Big Ten champions! All I care about. I just wish this year the Rose Bowl wasn't one of the semi-final games so we could have a throwback to a Woody vs John McKay battle or Earle vs. John Robinson battle. Give the South its playoffs and add another cut to the thousands of cuts to eSECpn revenues, as 3/4ths of the country doesn't tune in. Might just also help hasten the demise of the biased CFP or at least get us closer to an 8 team playoff.
Had Ohio State blown out Wisky, it may have had a shot at getting in. For a while, I thought that might happen, but the play calling got too cute when they got into the red zone. But still a win is a win, and I'll take it and the championship.
But let's at least look at the criteria the Committee is supposed to look at in case they think Ohio State and Alabama are "comparable," although I know that's heresy.
1- championships won - Ohio State gets the nod
2- strength of schedule - let's return to this
3- Head-to-head - nope
4- comparable outcomes of common opponents within incenting margin of victory - no common opponents
I believe the Committee uses its own SoS. While I question whether 12-13 games provides an adequate sample size to apply such a statistical measure, when I checked eSECpn's FPI index yesterday before the games Alabama and Ohio State were ranked 1 and 2, respectively in that measure. After the win over Wisky, Ohio State should take over Alabama in that eSECpn measure. There are other measures that will show OSU with a stronger SoS and others that will show Alabama with a stronger SoS. When I look at records against teams in the top 25 (currently), it's Alabama 2-1 vs Ohio State's 3-1. Nod to Ohio State. But let's at least give Bama credit for that huge win over Fresno State. Record against teams that had been ranked at any time in the CFP top 25, it's Bama 3-1 to Ohio State's 4-2. I still give the nod to Ohio State. But let's get into the case of Michigan, because it is relevant to the overall analysis and does more than anything to show the bias of the Committee. Michigan is no longer ranked, although LSU and Mississippi State are. This is the same Michigan whose three losses are all to top 10 teams, yet LSU with three losses can be ranked even though it lost to Troy. Miss State can be ranked over Michigan even with four losses. Heck, even Fresno State got into the penultimate rankings over Michigan. No Committee eSECpn bias? Ohio State has wins over two top 10 teams. Alabama has none. Ohio State has more wins over ranked opponents, but it does have that horrible loss to Iowa. I don't see losses anywhere in the Committee's critieria, but if that's what anyone, including the Committee, uses to distinguish between the two teams on the comparability scale, so be it. I think that can happen when a conference plays a nine game conf schedule, instead of an eight game conf schedule, and doesn't allow its teams to schedule FCS opponents especially in November.