by Durbano on Sun Dec 31, 2017 11:38 am
There is no way the playoff committee could have taken Ohio State. A few years ago, OSU jumped TCU at the end, and the committee’s stated rationale was that the Buckeyes won a conference championship game, whereas TCU didn’t (the Big 12 didn’t have a championship game at that time).
Last year, OSU was chosen over the conference champ – PSU, which had beaten Ohio State that season – and the stated rationale included not wanting to take a two-loss team, plus the always nebulous “eye test.”
This year’s Buckeyes had two losses and got slaughtered by a pedestrian Iowa team. If the committee bent its logic in their favor yet again (taking them over a one-loss Alabama team that dropped a competitive game against a ranked opponent), I think they would have had to disband.