Ohio State's National Title Is the Poster Child for the New Playoff — All It Took Was the Biggest Upset of the Season Not Mattering At All

Well, that went about like everyone expected. Ohio State, now unquestionably the best team in college football this season, went into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, endured a 10-minute touchdown drive from Notre Dame to start the game and then spent most of the next 50 minutes manhandling the Fighting Irish to win its third national championship this century.

And if you were looking for a poster child for the 12-team College Football Playoff, you couldn't have scripted a better one than the 10-2 Buckeyes limping into the field off a loss in their final regular season game before reeling off wins against the No. 1, No. 3, No. 5 and No. 7 teams en route to the title. That's precisely the team this system was designed for.

But about that last regular season game: remember when that would have meant something? It already seems like so long ago that 6-5 Michigan going into Columbus to hand Ohio State its second loss would have not only given the Wolverines bragging rights for another year, but would have sent the Bucks to an ultimately meaningless bowl game instead of giving them an extra week to rest up for the Playoff. I miss those days, to be honest with you.

I kept hearing the argument this year that the 12-team field made the regular season more "meaningful." Well, meaningful for whom, exactly? Certainly not for Ohio State. It was able to lose its biggest game of the year and be just fine. I guess it made Arizona State-Kansas State more interesting to watch for the casual fan. Is that worth sacrificing the "meaning" of results like Michigan winning in Columbus as a three-touchdown underdog?

Georgia was probably the best team in college football last year but didn't even make the CFP because it lost by a field goal to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game to finish the season 12-1. I don't recall an outcry of support for the Bulldogs after they were left out, yet now any team that manages to scrounge together nine wins is supposed to be given a chance at the national title.

And if we're going to make the entire season just a tune-up for the CFP, why stop at 12 teams? We're pretty sure OSU was the best team in the sport this year, but who's to say Ole Miss wouldn't have gone on a similar run if the Rebels were given a Playoff spot?

Ohio State is a more than deserving national champion after going on the run it did in the Playoff. But there's a difference in doing something once you're given an opportunity and whether you should have been given that opportunity in the first place. For the last 30 years, the Buckeyes' loss to Michigan would have disqualified them from being in contention for a national title and nobody would have had a problem with that. "Earn it on the field" has seemed to be a popular refrain when talking about an expanded Playoff, but that logic is not also applied to the regular season for some reason.

It seems like many college football fans are in favor of this new system where everything is solely about the Playoff at the expense of games like Michigan-Ohio State and that's fine. The Playoff was entertaining to watch — even if some of the games were blowouts because there are too many teams and it made the title game way too late into January.

Just don't piss on me and tell me it's raining.