Every college football season is different. One of the ways 2017’s season is different than a couple of recent seasons: Ohio State didn’t make the Playoff as an exceptional case.
Ohio State made the Playoff as a special case 2 times in 3 years. Here’s why it didn’t happen in 2017.
The Buckeyes were exceptional in 2014 and 2016. They would’ve been exceptional again this year, but in the wrong way.
Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images
The Buckeyes finished as the first team out, ranked No. 5 in the final release by the Playoff selection committee. They got the news the morning after they finished an 11-2 season by beating then-unbeaten Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game. It was a reasonable choice.
In 2014, Ohio State made a late jump to join the field.
The Buckeyes were No. 5 heading into Championship Weekend. They made the field despite nobody in front of them losing. That kind of leapfrogging hasn’t happened since, but Ohio State pulled it off for two reasons:
- The Buckeyes’ 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship was such a lopsided whomping that the committee took extra notice. Ohio State basically shocked-and-awed its way into the field.
- Also, the Buckeyes might’ve gotten help from the Big 12 not having a championship game at that point. One-loss Baylor and TCU both got left out, with TCU getting jumped by the Buckeyes at the end. A blowout win over Iowa State wasn’t impressive enough to keep the Frogs from falling three spots to No. 6.
In 2016, Ohio State became the first non-conference champ to make it.
The Buckeyes lost a dramatic midseason game at Penn State. The Nittany Lions went on to win the Big Ten East on a tiebreaker and then beat Wisconsin for the league title. That would’ve normally put the Nittany Lions in the field.
But Penn State had lost two games earlier in the season — one was a blowout at Michigan, and the other was a close loss to Pitt, which actually turned out to be a ranked team on Selection Sunday. Still, the committee wasn’t cool with anyone having two Ls.
Ohio State benefited as a non-conference champion with just one loss, which happened to be a close one to the team that finished No. 5.
In 2017, Ohio State failed to be the first ever two-loss Playoff team.
And that’s the simplest reason the Buckeyes didn’t make the field. No two-loss team ever has, and the Buckeyes didn’t do enough to be the first one. It’ll happen some year, and it would’ve happened this year if Auburn had beaten Georgia in the SEC Championship. The Tigers would’ve made it on the strength of an outrageous finish to the season with two wins against UGA and another against Alabama in the Iron Bowl.
The way Ohio State lost its games hurt, too. A 15-point loss at home to current No. 2 Oklahoma wasn’t good, but particularly problematic was a 31-point loss at unranked Iowa in which the Buckeyes gave up 55 points. That would’ve been the worst loss ever taken by a Playoff team, and it wouldn’t have been close. The selection committee chairman, Kirby Hocutt, said the Iowa loss was “more damaging.”
“We have the flexibility and discretion to put non-champions in the top four if they’re one of the very best,” Hocutt told ESPN.
Ohio State was a champion, but its resume was otherwise worse than Alabama’s. The Buckeyes would’ve been exceptional as a Playoff team again, but this time it would’ve been because of something bad instead of something good.
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