On December 2nd, a long and intense college football regular season came to an end and fans around the nation held their breath as they awaited the decision from the CFP(College Football Playoffs) Committee who would ultimately determine the fate of the teams.

On the night of the 2nd, one game played out that shook the playoff picture and immediately sparked debate.

The #8 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes beat the #4 Wisconsin Badgers to win the Big Ten Championship game.

This win took Wisconsin out of the playoff picture and opened the gates for Ohio State, Alabama, and the University of Southern California (USC) to hop into the #4 spot and secure a place in the playoffs.

Less than 24 hours after the game ended, the CFP Committee made their decision in what was arguably one of the most controversial decisions ever made by the committee by placing the Alabama Crimson Tide in the college football playoffs and “robbing” Ohio State of #4 causing a lot of rage in tons of people, me included.

Being an Ohio State fan, I obviously was rooting for the Buckeyes to squeeze in the #4 spot and thought they were worthy of it.

I decided to do research into the two teams and the CFP Committee to see why Ohio State came up short and after tons of different articles and stories and time looking at the schedules and other factors, I still didn’t understand what the committee didn’t see in Ohio State.

The CFP Committee claims they take 4 factors into account most; strength of schedule, conference championships, head to head competition when applicable, and comparative outcomes of common opponents.

While Alabama and Ohio State never played against each other or played common opponents, there were still two other factors to consider that Ohio State obviously had Alabama beat in.

In terms of strength of schedule, the Buckeyes experienced way more adversity than Alabama.

Alabama played one Top 4 game all year, for a team that has been in the playoffs every year since 2014 and apparently “shows consistency week in and week out” according to CFP Chairman Kirby Hocutt, that seems way too easy.

Especially taking into account that the team they faced, the at the time #3 Florida State Seminoles, ended the season 6-6 and nowhere to be found in the Top 25

Other than that cake walk, Alabama played three more ranked, two of which remained in the Top 25 at the end of the season, and did I mention they lost to one of them.

Then we look at the Ohio State schedule. The Buckeyes also played four ranked teams throughout their season, all of whom remained in the Top 25.

Out of those four games, the Buckeyes only lost one, to the now #2 Oklahoma Sooners as long with Heisman winning quarterback Baker Mayfield.

The other three games included a 48-3 romp of #12 ranked Michigan State and two Top 4 wins.

Ohio State’s first Top 4 matchup was against #2 Penn State and the at the time Heisman front runner Saquon Barkley who the Buckeyes held to 44 yards as well as winning the matchup 39-38 despite being ranked #9.

A few weeks later, the Buckeyes played in the Big Ten Conference Championship against the #4 undefeated Wisconsin Badgers. Once again the Buckeyes defense showed out and held the Big Ten rushing leader, Jonathan Taylor, to 41 yards and beat the Badgers 27-21.

Most people could see that the Buckeyes overcame much harder teams than Alabama, which also left another factor, conference championships.

During championship weekend, Ohio State won the Big Ten Conference, arguably the hardest conference with 5 teams finishing in the Top 25.

Also During Championship weekend, Alabama watched from their couches due to the fact that they were not the top team in their conference or even their division.

One of the common points Alabama fans have brought up is Ohio State’s other loss to unranked Iowa.

Though it was a bad loss, people forget that Oklahoma lost to unranked Iowa State and Clemson lost to unranked Syracuse, so Ohio State was not the only team to have lost to an unranked team.

Though it was a hard loss for the Bucks, Iowa is not a bad team. The Hawkeyes finished their season 7-5 and made it to a bowl game. Throughout their season, the Hawkeyes beat teams such as Iowa State and and put up a tough fight against Penn State finishing the game just 3 points behind the #2 ranked powerhouse right before Ohio State took them down.

Overall, the facts seem to point to Ohio State being the better team, however the committee apparently thought otherwise.

What do you think?