The case against the Ohio State Buckeyes' College Football Playoff resume is already being made. And it's using their 14-7 Week 1 win against the Texas Longhorns at the "Shoe" against them.
USA Today's Matt Hayes believes OSU, the Indiana Hoosiers, and the TAMU Aggies all have one signature win and a bunch of victories over some cupcakes. But Hayes feels the Buckeyes' lone ranked win isn't built equally to IU and TAMU's.
"Ohio State is on top of the US LBM Coaches Poll and the Associated Press poll, the two polls used for ranking teams until the first CFP poll. And it has nothing to do with good wins," Hayes wrote.
"The three teams with legitimate arguments for the No. 1 ranking — Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M — all have one win against a currently ranked team, and have handled the remainder of their schedules with relative ease."
"But all three wins against ranked teams are not equal."
"Indiana went on the road and physically dominated Oregon, and Texas A&M went to South Bend and won in the closing seconds. Ohio State, meanwhile, won a yawner of a home game against a Texas team that struggles to move the ball offensively against any Power conference school not named Mississippi State."
Perhaps Hayes should wait a few weeks before making this point. The Washington Huskies could force themselves into the College Football Playoff conversation, having almost identical losses to the Buckeyes and TTUN, and with a chance to go 10-2 with a win over the Oregon Ducks during rivalry week.
Would that Oregon win look as good for Indiana then? And who says the Notre Dame Fighting Irish survive both a matchup with the 7-0 Navy Midshipmen and Pat Narduzzi's surging Pitt Panthers in Pittsburgh in consecutive weeks? Maybe the supposed big wins from the current No. 2 and No. 3 teams won't look as big by December.
Have we learned nothing from the preseason poll that had Texas at No. 1, the Penn State Nittany Lions at No. 2, and the Clemson Tigers at No. 4? Let the games be played.
And if nothing else, shouldn't we trust the defending national champions over teams that have either never won it all or haven't done so since the end of World War II?