You can literally come up with a dozen of different groups of "the four best teams" by using different criteria and reasoning. The committee aspect of the process is supposed to keep something crazy from happening, and it should. I like the process as it is because they got it right last year, and I believe they will this year. If Clemson and Alabama win, then it will be very easy and defendable for the CFBPC. If Florida would beat Bama (less likely imo than PSU beating MSU last week), or, more possible, if NC would beat Clemson, then it will get itchy. I think both have to happen for Ohio State to have a great case. But if only one of those upsets occurs we have B1G East Division 2nd place Ohio State pitted against a 2 loss conference champion Stanford or a one loss conference champion in NC.
Ohio State's resume is pretty weak imo. I think the VT win was a decent one. VT was healthy and had a month to prepare, but the Bucks went in there and got it done. In the process, they knocked Brewer out of the next 4 games, which contributed to the Hokie's 6-6 season. From there the Buckeyes meh'd their way past Hawaii, N Illinois, and W Michigan. At that point the conventional wisdom was that it was OK because they just needed to round into form by Nov. They showed offensive and defensive issues in closer than expected wins over Indiana and Maryland. Against PSU and Rutgers they appeared to be rounding into form. They dominated both games (excepting Barkley's rush performance), but, in doing that, they were simply doing what they were expected to do, but did not prove that they were a top 4 team. Penn St is the second decent, respectable win on the schedule to this point. Rutgers was a total mis-match, but the Bucks seemed to have settled on a QB, and seemed to have a chance to build toward Nov, but our QB decided to drink and drive and he got busted. The Bucks followed that with OK wins over Minnesota and Illinois, which kept them alive, but made them look more like a solid #15 team than a dominant top 4 team. Then we have an inexplicable loss in Ohio Stadium to a team that had struggled worse than OSU had all year - without their starting QB, who was presumed to be Sparty's only chance for victory. Then, after being released from the burdens of a winning streak and fear of losing, they looked like the team we expected them to and got their first and only quality win of the season last Sat in AA.
1 quality win and 2 decent wins (although there are arguments against those teams being quality/decent) with a whole lot of meh in between, and a loss that had everyone questioning what in the world has been going on in the Woody. Following VT, the Buckeyes needed to dominate everyone from there up to Sparty, then if they dropped that one, but put it on scUM - then they would have a better argument. As it is, their biggest assets are a dominant win at scUM, they are the defending champs, and they have the potential to be much better than they have played. That's going to be pitted against a NC ACC champ with a win over the consensus #1 team and/or a Stanford PAC champion who played a better schedule and has more quality wins.
Essentially, NC needs to beat Clemson ugly, and USC needs to beat Stanford, and then the CFBPC will probably look at Ohio State and declare them the prettiest girl among a bunch of ugly girls.
I suspect that Ohio State could be one of the 4 best teams right now, but that's a suspicion/belief, not anything provable. The 2015 Buckeyes had an unbelievable amount of potential, but they pissed it away for reasons I don't completely grasp. All they can do now is try to prove how good they are in probably a non-playoff bowl game against a very good opponent.
if Ohio State doesn't get in which is likely and Oklahoma wins it all there should be much ado re: the Buckeyes 3rd game in 2016 at Oklahoma. ok, enough about next year.
