Ohio State Deserves Their Chance to Compete for National Championship
Outside of Alabama and Clemson, who are without a sliver of a doubt two of the best four teams in the country this year, the national debate around which other two teams should be included in the College Football Playoff this year has been as loud as its ever been.
Coaches around the country have been full-on politicking for why their team should be included - and rightly so. If the head coach isn't going to publicly fight for the program, who will?
Several teams had an argument to be included, but I believe the committee got it right. I don't like the current system at all - I have been a proponent of an 8-team playoff from the CFP's inception - but I believe they picked the four best teams in the country this year.
Ohio State only played six games this year after Maryland and Michigan both cancelled on them and after OSU cancelled the Illinois game. But I still believe that Ohio State has shown enough in the six games they played to be worthy of a selection. Justin Fields accounted for more touchdowns than he threw incompletions through the first three games of the year.
The Buckeyes polished off their brief resume with a win over a Top 15 team, showing they can beat good teams when they don't play perfect football. Considering their win over Indiana as well, two of the Buckeyes six victories came against teams that are currently ranked in the Top 25.
OSU is also a top 10 team in offensive and defensive efficiency, they've had some amazing individual performances this year, and I believe their efforts in the two most recent games without roughly two dozen players available is an impressive showcase of their talent and depth.
As some have argued the past couple of weeks, I don't think that it should be held against Ohio State that the Big Ten bungled the beginning of the season and tried to sandwich eight games into eight consecutive Saturdays. The Buckeyes won the conference title, they were clearly the best team in the Big Ten this year and they have earned the right to compete in the College Football Playoff.
I'll leave you with this. Winning your conference championship in a Power 5 league should mean something. If your argument for getting in the playoff is "we played a very hard schedule, we played a lot of games and our only loss is a 28-blowout to the No. 1 team in country (who happens to be in our league)", I don't think that's a very good argument for saying that you're better than a conference champion. As Herm Edwards famously said, "you play to win the game." It's not undefeated Ohio State's fault that Texas A&M got blown out by Alabama, that Clemson annihilated Notre Dame in the ACC title game or that Florida lost three heart-breaking games.
Frankly, I think Cincinnati deserves more consideration for being an undefeated conference champion and clearly the best team in the Group of 5 conferences. But I also think that will never happen, until the format moves to an 8-team playoff. You should be included in the CFP if you're a Power 5 champion and if you're the best Group of 5 team in the country. Round out the field with two more fantastic teams. Winning your conference title means something in every other sport, at every other level of NCAA competition. But a 4-team playoff inherently means one conference champion isn't going to play in the tournament, and I think that's wrong.
Regardless, I think the Buckeyes absolutely earned the right to be in the CFP and I think the committee's selection of Notre Dame for the final spot was the appropriate move. Their win over Clemson, even without Trevor Lawrence, shouldn't simply be ignored.
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