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Clearly, Ohio State is not a playoff team

Despite their emotional victory against their hated rivals last Saturday, the Ohio State Buckeyes find themselves in a precarious situation. They are currently ranked No. 2 in the College Football Playoff Rankings. However, because they failed to win their own division they will not have an opportunity to play in the Big Ten championship game. Buckeye Nation doesn't want to hear it but the evidence is clear and convincing. Brutus and company will not be dancing in the playoff this season.

1. College Football Playoff Committee criteria

The single biggest factor preventing the Buckeyes from making the playoff is the criteria the committee unanimously adopted on June 20, 2012. It states:

"We believe that a committee of experts properly instructed (based on beliefs that the regular season is unique and must be preserved; and that championships won on the field and strength of schedule are important values that must be incorporated into the selection process) has very strong support throughout the college football community."

The Buckeyes failure to beat Penn State is prohibiting them from playing in the Big Ten championship game. As a result of their epic fourth quarter meltdown in Happy Valley, they disqualified themselves from meeting the most important and unanimously agreed upon qualification, a conference championship.

Buckeye fans will happily decree to their Michigan foes, "You should have stopped us on fourth down or not turned the ball over so many times. Don't blame the officials, just win the game." And they are right. But this also applies to the criteria locking the Buckeyes out of the playoff. Just beat Penn State. They didn't.

2. Historical precedent

Heading into the 2014 conference championship week, the TCU Horned Frogs were ranked No. 4 in both the AP and Coaches polls. Most importantly, the College Football Playoff Committee ranked them even higher at No. 3. In fact, the College Football Playoff Committee had just moved them up two spots from No. 5 buoyed by their back-to-back late season blowout wins. A week after an impressive 48-10 victory in Texas, they hammered Iowa State 42-3. Their lone defeat was a crazy three-point loss at No. 6 Baylor earlier in the season. They had an impressive 11-1 record but entered the conference championship week without a game to play. Does any of this sound familiar?

The Buckeyes have an identical 11-1 record, posted two late season blow out wins that helped them jump three spots to No. 2, and their lone defeat was also a crazy three-point loss on the road to a top 10 team. While TCU tied with Baylor as Big 12 co-champions, they were not "definitive champions" as committee chairman Jeff Long noted when explaining why they were not selected as a playoff team. This year's Buckeye team is co-champion of nothing.

When discussing the importance for a team to win play in and ultimately win their conference championship game, committee member Bobby Johnson stated clearly, ""If they've done well enough to get into the championship game of their conference, then they're obviously a very good team, and it's only fair that if they win another high-quality game they should be rewarded for it."

When the 2014 playoff brackets were finally revealed TCU had dropped from No. 3 to No. 6. While all the other top teams were playing in their conference championship games, the Horned Frogs were watching those contests from home. By dropping them three spots without even playing, the committee reinforced to everyone how important conference champions are in their criteria.

3. "Unequivocally" does not apply

"Unequivocally" will be the most overused term this week in college football circles. When the College Football Committee created their playoff criteria, they allowed themselves some wiggle room. While stating conference championships must be infused into the decision making process they also installed an escape clause:

"The criteria to be provided to the selection committee must be aligned with the ideals of the commissioners, Presidents, athletic directors and coaches to honor regular season success while at the same time providing enough flexibility and discretion to select a non-champion or independent under circumstances where that particular non-champion or independent is unequivocally one of the four best teams in the country."

While the Buckeyes do have a few impressive victories they also have several games where they not only failed to pass the eye test, they did not prove they are unequivocally better than any of the teams rightfully playing for their conference championships this weekend. Hosting the Indiana Hoosiers in the middle of the season, they struggled throughout the game and did not secure the victory until the fourth quarter. The Hoosiers (6-6) are barely bowl eligible and posted a losing record in the conference. Quarterback J.T. Barrett's performance (9-21 for 93 yards) would have been concerning against a top team. At home against the Hoosiers it was alarming.

A week following their disappointing loss to Penn State, they again failed to prove their unequivocal worth. Despite their mediocre record, the Northwestern Wildcats (6-6) took the Buckeyes to the brink. This is the same Wildcat team that lost at home earlier this season to Illinois State, an FCS school that finished in fourth place in their division. The Buckeyes won by only four points and the game was not decided until the final two minutes. The box score proved what the eye test revealed, that is the Buckeyes (431 total yards) were no better than the Wildcats (406 total yards). Had this game been played at Northwestern it would have been an unacceptable performance. The fact it happened in "the Shoe" exposed many of the reasons why they were not even good enough to win their division much less their conference.

Finally, just two weeks ago the Buckeyes played Michigan State. The Spartans are not bowl eligible. Quite simply they are terrible. They finished the season with only three victories and won only once in the final 10 weeks of the season. The Spartans lone victory during this stretch was over a hapless Rutgers team that lost every conference game. The two teams playing in the Big 10 championship game this Saturday, Wisconsin and Penn State, easily rolled the Spartans by a combined score of 75-18. Yet when the Buckeyes played them a mere 10 days ago they needed a failed 2-point conversion in the waning moments of the game to survive with a one-point win.

The Buckeyes proved they are not unequivocally better than Indiana, Northwestern and Michigan State. And their performance against Northwestern was on par with an FCS school. Clearly, they are not unequivocally better than the any of the conference champions. It's not even close.

When the playoff bracket is revealed this Sunday, Buckeye Nation is going to feel bitterly disappointed. But honestly they shouldn't feel that way since they are not deserving of making the playoff. The committee's criteria, history, and their own subpar performances this season can't make that any more clear.

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