Wilner: Big Ten is both a winner and a loser.
With so much focus on the No. 4 seed during the College Football Playoff selection show — and whether two-loss Penn State might squeeze out one-loss Washington — it was easy to overlook the significance of the team in the three-hole.
That was Ohio State, which didn’t win its division, much less its conference.
The Buckeyes became the first and only team in three years to reach the semifinals without a conference title on its resumé. They also closed a fascinating circle that speaks to a tectonic shift in the balance of power in recent years.
During the formation of the playoff system, no commissioner argued more forcefully than the Big Ten’s Jim Delany for conference champions to receive priority in the selection process.
It made perfect sense at the time: The Big Ten was struggling, the SEC reigned supreme, and Delany was desperate to ensure that his champion wasn’t boxed out by multiple teams from the kingpin of conferences.
Almost a half-decade later, the Big Ten has supplanted the SEC as the best league in the land and become the first to send a non-champion to the semifinals.
Meanwhile, its champ, Penn State, was shunned by the selection committee despite a head-to-head victory over the third-seeded Buckeyes.
That’s not to suggest Ohio State was unworthy of a berth, however: With only one loss and three wins over top-10 teams, the Buckeyes possess a resumé that can stand with any in the country.
The Big Ten, as it turned out, was both a major winner and loser on bowl selection day. Here are others: Winner: Washington. A quarter-century after producing a co-national champion, the Huskies are back on the big stage. Their reward: Alabama.
Loser: Penn State. The Nittany Lions won the toughest division in the toughest conference in the country and beat Ohio State. But an early-season loss to Pittsburgh proved their undoing with the committee.
Winner: The Pac-12. Back in the semifinals (thanks to Washington) after a one year-absence.
Loser: Pac-12. Only produced six bowl-eligible teams, the lowest total in the conference’s 12-school era, and was unable to fill two contractual obligations (Las Vegas and Cactus bowls).
Winner: Washington coach Chris Petersen. The former Boise State mastermind has UW in the playoff in his third season in Seattle.
Loser: Big 12. No semifinalist for the second time in three years because its champion, Oklahoma, was only No. 7 in the final rankings. (Blame non-conference losses to Houston and Ohio State.)
Winner: Western Michigan. The undefeated Broncos earned a muchdeserved spot in the Cotton Bowl as the top team from the Group of Five. And, yes, they can beat Wisconsin.
Loser: Sugar Bowl. Sorry, but No. 7 Oklahoma against No. 14 Auburn is Sugar-light compared to past matchups.
Winner: Orange Bowl. Jim Harbaugh and Michigan against Florida State? Yes, please.
Loser: Colorado. The Buffaloes were nudged out of the Rose Bowl by USC, thus becoming the first team to lose a spot in the New Year’s Six because of a defeat in its conference title game. Nonetheless, congrats to CU on an amazing season.
Winner: USC. The Trojans jumped over Colorado (on the strength of a headto-head victory) and into their first Rose Bowl since Pete Carroll was in charge. That was 12 head coaches ago, or so it seems.
Loser: Standards of excellence. With 40 bowl games and a slew of .500 teams involved, clunkers are unavoidable. For example: Idaho vs. Colorado State ... Or Eastern Michigan vs. Old Dominion ... Or New Mexico vs. UTSA. Or ... eh, you get the picture.
Winners: Mississippi State and North Texas. There were two spots available for 5-7 teams, and they claimed ’em. (Cal was close but didn’t make the five-win cut.)
Losers: St. Petersburg and Heart of Dallas bowls. Somebody had to get the 5-7 teams. (Even worse: North Texas vs. Army in the Heart of Dallas is a rematch of a game played in October.)
Winner: Proponents of an eight-team playoff. It’s years (and years) away, but any controversy with the four-team model adds incremental pressure to expand.
Loser: Foster Farms Bowl. Much as we’d like to ring the bell for the Bay Area game, it’s difficult to muster enthusiasm for Utah, which lost its last two games, against Indiana (6-6). At some point, maybe the Big Ten will stop sending duds.
Winner: Service Academies. All three made the postseason, and Navy almost climbed into the New Year’s Six.
Loser: Louisville. Had the Cardinals beaten Kentucky — this is football, after all — they would be headed to the Orange Bowl instead of the team they beat by 43 points (Florida State).
Ultimate winners: Alabama and Ohio State. The powerhouses handle their business in the semifinals, then collide Jan. 9 in Tampa for the title. Alabama wins its second consecutive title and stakes claim to being one of the greatest teams in history.