Arguably 2015 MSU over Ohio St, based on head to head.
by rockmcd (2021-11-10 18:13:19)

In reply to: Has the committee ever gotten it wrong? *  posted by MrE

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They each finished with one loss - MSU lost to a crappy Nebraska team that finished 6-7, while Ohio St had the misfortune of having their sole loss be against the team that they tied with. It wasn't controversial because we are accustomed to using head-to-head as a tiebreaker, and in MSU's defense they also had a terrific non-conference win over Oregon and the win over Ohio St was in Columbus. But I don't necessarily agree that the team who had the more embarrassing loss is automatically "better", which is effectively how it works out with divisional tiebreakers.

To look at it another way, hypothetically if Michigan St had lost to Michigan (that was the infamous fumbled snap on game ending punt attempt) but beaten Nebraska, then MSU would have an even stronger resume, but it would have resulted in a three-way tie for the Big 10 East lead, which could have opened the door for Ohio St to reach the B10 title game depending on the tiebreaker rules, and then the Playoffs. So why is Ohio State's season "better" than MSU under that hypothetical scenario, but MSU was "better" than Ohio St based on what actually happened? The answer is because divisional tiebreakers favor the team that lost to the weaker team.



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