SMQ: Which 1-loss teams are still College Football Playoff contenders?

The eighth season of the BCS yielded a big game early in the season, as two of the top five teams in the AP Top 25 met in Week 2. Ranked No. 4, the Buckeyes went to Austin to face No. 2 Texas. Both teams had high hopes of a national championship, and both teams were still in the hunt after the 25-22 Texas victory at home.

Texas took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but Ohio State turned things around before halftime. Scoring 16 unanswered points in the second quarter, the Buckeyes were up 16-13 at the intermission after a late David Pino field goal on the penultimate play of the second quarter.

After going up 22-16 lead in the final five minutes, it appeared that Jim Tressel’s team had done enough to take down the Longhorns. But Vince Young hit Limas Sweed for the go-ahead score with 2:37 left to play. A safety gave Texas the final two points, and Ohio State fell five spots to No. 9 after the defeat.

The Buckeyes went on to lose another game to Penn State at the beginning of October, but still went on to win a share of the Big Ten title. In the BCS standings, Ohio State opened at No. 15 on October 17 but managed to climb all the way to fourth in the final December standings. In a four-team system like the College Football Playoff, the Buckeyes would have been facing USC in a Rose Bowl semifinal instead of the classic that emerged between the Longhorns and Trojans.