re: Ohio State is easily deserving of a playoff berth.

Non-conference wins because there are more than 4 conferences. Those games, and the difficulty of them, determine which conference champions make the playoffs. Playing a weak OOC schedule is a dangerous game where winning your conference ends up being not enough.

Because in a sports league with over 120 teams and only 4 playoff spots, it is impossible for all of those teams to play each other enough to really know who is "best". There has to be a means of whittling down all those teams to just 4. The best and most objective way is to force those teams to compete in divisions of 6 or 7 teams. The best out of those 6 or 7 play the best of another division. That produces 10 conference champions jockying for 4 playoff spots. To evaluate which 4 champions are most worthy, the strength of their games is evaluated. Everyone knew the road map before the season. Ohio State played well and did everythig they needed to do to ensure that if they won their conference that they would be in. They played in a tough conference, beat good teams OOC, and finished with only 1 loss. Unfortunately for them, that 1 loss allowed another team to win their division. They failed to heck all of the boxes needed to be in that group of 10 conference champs who compete for playoff spots. They should not get rewardsd for that by getting to avoid the risk of losing their conference championship game and getting in. The Big 12 has a major bias against it, putting it solidly as the 5th best conference and first one out, because it lacks a championship game. Ohio State should be held to an even stricter standard considering its lack of a division title.

Conference championships are relatively useless for the playoff under the current structure.

The Big 12 got in last year despite their garbage championship situation.

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So Arkansas doesn't complete a ridiculously improbable 4th and 25 and win on their SECOND two-point attempt beat Ole Miss in OT last year, Alabama wouldn't have made the playoffs using your criteria.

Yet, Alabama was clearly the best team last year. You want the NATIONAL (keyword) champion to be left our because in some unrelated game, a team won despite a 0.01% chance of that happening?

What is the point of a NATIONAL championship if we can easily leave out the best teams?

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We have a tournament to decide who's best and Ohio St got eliminated

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How can they be the best teams if they aren't the best teams in their conferences or divisions?

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Well they were first in their division. They lost the tie breaker (an important one that should be considered).

But what if it came down to the "random draw" tie breaker; would they be more or less deserving, depending on the random draw?

Or what if, Michigan, in an unrelated game, beat Iowa? Would OSU then be better than Penn State because they would have won the tie breaker?

Ohio State would have won in that scenario. Does it seem arbitrary? Well, a little, but all playoff systems require arbitrary measures to wittle down the teams, unless it's the NBA where over half the damn league makes it in. This is why I rooted for Michigan last weekend, just to eliminate this controversy.

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Well, a little, but all playoff systems require arbitrary measures to wittle down the teams

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And none of those arbitrary measures include conference champions only.

And if it did, then eliminate non-conference games altogether.

I'm sure it will be exciting when OSU plays Purdue and Illinois instead of Oklahoma, or when LSU and Alabama play Vanderbilt instead of Wisconsin and USC.

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The NFL gives major deference to division champions.

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And they play each team twice, home and away (unless in London). They also add 8 other games, which MATTER, increasing the sample size to 16--rather than the 7 to 9 games (depending on conference) that you're arguing for.

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Yet 7-9 division winners host a playoff game and 11-5 teams sit at home for the postseason.

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Well there has only been one full season where a team with a losing record made the playoffs, and no 11-5 teams or better were left out.

And that has been enough for many to advocate for getting rid of divisions.