Ohio State proves College Football Playoff committee got it right January 13, 2015 3:50 am ET

Dear College Football Playoff Committee,

You got it right. Pat yourselves on the back, take a bow and enjoy the accolades. It won't always turn out this way and the target will always remain on your back. But your selection of Ohio State as the fourth and final playoff team was a stroke of genius.

Sure, TCU was a very deserving team. Yes, you sort of dodged the whole TCU-Baylor head-to-head controversy by bumping up the Buckeyes. Yeah, in hindsight, Florida State didn't belong in the top four, although an unbeaten team from a Power Five conference will never get left out unless there are five unbeaten teams.

But you did something that will set a precedent moving forward: You looked at Ohio State as it stood at the moment in late December and pulled the trigger.

"We've been underdogs in every big game. People didn't respect the talent," Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said Monday night as confetti fell on his head and LeBron James congratulated the Buckeyes' no-so-long-ago third-string quarterback. "That's understandable. We needed to prove ourselves after our performance early in the year. We just got better every single game. The committee got it right, and I believe it's because the football people watched this team. They watched it from a football perspective."

One of the new realities of a college football world with parity and a playoff is that it opens the door for improving teams to win it all. Think of it as a mini-NFL playoffs, where teams can get hot and build confidence at the right time.

You saw that in Ohio State even despite a bad two-touchdown loss at home to Virginia Tech in September when JT Barrett was just getting started at quarterback. You saw that in Ohio State once Barrett went down and Cardale Jones had to fill in for the injured Barrett.

This was by no means a great Ohio State team. Even late in the year, the Buckeyes had trouble completely putting away mediocre teams such as Indiana and Michigan. So the doubts were understandable about Ohio State.

When Barrett, who finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting, went down so late in the year, people wrote off the Buckeyes. I know I did.

"We had a chip on our shoulder, absolutely, because nobody gave us a freakin' shot after we lost to Va. Tech," linebacker Joshua Perry said.

You 12 committee members gave Ohio State a shot. Or to put it more accurately, you didn't write them off. You let the season play itself out, even though we had to wade through the murky waters of weekly rankings that really didn't mean anything.

In the old BCS world, human voters who don't study the teams very well and computers with no accountability would have paired Alabama vs. Florida State for the national title. You refreshingly gave us instead semifinals that produced Ohio State vs. Oregon. The country needed a break from the SEC.

"All we needed was a chance and we were able to show the world what we could do," offensive lineman Darryl Baldwin said. "It's all you could ask for. Without the playoff, we wouldn't be here. I'm just so thankful we were able to get it this year and to be the first ever to win the championship this way, it's just a blessing."

What was it committee chairman Jeff Long said on Dec. 7 when justifying the Buckeyes' selection instead of TCU and Baylor? He cited the Buckeyes' 7-0 record against teams with winning records, a superior nonconference résumé in relation to Baylor, and a dominating 59-0 victory against Wisconsin to win the Big Ten championship.

"It was an impressive win," Long said on Dec. 7. "It was a 13th game against a highly ranked opponent. It had an effect. It was an additional game that we could see Ohio State prove their strength. It was significant. I can't say that it wasn't."

Look, playoff committee: You're always going to give us some controversy. That's the nature of picking only four teams. Your comments through Long's voice about the value of a conference championship game took Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby by surprise, since he didn't think it would be a factor.

"I thought Bob Bowlsby did a great job of not slamming the system or the committee," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said Monday night. "We should all do that. There will be a time for all us to be disappointed. But every time there's a disappointment, it doesn't mean you resolve it by expanding the field."

Sure, maybe Ohio State got in partly because it's a brand name. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer acknowledged that might have been a factor. But without your inspired choice -- or desire for high TV ratings, one or the other -- think of what we wouldn't have seen.

We wouldn't have gotten to meet Cardale Jones, who remarkably beat Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon in his first three starts at quarterback to win the inaugural CFP title.

We wouldn't have yet witnessed exactly how good Ezekiel Elliott is as the Buckeyes' running back. He gained 8.5 yards a carry in two playoff wins, including one against the nation's No. 1 rush defense in Alabama.

We wouldn't have gotten to see Ohio State defend the top three Heisman Trophy finalists in consecutive games. Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon and Alabama's Amari Cooper were bottled up, although no one could truly contain Oregon's Marcus Mariota.

We wouldn't have seen such a selfless team continue to play for each other and get better week after week.

"I don't want to get overdramatic," Meyer said, "but it's as improved a football team, and I've watched for a long time from Game 1 to Game 15. I've never seen anything like it."

Rest well, playoff selection committee. You passed Year 1.

Sincerely,
College Football