College Football Playoff committee explains choosing Ohio State over Alabama
By Josh Hill
After choosing Ohio State over Alabama, the College Football Playoff committee explained its thought process that led to the decision.
Now that the dust is settling from a chaotic weekend, we finally know what the College Football Playoff looks like.
The drama kicked off on Friday when USC lost the Pac-12 title game to Utah and thus vacated a spot in the CFP bracket. The Trojans loss was followed by TCU losing its first game of the season in the Big 12 Championship Game, which seemingly opened up a path for both Alabama and Ohio State to sneak back into the playoff.
Rather than the Horned Frogs being turned away after a close loss in overtime to Kansas State, the debate became about whether it would be the Buckeyes or Crimson Tide sneaking in and what school had the stronger case.
Despite a seemingly solid case for the Tide, it was ultimately decided by the committee to put a one-loss Ohio State team in the playoff over a two-loss Alabama team.
College Football Playoff selection chairman Boo Corrigan spoke after the bracket was announced, and explained the decision to leave Alabama out and put Ohio State in the No. 4 seed.
“I think you look at the big wins,” Corrigan said. “The win that Ohio State has over Notre Dame, the win they have over Penn State, compare that to Alabama with the wins over Texas, Mississippi State, and some other close games.”
Something that was pushed by the propaganda machine in the 11th hour on Saturday — including by Nick Saban — was the idea that Bama’s two close losses shouldn’t count as worse than the blowout loss the Buckeyes had at home against Michigan.
Corrigan directly addressed this, noting that the Ohio State loss to Michigan was a one-score game until it got away from them in the fourth quarter. It seemed to be a direct response to Saban’s claims that the 22-point loss should be viewed as much worse than a pair of close losses to two Top 10-ranked teams.
“Keep in mind the Michigan game did get away from them. But it was a one-score game early in the fourth quarter. And as we looked at the total body of work the committee was comfortable with Ohio State at No. 4 and Alabama at No. 5.”
It’s unlikely that the explanation from Corrigan will go very far in Tuscaloosa. To be fair to Alabama fans, the explanation is a bit baffling considering that all games are one-score games until they aren’t. The fact of the matter is a game that was a one-score game was turned into a double-digit blowout loss at home by the Buckeyes, but much closer losses to LSU and Tennesee were ultimately held against the Tide.