Jeff Long: Ohio State and Stanford weren’t close to making College Football Playoff

Ohio State and Stanford didn’t make the College Football Playoff, and it wasn’t really even close. 

The College Football Playoff field has been revealed for this season, and the teams in the mix for the national title were not really that much of a shock after what happened on Saturday. However, while Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma are all very deserving, there were two teams that maybe had a gripe about getting in — those two teams being Ohio State and Stanford.

So, how close were these two to actually getting into the final four of the  College Football Playoff field? Well, according to committee chairman Jeff Long, there was really no chance of these two getting into the field.

If anything, Stanford may have had the better shot of cracking the top four. While they had two losses on the year, they did end up being the Pac-12 Champions with their win over USC on Saturday night. There was the thought that leaving the Pac-12 Champion out might not be something they wanted to do, but in the end, the two losses were too much. They could have gotten in with some help on Saturday from others in front of them, possibly, but that didn’t end up happening.

Ohio State has one loss on the year, but that one loss came to the team that ended up winning the Big Ten title, the Michigan State Spartans. So, while the Buckeyes were very impressive with their beat down of a very good Michigan team, there was really no way whatsoever that they were getting in over whomever won that Big Ten title on Saturday night. Much like Stanford, Ohio State needed some serious help in front of them, and that help never came.

So while some believe these two have a gripe, Long admitted that there was really no way they were going to get the chance at the title.