Alabama and Ohio State are both on the cusp of making it into the College Football Playoff, with the Tide having only one loss, and the Bucks finishing 11-2 with a Big Ten Championship victory over Wisconsin on Saturday night.
Urban Meyer reacts to Nick Saban calling out Ohio State’s 31-point loss to Iowa
The two coaches took turns politicking on ESPN.
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
One of the asterisks next to OSU’s resume is the 55-24 loss to Iowa earlier in the season. During an appearance on SportsCenter, Saban called out that loss directly when he was asked about his team’s CFP hopes.
“If we lost to a team in our conference by 30 points, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Saban said via 247Sports. “You wouldn’t even be talking to me.”
Then, gloriously, SportsCenter interviewed OSU head coach Urban Meyer and played the Saban sound bite for him to respond to:
After praising the Playoff as an event, Meyer said, “everybody’s gotta stick up for their team,” and referenced ranked wins and conference championships, which are two points in the Buckeyes’ favor.
During Saban’s segment, he talked about Penn State being left out last year after winning the conference, but OSU getting in.
“The precedent was really kind of set last year in the Big Ten when Penn State beat Ohio State and Penn State won the Big Ten Championship, Ohio State had one less loss and they selected Ohio State — not a conference champ with two losses,” Saban said. “Now, I think a one-loss team should get a whole lot of consideration because they only have one loss.”
You can argue that OSU could make it into the Playoff, but as Jason Kirk pointed out, the Bucks’ resume isn’t as strong as it looks on paper when you break it down:
If the Buckeyes make it in:
-The first two-loss CFP team (or second, if Auburn’s in) has two top-10 wins, sure, but two-loss Auburn had that many before conference title weekend.
-Going 5-2 against bowl teams is easily the worst mark of any Playoff team ever. The previous worst: 2016 No. 4 Washington’s 6-1. The average for a CFP team through three years was 7-1.
-The Buckeyes have already lost by 15 points to another contender, the most decisive loss ever suffered by a CFP team, if not for ...
-... their 31-point loss to 7-5 Iowa, comfortably the ugliest loss ever suffered by a CFP team.
Regardless of how it shakes out on Sunday, my guess is this won’t be the last we hear about the fourth spot in 2017.
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