Butterfly Effect: What if Justin Fields never transferred from Georgia to Ohio State?
By John Buhler
What happens to Ohio State?
As for the fourth team making the College Football Playoff, it may not have been Ohio State. With 2018 starter Dwayne Haskins going pro, would it seriously have been The Tate Martell Show in Columbus? Maybe the Buckeyes end up with a graduate transfer like Kelly Bryant, the guy who Trevor Lawrence beat out at Clemson and ended up not going to a bowl game while at Missouri.
Even with a proven starter like Bryant, Ohio State may not have been a top-three team last year. Could the Buckeyes have still won the Big Ten? Yes, but it’s unlikely they would have reached Indianapolis unblemished. They could have lost to a team like Wisconsin in either game, so maybe it would have been the Badgers making the College Football Playoff for the first time instead?
Penn State would have had its shot in the Big Ten East, and you could maybe argue Minnesota would have found a way to Indianapolis if the Golden Gophers beat Wisconsin. However, there is a chance the Big Ten would have been one of the two Power 5 conferences sitting the College Football Playoff out.