The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Don’t blame committee; blame Buckeyes for CFP snub
Beauty pageants sometimes come down to who has the worst defect, rather than the best attribute.
In the case of Ohio State v Alabama (perhaps named Dawn of Injustice in Columbus), that’s likely what happened in the eyes of the College Football Playoff committee when the Crimson Tide got the fourth and final playoff spot Dec. 2.
Coaches Urban Meyer and Nick Saban were in full politic-mode leading up to the announcement — Saban more because his team didn’t play on Championship Saturday.
The Buckeyes beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game Dec. 2 to give them wins over the No. 6-ranked Badgers and another vs. No. 9-ranked Penn State.
That’s impressive compared to Alabama’s two best wins over No. 17-ranked LSU and No. 23-ranked Mississippi State.
The CFP committee since its inception in 2014 has touted strength of schedule, conference championships, nonconference schedules and headto-head wins as factors for compiling its playoff fields. Until this season, a comparison of team’s losses seemingly hasn’t been a hot topic.
Until now. The decision to put 11-1 Alabama in the playoff over 11-2 and Big Ten champion Ohio State appears to be one thing: One really bad loss by the Buckeyes.
A week after defeating previously No. 2-ranked Penn State, 39-38, OSU played at Iowa on Nov. 4 and was steam rolled, 5524. That wart couldn’t be removed. It was as ugly as it could get.
Those looking to blame the CFP committee for leaving out the Buckeyes should direct that angst at Coach Urban Meyer and his team.
Losing by 31 against an unranked opponent can’t happen to a team hoping to make a four-team playoff field.
More inexplicable about the loss to the Hawkeyes was Iowa’s performance in its next two games. At Wisconsin,
Coach Kirk Ferentz’s team had 66 yards of offense in a 38-14 loss. That’s 66 yards of offense for an entire game. Against OSU, the Hawkeyes had 487 yards.
After the loss to the Badgers, Iowa returned home and lost to Purdue, 24-15, in a game it had just 258 yards.
In other words, the Buckeyes’ loss to Iowa was bad — then made worse by the Hawkeyes’ own implosion the next two weeks.
In defense of OSU, it was one bad game, and bad games can be excused. There are degrees of bad games, though, and the loss to Iowa could not have been much worse.
Quarterback J.T. Barrett threw four interceptions, including a pick-six to open the game. The Hawkeyes mowed through the OSU defense for 243 yards rushing and 244 yards passing.
Meanwhile, Alabama, ranked No. 1 for most the season, lost its regularseason finale to Auburn, 26-14. It didn’t look great in that game either, but it wasn’t of the proportions of OSU’s loss to Iowa.
There’s also this: The Crimson Tide are the first team to make the playoffs without multiple wins against teams in the Top 20 of the final rankings.
This scenario screams of the committee not sure what to do with Alabama and Ohio State, but finally settling on a solution such as, “Well, Alabama has just one loss, and it ain’t that bad.”
Buckeye Nation doesn’t want to hear that today, but it’s likely the reality.