebacker

This is the one spot where maybe, just maybe, Ohio State might have a chance. The Buckeyes' linebackers are dominant, led by Raekwon McMillan, who will probably be lighting up the NFL next year. But the Browns have Joe Schobert, the best linebacker in the Big Ten last year, and rookie star and second round pick Emmanuel Ogbah, who have both had NFL training. So, again…

Advantage: Browns

Secondary

Joe Haden is a mainstay at cornerback and would be by far the best player on the field. And while the Browns' secondary doesn't have many recognizable names, it hasn't been that bad this season, ranking 21st in the NFL. Is Ohio State's secondary really near the top two-thirds of the NFL? There's no chance.

Advantage: Browns

No matter how you look at it, the Browns just have more NFL-ready players than Ohio State does, because, well, the Browns play in the NFL. The Buckeyes have talent, and they have a player or two who could probably instantly earn starting spots with Cleveland, but Cleveland has an entire first team of players who have earned a starting spot. This is why no single Ohio State unit is better than any single Browns unit.

Think about it this way: The Browns play the New England Patriots this weekend and will probably lose. But is there a chance Cleveland could win? Sure. Terrible Browns teams have beaten good Patriots teams before. But obviously, no Ohio State fan thinks the Buckeyes could beat the Patriots. The gap between the Patriots and the Browns is far smaller than the gap between the Browns and the Buckeyes because the talent pool for the 32 NFL teams is the very best of players from, for argument's sake, the 128 FBS schools across the country.

Ohio State is a great college team and Cleveland is a terrible NFL team. But just like nobody suggests the best high school team in the country could beat Purdue, Ohio State wouldn't stand a chance against the Browns.