Quote:I was surprised they blew out/shut out Wisconsin with Cardale Jones running the show. It was a really impressive win.

 

Just seems weird that TCU/Baylor were conistently thought to be there and the one win put Ohio State in over them.

 

I think everybody was shocked except the Buckeyes. However Cardale Jones played in garbage time during blowouts, so unlike J.T. Barrett, he was ready for the bigger role. I was worried about him before kickoff, but thought Melvin Gordon would be a bigger problem. Obviously the playoff committee was impressed by Ohio State's ability to limit Gordon under 100 yards, keep him out of the end zone, and make him fumble - then score on the play. Then the fact that a third string quarterback completed all but five passes for 247 yards and 3 touchdowns and did not throw any interceptions in his first career start can make one think he was benefiting from the rest of Ohio State's offense. So you can't say it was just one guy on defense (although Joey Bosa had a great game) and one guy on offense domninating Wisconsin.

 

I think it is obvious why Ohio State's win was more impressive than Texas Christian's win: their opponents. Iowa State has no conference wins this year and does not have the Big 12's best offensive player. No one was surprised the final score was 55-3 because everyone expected a blowout win. TCU would have to play in a conference championship game to impress the playoff committee with that score. As for Baylor, their ranking was #6, so they would have had to leapfrog Ohio State to get in. How could the Bears do that without scoring 70 points?

 

Quote:I'm sure TCU fans are furious. I think it has more to do with the "co-champ" thing, but it's also probably a money thing. Ohio State has a huge following and the game is just bigger with them playing rather than TCU.

 

Of course they are. They know their only loss was at Baylor, not home against Virginia Tech. I bet the Horned Frogs and their fans feel like they were robbed. However, if there was only one Big 12 champ, it would have been Baylor.

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