Since its implementation in 2014, the Buckeyes have lived on the constant verge of making the College Football Playoffs.
Last year, Ohio State made it in without winning — or even playing for — their conference championship. This year, the Buckeyes went ahead and won the Big Ten, but fell short of making the playoffs.
With their 27-21 win over undefeated No. 4 Wisconsin, they thought they did exactly what they needed to do to earn the final spot in the College Football Playoffs. Instead, however, the Buckeyes’ hopes of competing for a national championship again were crushed with Sunday’s announcement, just hours after their Big Ten Championship Win.
After Ohio State defeated Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday night, there was nothing but joy and euphoria for Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes. After a season of inconsistent performances and two disastrous losses, winning a conference title was truly a happy moment for this team.
But their joyous celebration ended 12 hours later, around 12:30 pm on Sunday, when Alabama was announced as the final team in this year’s playoffs.
“I sunk in my chair at home. Because I really thought we were in. I kind of looked at it and stared at it for a minute,” Meyer said.
There was clearly an element of surprise when the Buckeyes found out they would not be in the College Football Playoffs. As of Saturday night, they sincerely believed they would be in.
“We all thought we were in,” said linebacker Chris Worley. “I think although we had those two losses, our wins, we could match those up with any team in the nation.”
Instead the committee believed that the Crimson Tide were the better team, and the Buckeyes falling one spot short of the playoffs made it feel like they had just experienced a loss.
“You have to understand they’re not kind of disappointed. They’re probably devastated,” Meyer said.
Meyer was not wrong when it came to the feelings of Chris Worley.
“You’re definitely devastated,” the linebacker said. “Whenever you have so many guys internally, as a man, that you know that you put so much work in, you’re so invested. If you’re not devastated then you probably didn’t put the work in.
“For anyone that put in the type of work that we do throughout the whole year and not get that call, you definitely are devastated.”
The Buckeyes falling one spot short of the playoffs made it seem like they had just experienced a loss.
All of the focus on Sunday was about Ohio State not making the playoffs, rather than winning the Big Ten Championship just one night earlier.
It is easy to say the Buckeyes should be celebrating the win and focusing on the good rather than the bad, but in the minds of the players, that conference victory is what kept their hopes alive of getting a chance to compete for another national title. This expectation made it even harder for the Buckeyes to celebrate a win that they thought would lead to claiming the fourth spot in the playoffs.
As the leader of this team, however, quarterback J.T. Barrett knows that they can’t let this “loss” take away from the victory in the Big Ten Championship.
“What we experienced in the locker room, knowing what we’ve been through in the season and then go out there and accomplish one of our goals, and that’s to be the Big Ten champs, that’s something that can’t be taken away from us,” he said.
“We’ll definitely cherish that for forever.”
Not even a new years day bowl. Being left out is sad but even sadder is two teams from the SEC, that’s wrong. Wisconsin deserved it more than Bama. USC over bama. This is a screwed up system already. Need to expand and play all conference champions. OK should have been #1. Can anybody outscore OK. No. I am a true buck fan, but, I sure don’t want to see a sickly loss to USC, which is very possible with the big let down. Bama a average team will beat clemson, OK will beat GEORGia, OK wins it all. Play for next year another 2017 win. GO BUCKS.
I am more than satisfied with this season. We worked hard, and took the lumps along the way.
How out of touch can you be to think we had the CFP locked up? Losing two games badly, suffering from mistakes and penalties all season and winning some games so ugly it looked like they were trying to lose. Not saying Bama deserves the spot cuz they certainly don’t, but there really isn’t a 4th team that does belong in the CFP this year. Meyer needs some fresh air
The PAC 12 and Big 10 Conference should remove themselves from any affiliation with the fraud of this CFP system. Form a system on their own with the other excluded Conferences and hold their own playoff.
The current playoff system has proven to be just another shill for the SEC and ACC. Lets see how their revenue goes in their own little tiny bubble of the South.
fans like Charlie and the worrisome attitude quite honestly irritate me..OSU should be “afraid” of nobody! who cares what happened LAST YEAR…Clemson lost to a horrible , horrible syracuse team–this OSU team COULD beat clemson…and you cant keep comparing years wth the selection….last year a one loss OSU team was in over PSU not only because of the loss amount, but primarily because of the big wins against top 10 teams…this years alabama has NONE of that…this year’s OSU team has 3 better wins than alabama plus a conference championship, plus alabama has a “win” over a non fbs-team…so please stop with the pansy, wussy comments being all afraid to play someone–that’s ridiculous…the committee is NOT sending a consistent message–it totally contradicts the decision to not put in 2015 OSU….
Meh…dealt with it already. OSU didn’t deserve it any more than Alabama did. It’s moot now. The system is fatally flawed. What’s real is the Buckeyes are playing USC, which excites me more than playing Alabama or Clemson and the Buckeyes had better be focusing exclusively on the Trojans or they will be devastated along with their fans after the Cotton Bowl. I wanted the Rose Bowl which is the classiest venue and where these teams have a rich history but the Cotton is at least a classic bigtime bowl game and this is a foe most worthy. Don’t take them lightly. They’ve owned us since 1974 with a 7 game streak and dashed our NC hopes several times. This is a true rivalry and forget about the records and stats just as with Michigan. I remember when the series was in Ohio State’s favor. It’s a disgrace. I’ve lived in Southern California and have had to endure this lopsided series. The last time we beat SUC I was still attending OSU, streaking was a fad, and Archie Griffin was still a Buckeye. We need to get a win over the U of South Central while we can. Don’t want to hear about a “down PAC-12”. Sam Darnold is a first rounder, they are conference champions and they’ve had OSU’s number. This is a one of the great programs, far greater than Georgia or Clemson and a team that has rich ties with Ohio State going back to the Tournament of Roses parade but we haven’t kept our end of this great series. Forget about the CFP. This is a classic matchup and the Trojans will be our toughest foe next to Oklahoma. A Big Ten Championship, with a win over Michigan and bowl win over USC would be a very successful season. Time to focus on the task at hand.
Exactly, if you really work that hard to prepare and you put so much into being the best, how can one possibly explain what happened against Iowa – giving up 55 points. How can you be so badly prepared for a game and make no functional adjustments during the game? There has to be more to it than players simply being outplayed – too much talent. OSU coaches are paid way too much and their jobs way too prestigious to be that badly out coached, out schemed and out motivated by an average team. I would love to see Urban be truthful and accountable about what happened just so fans can be assured that HE actually knows what happened. They missed a shot at the CFP because of it.
I think the committee saw the game against Wisconsin, and that CONFIRMED what we all saw all year from this team. That is we have a QB who is an average passer at best, and we make continue to make mistakes on a consistent basis! Do we really want to face Clemson?? I’m actually more relieved. And if you look to last year, Penn State (Conference Champ) had TWO losses, and one of those losses was being obliterated by Michigan and the other was to an unranked Pitt team. They chose Ohio State over them, so the committee is sending a very consistent message. Don’t lose two games and don’t get killed in or both of them.
I think they also remember the previous Clemson vs OSU game and do not want to look stupid again. Alabama is a safer bet and they can play up the rematch plus avoid a repeat of the unfortunate OSU vs Oklahoma matchup. The committee® Is as bad as any other backdoor solution…even worse in some ways.
Regular season wins and losses matter. B1G champ is nothing to laugh at and also beating long time OSU nemesis USC and a Cotton Bowl win will make this a very special year.
Gee, I guess the Iowa game was pretty important too, huh. Note to players, you got to show up every game, especially the next one.