3 of 4 College Football Playoff teams made it in comfortably, but here’s how close we came to way more drama

The 2017 College Football Playoff field looked like the committee’s toughest call yet. While 2014 and 2016 were controversial, each had an easy answer: just pick the Ohio State team that beat a bunch of good teams. In 2017, there was no great choice for No. 4.

But as we like to do around this time, let’s see how close it came to being even harder for the committee.

If just a few key plays changed over the course of the season, we could’ve ended up with way more controversy. Let’s think of each of these in isolation, but if you’d really like to break your brain, you can also pretend they all went wrong.

After a loss at Syracuse, the defending champs could afford no more slip-ups.

Their most perilous win would be — for the second regular season in a row — against NC State. A missed field goal robbed the Wolfpack in 2016.

In 2017, the Pack converted a long fourth down to reach the red zone with 18 seconds to go and a chance to score the tying touchdown or go for two and the regulation W. Except!

That outside receiver got set late (should’ve listened to ACC expert Matt Ryan) and was moving toward the line of scrimmage at the snap, an illegal shift, per NCAA rules. Clemson picked off NC State’s do-over, and the Tigers survived the Textile Bowl again.

But would it have mattered? The Tigers still would’ve had a case for No. 4, with a schedule full of bowl teams, dominant ACC Championship win, two close road losses (one of them seemingly mulligan’d by the committee for involving a Kelly Bryant injury), and win over SEC West champ Auburn. [Edit: But NC State would’ve won the division, if nothing else had changed, so all that’s likely moot.]

At one point, the Sooners had four straight one-score games against lesser teams, one of them a loss to Iowa State. (A banged-up OU defense was one culprit.) Hanging with the Sooners made for Baylor’s most impressive game in a rough year, and Kansas State nearly forced overtime, but let’s go with Texas here.

The Horns came back from a 20-0 hole, had the lead with seven minutes to go, and had a chance to retake it inside of three minutes. On first-and-10, the following happened to Shane Buechele, who’d just entered the game in relief of Sam Ehlinger:

Texas chased that with a false start, and that killed that drive, but UT got the ball back again and nearly made it to midfield as time expired.

But would it have mattered? Oklahoma whooped Ohio State in Columbus, so there’d be no good reason for two-loss, Big 12 champ Sooners to rank behind two-loss, Big Ten champ Buckeyes.

UGA avenged its one loss by stomping out Auburn, and its only close win was on the road at Notre Dame.

In a gruesome hogfight of a game (said with all affection), with both offenses combining to average 3.9 yards per play, Notre Dame’s go-ahead field goal with 10 minutes left looked like it might just about do it. But the Dawgs put together a couple big plays and set up Rodrigo Blankenship to kick the eventual game-winner.

A 30-yard field goal is nice, but it wouldn’t have mattered much without this Catch of the Year candidate earlier by Terry Godwin:

That was on third-and-5 in the second quarter, meaning the Dawgs would’ve kicked if Godwin hadn’t pulled it in. Landing three points instead of seven on that drive very well could’ve cost UGA the game.

But would it have mattered? If UGA had two losses, would a one-loss Alabama have ranked ahead of the two-loss SEC champ?

Speaking of ...

Like Georgia, Alabama only lost to Auburn and mostly trampled everything else on the schedule. Unlike Georgia, Alabama didn’t avenge its Auburn loss, win a division, win 12 games, or win the SEC.

While we could count Bama’s two fourth quarter touchdowns against Mississippi State (and the subsequent failed MSU Hail Mary) as the Tide’s escape, there’s a more definitive and decisive moment.

Why’s Alabama in the Playoff despite not winning its division? Because Ohio State lost two games by multiple scores each, the latter by 31 points to an Iowa that would finish 7-5.

But would it have mattered? I mean, yeah. Ohio State would’ve had the spot if it’d beaten Iowa or maybe lost by, like, three points.

“The selection committee looked at a one-loss Alabama team with that one loss coming against the final ranking No. 7 team, Auburn, in a very competitive game,” Playoff committee chair Kirby Hocutt said on Selection Sunday. “We compared that to a two-loss Ohio State team. Obviously, one loss at home to No. 2-ranked Oklahoma; more damaging was the 31-point loss to unranked Iowa.”

Excluding Bama would’ve been totally fine, but Ohio State made the choice simple, even if it was close.

“I just said thank you,” Alabama defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick said he told Iowa linebacker Josey Jewell days after the committee announced the pick.

Next!

Wisconsin needed a touchdown late in the Big Ten Championship. The refs missed this clear pass interference, though they did bust UW for holding. Those should’ve been offsetting penalties, giving Wisconsin another first-and-10 from Ohio State’s 43 with 85 seconds to go.

But would it have mattered? If the Badgers had scored and won, they would’ve taken Alabama’s Playoff spot.