If the College Football Playoff selection committee's goal was to get the four best teams into the playoff, then the committee failed. The four best teams in the last month are Alabama, USC, Ohio State and Clemson _ but USC, who pounded Washington on Washington's home field in November, isn't in the playoff for some reason.
The Trojans have three losses, but they came early in the season, and once they sorted through some quarterback issues, they have been really good down the stretch. USC is one of the best four teams in the country, and they would beat just about any of the other contenders and give Alabama a far better game than they did on opening day.
Not having USC in the field tells me that the College Football Playoff committee's goal was to get the four most deserving teams based on their body of work _ and to that end, they failed too because the four most deserving teams are Washington, Clemson, Alabama and Penn State. The committee not only got it wrong in trying to get the four best teams together, they got it wrong in trying to get the four most deserving teams as well.
Make no mistake: Penn State should be in the playoff field ahead of Ohio State. Penn State is a lot like USC, a young and talented team that stumbled early, found itself and hit its stride. The Ohio State win was a bit of a fluke given how they scored, but the Nittany Lions won because their defensive front seven kicked the Buckeyes offensive line's rear end from start to finish.
I'm not convinced that if Ohio State and Penn State played again Ohio State would win. However, that's why the committee chose Ohio State over Penn State _ that if they played again right now, Ohio State would win because they are better. That might be true, but the Nittany Lions defensive front proved Penn State wasn't overmatched by the Buckeyes.
Penn State is 11-2, won the Big Ten, beat a top 10 team (Wisconsin) in the championship and the No. 3 team in the country (Ohio State). Thanks to Pitt and Temple, who closed their seasons in the College Football Playoff top 25, the Nittany Lions' out-of-conference schedule is much stronger now than before the season. Penn State has wins against Nos. 3, 8 and 24, and their losses are to Nos. 6 and 23, so they played five ranked opponents and were 3-2, including 2-1 against the top 10.
That proves the Nittany Lions deserved to be in the discussion. I'm OK with teams that lose a head-to-head battle ending up ranked ahead of a team that beats it because ranking teams is all about comparing a bunch of teams based on their total body of work and not just one game. I get that. But in this case, Penn State not only beat Ohio State, it won Ohio State's conference, which is considered by some to be the best conference in the country.
There are some people who believe Washington should be the odd team out, but I'll take Washington's resume over Penn State's without hesitation because the Huskies lost only one game. The Huskies had three wins against teams ranked in the final College Football Playoff top 20, Penn State had only two. The Huskies blew out mostly everyone they played, Penn State had more losses than Washington and one of Penn State's losses came to a team outside the top 20. Penn State shouldn't be in the playoff ahead of Washington, it should be in ahead of Ohio State.
All of that said, the committee did a pretty good job of choosing the four best resumes, and all four teams are deserving, so most people can live with the results. That includes a lot of Penn State fans who concede that if the Nittany Lions had either beaten Pitt or kept the Michigan game close they would be in the playoff field.
Still, the committee made a slight mistake putting the fifth-most deserving team _ Ohio State _ in the field ahead of the fourth-most deserving team _ Penn State _ and that's not what this system was supposed to do.
