Who Should the Fourth Team in be?

[Some guy]

The Big Ten's 9 game schedule is killing the Big Ten's chances.

With 9 conference games, your bringing the whole conference a game closer to a 0.500 record.

If you look at various rankings, it's a big reason why SEC and ACC teams are all ranked higher collectively with many teams near 20's and 30's in rankings and Big Ten with more teams in 50's and 60's.
Give each of those Big Ten teams one less cross over game and give us a cupcake, and suddenly OSU has more top 25 wins.

Yup.
One more cupcake gives the conference 7 more wins per season.

 

[die hard gopher]

After thinking about this for a bit, I've come to the conclusion that neither OU nor OSU should be in the playoff.

You can either decide who the top 4 should be based on who are the 4 most deserving or the 4 best teams. I don't care which of those two criteria you use but OSU and OU don't satisfy either.

4 best teams are Bama, Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame IMO

4 most deserving teams are Bama, Clemson ND and UCF, the only 4 undefeated teams in the FBS.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Both Irish and Clemson strength of schedule is ranked well below Gophers.

Where did you see that? I usually see ND's schedule ranked around 30th.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

The Big Ten's 9 game schedule is killing the Big Ten's chances.

With 9 conference games, your bringing the whole conference a game closer to a 0.500 record.

If you look at various rankings, it's a big reason why SEC and ACC teams are all ranked higher collectively with many teams near 20's and 30's in rankings and Big Ten with more teams in 50's and 60's.
Give each of those Big Ten teams one less cross over game and give us a cupcake, and suddenly OSU has more top 25 wins.

Yeah, the CFP committee gives a collective pfft about the more difficult schedules. The dependence on already deeply flawed Top 25 rankings and the drawing of conclusions from counting the number of Top 10 or Top 25 wins/losses and throwing in a dash of “eye test” is an example of compounding errors.