Ohio State Doesn't Get Champions Benefit of the Doubt in Initial Rankings

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A year ago, the Ohio State Buckeyes' path to the College Football Playoff set many precedents for the sport's new postseason process, many of which benefited the Buckeyes in their quest to capture the national championship.

In its attempt at defending its crown, Ohio State set another standard in the playoff process on Tuesday night.

That's when the first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2015 season were released, with the selection committee having to take into account the merits of a defending playoff championship for the first time. If Tuesday's rankings were any indication, the Buckeyes won't be receiving the benefit of the doubt based on last season's accomplishments, as the top-ranked team in The Associated Press Top 25 and Amway Coaches Poll found itself slotted third in the playoff's premiere rankings of the 2015 campaign.

Ohio State trailed No. 1 Clemson and No. 2 LSU, while being ranked ahead of No. 4 Alabama in the initial rankings release.

As committee chair and Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long explained on the ESPN broadcast of the reveal, Clemson topping the Buckeyes as the top-ranked team came as a result of the Tigers possessing more quality wins than Ohio State at the moment.

"I think the quality of their victories and certainly the Notre Dame victory at home," Long answered when asked what qualified Clemson as the No. 1 team. "They have four teams that have better than a .500 [winning percentage] record that they defeated. That, combined, really with an offense and a defense that are strong on both sides of the ball. I think that's what won the day in the committee's eyes for the No. 1 ranking."

Rainier Ehrhardt/Associated Press

The Buckeyes, meanwhile, have three wins over teams with records over .500 this season, but no victories over opponents currently ranked in the playoff committee's top 25. Unlike in the AP Top 25 or coaches poll, Ohio State's standing as defending champion didn't secure its status as the top-ranked team, a departure from the way the traditional polls have typically been put together in the past.

"Really it came down to evaluating their resumes, what they've done, who they've beaten and how they've played in those games," Long said of the committee's process.

The good news for the Buckeyes is the position they find themselves in at the moment is actually more favorable than it was a year ago. Despite suffering a loss to Virginia Tech in the second week of the season in 2014, Ohio State climbed from No. 16 in the first rankings reveal to No. 4 in the matter of six weeks, before beating No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Oregon en route to capturing the national title.

This season, the Buckeyes know they control their own destiny when it comes to the College Football Playoff. While it may not be the first or even second-ranked team at the moment, the heart of Ohio State's schedule remains ahead of it, with season-defining games against No. 7 Michigan State and No. 17 Michigan still around the corner.

And as Buckeyes fans learned last season, earning those quality wins—and a subsequent Big Ten championship—will be what matters most to the selection committee.

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Because while last year's Ohio State squad seemed to be getting better with each passing week, it wasn't until it picked up a road win over No. 8 Michigan State that it was considered a serious threat to make the playoff. The Buckeyes then bolstered their resume with a 59-0 win over No. 13 Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, giving Urban Meyer's team arguably the key piece to its playoff berth—an outright conference championship.

That turned out to be the deciding factor for Ohio State when it came to making the inaugural playoff, with the Buckeyes edging out Big 12 co-champions TCU and Baylor for the fourth and final spot. While he declined to get into specifics, Long indicated that Ohio State benefited from its status as an undisputed conference champion.

"We were presented with co-champions," Long said at the time. "In the other situations, we had definitive champions for that conference."

It's also not a coincidence that with all factors being equal, it's "championships won" that the committee lists as its first piece of criteria when it comes to determining who will make the playoff.

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

For the Buckeyes, that means that winning out in the regular season before capturing a conference title would undoubtedly be enough to play for the right to defend their playoff championship. It also wouldn't hurt that a win in the Big Ten title game would most likely add another quality win to their schedule, with Big Ten West teams Iowa and Northwestern ranking ninth and 21st, respectively, in Tuesday's rankings reveal.

Whether that—in addition to potential wins over the Spartans and Wolverines in the weeks leading up to it—would be enough to give Ohio State a top-two ranking and more favorable semifinals matchup and/or location remains to be seen, and would most likely be dependent on how the Buckeyes perform on the field from here on out.

But unlike last year, the Buckeyes know exactly what they need to do to get to where they need to be, thanks in large part to the precedents they helped set a season ago.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Odds provided by Odds Shark. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.