The Big 12 couldn’t say who the ONE true champion was that year, so they were co-champs.
Secondly, the 59-0 beat down of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game put the Buckeyes in. And in retrospect it was the right call as they went on to beat no. 1 AL and then Oregon with Heisman winner Mariotta.
No argument that Ohio State was the best that year. Not as convinced they are even one of the 4 best this year, but still no real argument with their ranking. My argument is with the committee and putting them in the playoff. The committee has rules/conditions which they choose to follow when it serves their purpose and this year chose to ignore when it didn’t. BTW, the Big 12 changed their rules after that co-champion nonsence to satisfy the committee. The Big 10 has rules in place that cost Ohio State the right to be in the playoff imo. Penn State fans should be furious!
It is interesting to note that the lack of a clear conference title and the lack of the "extra data point" penalized the Big 12 teams to the benefit of tOSU in 2014 but was ignored this year when it helped tOSU.
Secondly, the 59-0 beat down of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game put the Buckeyes in.
Had the committee just stuck to that as the rationale, fewer would have complained. On that basis, it made sense to include tOSU but the other two rationales are lame.
And in retrospect it was the right call as they went on to beat no. 1 AL and then Oregon with Heisman winner Mariotta.
Not necessarily true. Who's to say that TCU or Baylor wouldn't have done the same if given the opportunity? IMO, no one was playing better at the end of the 2014 season than TCU.
There is something inherently wrong with an evaluation system which one week has a team at #3 only to drop to #6 after winning by 52 points (and taking a knee to keep from scoring even more). I'm not a big TCU or Gary Patterson fan but TCU got hosed in 2014.