Steve Sarkisian isn’t backing off his message to the College Football Playoff selection committee: don’t punish teams for taking the kind of nonconference game college football says it wants.
On Monday, the Texas coach said Ohio State ought to come out of Saturday night’s loss to the Longhorns with credit, not penalty, if the Buckeyes wind up in the CFP conversation later this season.
“I hope Ohio State does not get punished for that game Saturday night,” Sarkisian said Monday. “They played a heck of a game.
I mean, it’s 24-23, they lose on us scoring with 25 seconds to go in the game. I hope if they end up being a 9-3 team, the committee can appreciate the fact that they came to Austin, Texas, in September, when it was 100 degrees and played us in that environment and played a heck of a game.
And so they should not be punished. Quite frankly, Ohio State should be rewarded for playing in this game against us.
“This isn’t crying over spilled milk: I don’t think we got rewarded for going to Columbus last year in Week 1. Hopefully this year they reward Ohio State for coming and playing in this game with us this year.
I don’t know their season goes; they may go 11-1, it’s a moot point. But if they are 9-3 and depending on what happens in those other two (hypothetical losses), surely I hope they get rewarded for playing this game.”
Sarkisian’s point lands in a familiar place. Texas took Ohio State down last season and still didn’t get the kind of break he thought the Longhorns deserved. Texas finished 9-3, and when the final CFP rankings came out, the Longhorns were 13th - three spots short of an at-large berth in the 12-team field.
He also made clear that Texas didn’t miss out last year because of just one result. The Longhorns lost to Florida, who was unranked, and Georgia, the eventual SEC champion. They also needed overtime to get through Kentucky and Mississippi State, two more unranked teams.
Now the roles are reversed, at least in terms of résumé strength. Texas already has a win over Ohio State, a result that could loom large when the CFP committee starts sorting through the field. Sarkisian, though, is arguing that the Buckeyes shouldn’t be docked simply for showing up in Austin and playing a high-end September game.
Ohio State still has plenty of control over its own path. The Buckeyes can win the Big Ten, and even a second loss would still leave them in good shape for a CFP spot.
Their schedule includes five more ranked opponents: No. 4 Indiana, No.
12 USC, No. 18 Iowa, No.
19 Michigan and No. 21 Oregon.
The situation gets trickier if Ohio State drops two more games and ends up 9-3, especially if one of those losses comes outside that group of ranked teams. But Sarkisian’s bigger argument is about the sport itself. If the committee makes teams pay for taking these matchups, coaches will stop scheduling them.
“If they don’t reward them for playing in the game, then all of us start playing FCS, (Group of 6), and I don’t think that’s the product that we want in college football,” Sarkisian said. “You guys love it, we love it, our fans love it, the players love it, everyone loves those matchups (like Ohio State/Texas). Well, if we want to continue with those matchups, we gotta reward the teams for playing in those games.”
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