Joey Johnston

On college football’s biggest stage — the BCS Championship Game — the No. 1-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and No. 2 Florida Gators won’t be motivated by subplots. After all, a national title is at stake.

But if Monday's game was held at a schoolyard instead of a retractable-roof mega-stadium in Glendale, Ariz., the players might be interested in a subliminal competition.

Who’s No. 1? Yeah, that’s big.

Who’s faster? Yeah, that’s pretty interesting, too.

“Speed is speed, but it’s tough to say which team is more overall fast,” Ohio State center Doug Datish said. “We’d probably have to go out before the game on the track and run some 40s against each other. They can run. We can run, too.”

And nobody does it better — nobody blurs the lines between game-breaker and thisfast — than Ohio State junior receiver Ted Ginn Jr., and Florida freshman receiver Percy Harvin.

Actually, we call them receivers only because we have to call them something. In truth, the proper descriptive term has yet to be invented.

They catch passes. They run reverses. They return kicks. They take direct snaps. They are everywhere, all at once, and they get to the next place in double-time.

Ginn once ran the 40-yard dash in 4.28.

Harvin covered the same distance in 4.31, a hiccup behind.

It’s the ultimate matchup of perhaps the biggest bowl-season rivalry — the Big Ten vs. the SEC — which traditionally has been categorized as the Midwest’s big brutes against the South’s speed-burners.

Not this time.

Florida is fast, yes.

But so is Ohio State.

BCS Championship game Starters for Florida, Ohio State

“For years, the feeling about the Big Ten nationally was slow, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust,” Gators coach Urban Meyer said. “That’s just not true. Certainly it’s not with the Big Ten’s upper-echelon teams. They’ve expanded their recruiting to get speed.”

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was startled while viewing the Gators on film, and not just because of a fleet of skill-position players who can score from anywhere on the field. He sees Florida defenders who eliminate potential touchdowns and close gaps in a heartbeat.

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“What is it, force equals mass times acceleration?” Tressel said. “They can accelerate. They’ve got good-sized guys. I’ve seen a lot of splattering going on in that film.”

It’s not an accident.

The Gators and Buckeyes have a handful of players who won state prep championships in track and field. Those players are put in advantageous positions, sure. But mostly, they can run away from defenders — or turn impossible angles into sure tackles.

“You can teach speed a little bit, with form, with technique,” Buckeyes receiver Anthony Gonzalez said. “But raw speed? No one can teach me how to beat Justin Gatlin in a race. It’s not going to happen — ever.

Al Goldis / AP Ohio State junior Ted Ginn Jr. returned this punt against Michigan State on Oct. 14 for a touchdown. Ginn has scored on six punt returns and one kickoff return in his career.

“Some people, for whatever reason, are just born faster. You can get people to their peak. But each person’s peak is different. You can look up and down these rosters and see so many guys who are just gifted athletically. By no coincidence, I think that’s why we’re here, in the biggest game.”

And in the biggest game, the biggest names may ultimately be the fastest players.

Ginn and Harvin.

The Buckeye focus, of course, is Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Troy Smith. But Smith will tell you willingly that Ginn’s electrifying speed is a major reason for Ohio State’s overall success — simply because that speed must be respected.

Ginn talks like a guy who’s still seeking some respect.

“I get the feeling that people think we can’t run with Florida,” Ginn said.

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Fighting words.

Ginn remembers competing in national track-and-field events as a high-school athlete. Ohio runners, he said, were never given the proper build-up. It was always Florida, Texas, California.

“Then the Ohio guys come in and run the shop,” Ginn said.