With one more week to go, the College Football Playoff committee might have a team to root for.
Wisconsin beating Ohio State would solve one problem for Playoff committee
What will the committee do about injured Buckeyes QB J.T. Barrett, if Ohio State’s on the bubble?
So far, the TCU-Baylor debate has enraged some critics. Florida State fans don’t like being No. 3 despite winning every game. And some of the committee’s criteria have drawn ire.
But we haven’t gotten a full-blown controversy yet. That could change if Ohio State beats Wisconsin.
The Buckeyes were a trendy pick to make the Playoff until last weekend, when starting quarterback J.T. Barrett went down with a broken ankle against Michigan. OSU still won handily and will play Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship. But if the Buckeyes win the Big Ten, the committee has a conundrum: if Ohio State would rank No. 4 with a healthy Barrett, will the committee give Baylor or TCU that spot because the Buckeyes likely won't be as good in the Playoff without Barrett?
It’s a tough question, and it’s why deep down, some committee members will likely be big Wisconsin fans, in hopes that they don’t have to come up with an answer. But it appears they’ve already thought about it.
“Certainly there is a discussion about the backup quarterback could step in and lead them to a championship,” Long told CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd at the time. “We’ve seen those examples in our history and then we’ve seen teams that weren’t quite the same when a star player goes out. That’s something that humans can do that the computers and polls don’t necessarily take all of that into account.”
Committee chairman Jeff Long’s last sentence there is now applicable. Regardless of your opinion on what Ohio State’s fate should be — and both sides have very good points — this is the first true test of the committee. It could be the first time we really see the difference between a computer and a committee.
Part of the committee’s marketing has been to celebrate the removal of computers from the process. While computers actually do a good job of eliminating biases when determining the best team, people decried the BCS letting numbers help determine the two best teams.
But in reality, none of the committee’s decisions so far have been all that different from what computers would do. In fact, members are even more restricted in their decisions than non-BCS computers are, since members aren’t allowed to place very much value on margin of victory, and margin of victory is a critical component in determining the best teams.
A New No. 4
So far, it’s been a BCS-era checklist for the committee: record, strength of schedule and a little subjectivity, just like the Coaches Poll and Harris Poll of the old BCS.
But that could be tested. What happens if the Buckeyes win by a few points? Does that make the decision to keep the Buckeyes out even easier? What if they blow out the Badgers? Does that mean they'll be just fine with Cardale Jones at quarterback and deserve to be in the Playoff, or will it not matter?
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