2016-2017 College Football Playoff and bowl schedule

So much for “every game matters”. Two of the Power Five conferences will be shut out right? Ohio State is in the playoff because of its performance over the entire season.

After Penn State beat Michigan State on the final day of the regular season November 26, thus clinching the Big Ten East Division, the Buckeyes focused a large effort on recruiting.

The Crimson Tide is the only team to make the playoff in each of the three years of its existence. So there are no arguments here nor, I doubt, in Norman, Okla.

The Buckeyes are in at the expense of Big Ten champ Penn State. They’re going to kill Washington and do the same thing to the Clemson-Ohio State victor. Maybe it’s time to drain this swamp.

Before the Big Ten championship, there was some talk of the Badgers appearing in the CFP. It crushed ranked Washington State. A similar situation happened only a couple of times in the 16 years of the old Bowl Championship Series system, most recently when Louisiana State and Alabama, both of the Southeastern Conference, played in the national title game in January 2012. Oho State did not.

The Lions began the season 2-2 with losses to Pitt and No. 6 MI, the latter a 39-point rout.

Penn State also defeated Ohio State in their head-to-head confrontation, 24-21.

“We looked at one-loss Washington, and that loss being against at top-10 opponent (USC), compared to a two-loss Penn State team“, CFP committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said on ESPN. So Penn State has nothing to hang their heads about this year.

They are: No. 5 Penn State, No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 USC and No. 8 Oklahoma. Clemson and Washington suffered their lone losses in November.

That puts unbeaten Western Michigan in the best position to go to the Cotton Bowl if it wins the Mid-American Conference, but still in danger of being nudged out if Boise State wins its conference. Their last appearance in the game was in 2009 against Penn State and finished a stretch during which the Trojans played in four straight Rose Bowl Games and five in six years.

As confetti rained down on Ohio State (on three separate occasions) in 2014-15, quarterback J.T. Barrett was forced to celebrate from the confines of a scooter as he recovered from a broken ankle suffered during the fourth quarter of a win over MI. The CFP committee awarded the Huskies the fourth and final spot on Sunday over Big Ten champion Penn State, which was ranked fifth. The Buckeyes ranked second in the committee’s rankings going into the week, but they also weren’t playing in the Big Ten championship game.

Hancock is a prince of a guy, but when it comes to college football’s postseason, he’s the smiling sheriff of the fun police.

Oklahoma (10-2) moved into the seventh spot in the AP poll after beating Oklahoma State on Saturday to win the Big 12 championship. In 2016 and 2014, the Big 12 drew the short straw.

“Our team is very excited about having the opportunity to, first of all, be selected to play in the playoffs“, Alabama coach Nick Saban said.

And it’s not like there are four unbeaten teams plowing through power conferences. If there is pressure, it is on the selection committee.

The problem I have with those four selections is the process itself. If there are going to be conferences and championships within them, they should be meaningful as Mike Ozanian has written on Forbes.