College Football Playoff 2017: Case for the Ohio State Buckeyes

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Ohio State football controls their own destiny for a Big Ten championship. Will the Buckeyes’ season also end with a College Football Playoff berth?

After the 2016 season ended with no Big Ten championship and a shutout loss in the playoff to Clemson, Ohio State entered the 2017 with hopes of raising a championship trophy. The Buckeyes had all the tools to win the conference and get back to the playoff.

The season started with a tough conference game at Indiana. The Hoosiers gave the Buckeyes all they had in the first half and part of the third quarter, but eventually Ohio State proved to be too much for the Hoosiers.

The following week, Ohio State hosted Oklahoma for their home opener and were dominated by the Sooners. Many questions were raised about how good this team was given how thoroughly beaten they were at home in the Horseshoe.

Over the next five weeks, Ohio State rattled off dominating wins. They averaged over 50 points per game and the offense looked on track again, putting up big numbers. Their schedule was not exactly challenging. They had visits from Army, UNLV and Maryland along with road trips to Rutgers and Nebraska.

Finally undefeated Penn State visited Columbus in one of the most anticipated match-ups of the year. The Nittany Lions got off to a fast start from the opening kickoff and led for nearly 58 minutes. But the Buckeyes kept chipping away with quarterback J.T. Barrett having the game of his life. Ohio State finally broke through with less than two minutes to play and beat the Lions by a point.

Ohio State is 7-1 overall and a perfect 5-0 in the Big Ten. With the victory over Penn State, they are now in the driver’s seat to get to the Big Ten championship game. Let’s take a look at some reasons for and against including the Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff.