Ohio State Buckeyes Left Out of CFP Playoff, Heading To Cotton Bowl to Play Missouri
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00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:10 Well, hi everybody, Brendan Gulick with you and
00:15 welcome to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on frankly, a somber Sunday.
00:19 This is not the reaction that the Ohio State Buckeyes were hoping to have today.
00:25 A frustrating and as Ryan Day said, sobering day here in Columbus.
00:30 I think they were holding on to some outside hopes that perhaps
00:35 the Buckeyes might be one of the four teams selected for
00:37 the college football playoff as unlikely as that maybe seemed going into the day
00:41 today, but as it turns out, Ohio State was left on the outside looking in.
00:45 They are the number seven ranked team in the country in the final CFP poll.
00:49 And so they really weren't part of the conversation for
00:52 one of those top four spots, and it goes to losing, not just losing to Michigan,
00:58 but frankly, in my opinion, losing at the wrong time of year.
01:00 I don't like that that's part of the deal here, but it seems pretty clear cut
01:05 that losing at the wrong time of the year is pretty impactful.
01:09 And so Ohio State will play in the Cotton Bowl on Friday, December 29th.
01:14 They're gonna play the Missouri Tigers who have had a very good season.
01:16 And Ohio State, I think,
01:18 will probably have a pretty competitive game against Missouri.
01:21 Because the Tigers are gonna come in wanting to beat the Buckeyes.
01:24 That would be a win that would be a resounding victory for their program.
01:27 Who the heck knows who's gonna play in that game for Ohio State?
01:30 We will find out all those answers along the way.
01:33 But Ryan Day talked to the media today for
01:35 the first time since losing to Michigan, now eight days ago.
01:39 And he touched on a wide variety of topics.
01:41 And we'll get into some of those here.
01:43 I'm trying to give you the impression of what it's like around here.
01:47 And while there are a number of my fellow media members on both sides,
01:51 we're all kind of spread out in the indoor field talking with you now.
01:54 It's pretty quiet.
01:56 And it feels metaphorically like the dark clouds that we see outside right now in
02:02 central Ohio, not a great day.
02:04 Pretty darn disappointing for
02:06 the Buckeyes because of the way this thing all shook out.
02:10 And I asked Ryan Day a couple of questions that were not so
02:14 much about Ohio State, but more college football central.
02:18 I asked him point blank, hey, you are a coach that preaches winning at all costs.
02:24 Just win, figure it out, you just gotta win.
02:27 It doesn't matter if it's an offensive blowout like we've seen the last few years.
02:31 Doesn't matter if it's incredible defensive efforts like we've seen a lot
02:34 here this year, winning at all costs matters.
02:38 And I wanted to know how it sat with him that a 13 and
02:42 0 team that plays in a Power Five conference that won at all costs
02:46 without their star quarterback did not get in the playoff.
02:49 How did that sit with him?
02:50 And he really didn't wanna get into the specifics around the decision.
02:53 He's trying to stay focused on Ohio State, and I get all that.
02:56 But he alluded to the fact that he didn't think it was right that a undefeated
03:02 Power Five conference team did not make the college football playoff.
03:05 He thinks that should get you in the playoff.
03:08 I think he's right.
03:09 I think it's completely ridiculous that Florida State was left out.
03:12 Don't care what other people think right now about Alabama being better than
03:15 Florida State.
03:16 They very well might be right now.
03:17 I think Florida State got hosed beyond a measure of a doubt.
03:23 And I get the impression that that doesn't sit well with Ohio State fans either.
03:27 Because while they didn't take care of their business against Michigan, and so
03:31 ultimately they can only look themselves in the mirror.
03:33 Knowing that winning at all costs isn't actually always enough to get you in,
03:41 is not okay.
03:42 And there are some problems with college football and
03:44 the way things are changing might address some of those.
03:48 I think it's a good thing that we're going to an expanded playoff.
03:50 I've said 100 times recently that for 10 years I have felt it's really dumb to
03:56 have a four team playoff when you had five Power Five conferences.
03:59 And obviously things have changed.
04:00 That's going to go away a little bit now with the expansion.
04:03 But there are a lot of questions about this sport at large that
04:11 people are asking themselves today.
04:13 Here's a great example.
04:14 The committee says that Liberty, in a game that nobody at the top of college
04:19 football is going to care about, right?
04:21 Liberty's playing Oregon because Liberty apparently was dominant in their schedule
04:26 and undefeated compared to SMU.
04:29 Even though Liberty had the lowest strength of schedule in the entire country.
04:33 There are so many contradictions with these final CFP rankings that
04:38 have left people really, really upset today.
04:39 And while Ohio State certainly isn't blaming anybody for
04:43 their lack of inclusion in the playoff, I guarantee you there are some people
04:47 within this building that are pretty ticked off by what they saw today in
04:50 those rankings.
04:51 So I guess we'll just leave that part at that.
04:54 I did also ask Ryan Day a question that I think a lot of people want to know
04:58 the answer to around scheduling good competition outside of the league.
05:02 They've played at least one high quality team the last several years outside
05:06 of league play.
05:08 Obviously, Notre Dame was the big non-conference win this year, and for
05:11 so long, that was bolstering Ohio State's resume, right?
05:15 That's why they were number two going into the last week of the regular season,
05:18 because they beat Notre Dame on the road, and they beat Penn State, and
05:21 they were undefeated.
05:23 Huge reason for why they were number two.
05:25 I asked Ryan Day, hey, with the changes coming, are you still in favor
05:29 of scheduling Texas, Georgia, Alabama like they are on your future schedule?
05:34 Obviously, Oregon is now a conference team, but
05:37 Oregon had been on the future schedule as well.
05:40 And Ryan unequivocally said, yes, you have to play those teams outside of league play.
05:45 You measure yourself against the best teams in the country, and
05:48 you learn about how good you are or are not based on how you play in those games.
05:53 And he made it pretty clear he wants to continue to schedule that caliber of team.
05:58 So if you're an Ohio State fan looking to see what this schedule might look like
06:02 moving forward, sounds pretty clear to me like Ohio State is gonna continue to make
06:07 it a priority to play those teams, and that they wouldn't necessarily look to
06:10 back out of contracts, at least at this stage of the game,
06:13 with some of those other big teams.
06:15 I think that's really interesting,
06:16 because there are a lot of people that disagree with that.
06:18 I'm glad to see Ryan Day takes that stance.
06:21 But there are a lot of people saying, well, gee, what good does it do to go play
06:26 teams that could beat you when now there are even more spots available to you?
06:32 With his 12 team playoff, he was asked basically, hey,
06:36 what do you think about the idea of playing a conference championship?
06:40 Is it even relevant anymore?
06:41 Should you not play one because you could hurt yourself if you lose at the wrong
06:46 time moving forward?
06:48 Ohio State's got the, they've got sort of the blessing here of being able to
06:54 recruit to a place with the fans and the tradition and
06:57 all the resources that are available here.
07:00 It would be an enormous shame to even think about Ohio State not being a top 12
07:06 program in the country, right?
07:08 That would be pretty hard to fathom.
07:10 So they should probably feel pretty good about making the playoff every year here
07:15 moving forward, but Ryan Day didn't wanna go much into that.
07:17 He was pretty focused on saying, look, we didn't win last week, and
07:22 we needed to win, and it's been a pretty tough week around here.
07:24 I admire the fact that he's taking a lot of ownership of that.
07:30 There were so many people here this last week that were, hey,
07:33 does this guy even get it?
07:34 He's lost three in a row.
07:36 Does he even understand how important this game is in the state of Ohio?
07:39 It's pretty clear Ryan Day unquestionably knows what losing to Michigan is all
07:44 about and why that is problematic and why that's not the standard around here.
07:49 I think it really bothered him that at 11 and 1,
07:56 they weren't even talked about as one of the top four teams in the country
08:01 on the national selection show today.
08:04 You never even saw Ohio State's graphic on the screen.
08:07 There's never even a conversation on whether or not they should be in the top
08:10 four based on the details that we were shown publicly.
08:14 They didn't even bring a reporter here nationally to cover that.
08:17 I think that's kind of crazy because if you look at what actually happened today
08:23 with Florida State, if Georgia beat Alabama,
08:27 then the top four were Georgia, Michigan, Washington, and Texas,
08:31 because they were the next best team in.
08:33 So Florida State was never getting in the playoff at all,
08:37 regardless of how they played yesterday, even with Alabama beating Georgia,
08:41 because the reversal would have also kept them out.
08:45 And so a tough day around here realizing that a one score loss on the road,
08:53 where you had the ball at the end of the game, you were driving and
08:56 you threw a game ceiling interception, that ended your season essentially.
09:02 And you could kind of feel the weight of that around here this afternoon.
09:07 Not a lot of fun right now in Columbus.
09:09 In terms of turning their attention forward,
09:12 they're gonna play Missouri Tigers team that's been pretty good this year.
09:17 And who knows what the team's gonna look like when they actually get off the plane
09:21 and which guys are gonna play and which ones aren't.
09:24 It's a wild time in college football right now.
09:28 And in the middle of that press conference, news comes out on social media
09:33 from Evan Pryor that he's entering the transfer portal.
09:35 I'm sure that didn't catch Ryan off guard.
09:37 I'm sure he had that conversation ahead of time.
09:39 He certainly didn't react as though he didn't know that was gonna happen.
09:42 But considering the transfer portal's not technically even open until tomorrow,
09:49 how many of these guys are already leaving schools and
09:52 then committing to new programs just continues to show that it's the Wild West
09:57 and the rules are in so many ways not relevant.
10:01 And it's terrible what's happened in a lot of ways to this sport and
10:07 what we're turning this into.
10:09 I hope there are better forces at play where we can make some progress
10:16 on getting things back to what we know and love about college football.
10:19 But I'm concerned that there are too many things that are too far off the tracks in
10:24 that regard.
10:25 So personally, I don't think it's a shock
10:30 if Marvin Harrison doesn't play in the Cotton Bowl.
10:33 We don't know for sure.
10:34 He is one of a number of guys that I think realistically could opt out.
10:40 Now, I've also heard recently that maybe it's not a 100% guarantee that Marvin
10:45 bolts for the NFL.
10:47 He's obviously one of the best players in the country, and
10:49 he would unquestionably be one of the first picks in the NFL draft,
10:53 maybe even the top pick.
10:54 The NIL era has changed things so
10:58 drastically that I don't think you can rule out any possibility.
11:02 Maybe Marvin decides he wants to stay.
11:04 Maybe he gets an NIL deal that is so valuable to him, and his goals are still
11:10 part of the most important fabric of who he is that he wants to accomplish at
11:15 Ohio State, maybe he wants to stay.
11:17 I guess we're gonna find out.
11:18 He's got some thoughts and conversations he needs to work his way through.
11:22 But this does have a feel similar to the Rose Bowl a couple years ago,
11:28 where Ohio State's like, hey, we had a great year.
11:30 And ultimately, it just wasn't quite enough at the end to get in the college
11:35 football playoff itself.
11:37 And so you're using this bowl game to both conclude this year and
11:41 in some ways already start trying to make an impression for the following year.
11:45 What young guys are gonna pop up and
11:48 make big plays down at Jerry's World in Dallas.
11:52 The game is on Friday, December 29th.
11:55 It's one of the first couple of the New Year's Six Bowl games.
11:58 I think there are a lot of fans that are feeling like, man, what do we care?
12:05 We're playing Missouri and it's not a college football playoff game.
12:09 And we've created this scenario now where if you're not in the playoff,
12:14 then whatever game you're playing is irrelevant.
12:16 And there are a lot of fans that feel that way, and I get that.
12:19 But there's gonna be a lot of interesting things to watch from this team
12:24 leading up to that game and in that game, because you are looking at the future.
12:28 And there are gonna be a lot of young guys that are gonna work hard
12:32 during practices the next couple of weeks here to try to make impressions that they
12:35 should get legitimate playing time and be a big part of this thing moving forward.
12:38 Ryan was asked a ton of questions about Michigan and about quarterback play.
12:45 And I think the best way to sum it all up is that he was very noncommittal
12:50 when asked about who was gonna play quarterback,
12:52 whether they were looking for a quarterback in the transfer portal.
12:55 Should Kyle just be the starting quarterback and that's that?
13:00 And Devin Brown and Lincoln Kienholz, would they play, would they not play?
13:04 He was extremely noncommittal in answering all those questions.
13:08 And frankly, I don't blame him.
13:12 The reality probably set in for him that the Buckeyes were not gonna make
13:17 the college football playoff when they saw Alabama beat Georgia on Saturday night.
13:22 I would guess that's probably when Ryan Day could realistically say,
13:26 I don't know if we're gonna get in this thing.
13:29 So maybe at that point you start thinking forward.
13:31 But prior to that,
13:32 I think you're still holding out hope that things could have fallen your way.
13:35 So I don't know that they've had nearly enough of those thoughts and
13:38 conversations around what they're gonna do in that ballgame.
13:43 But when Ryan was asked to evaluate Kyle McCord this year, he said, and I quote,
13:48 I think he's a good quarterback, I do.
13:49 He acknowledged where he started, how we got better,
13:53 how we progressed throughout the course of the season.
13:55 And ultimately, yeah, was it good enough or was it not good enough?
13:59 They need to figure that out.
14:00 He said, when you lose the last game of the year and you're 11 and
14:05 one and you don't make the playoff, you evaluate everything.
14:08 What wasn't quite good enough to keep you out?
14:12 And yeah, quarterback is part of that evaluation.
14:14 But he's gonna evaluate the coaching staff.
14:17 He's gonna evaluate offensive line.
14:19 He's gonna evaluate the defense.
14:21 He's also dealing with the fact right now that Jim Knowles interviewed for
14:25 the head coaching job at Duke.
14:26 I know Ryan would prefer to keep Jim Knowles here.
14:32 He made the comment, Jim is really happy at Ohio State, but
14:34 recognizes that it's part of the business that it's the time of year where
14:38 guys could get plucked off your staff.
14:40 And maybe he decides he needs to make staff changes on his own accord.
14:42 He said, he'll evaluate that.
14:44 Perhaps there's reason for him to make some of those moves before a bowl game.
14:51 Because then you could start to see what some of that looks like before you
14:54 actually get into spring practice and start working toward next year.
14:59 So yeah, there's an awful lot to be determined with this Ohio State
15:03 program right now.
15:04 And I would say the body isn't even cold yet.
15:08 That's probably the best way to put it.
15:10 It's a sad day.
15:12 It's a somber day.
15:13 The Buckeyes are not happy right now.
15:15 And the stinging loss from Ann Arbor a week ago is still very much present.
15:23 I am very interested to see how Ryan Day
15:33 wants this thing to go forward the next couple of weeks.
15:35 What guys is he gonna give opportunities to?
15:39 How does he coach Kyle McCord through some pretty tough adversity right now?
15:45 Ryan was asked about the mental health initiatives
15:51 that he's been so omnipresent with here during his time.
15:55 And Kyle McCord's probably gotten a heck of a lot of vitriol on social media and
16:02 national pundits in every corner of America saying that Ohio State's quarterback
16:06 play wasn't quite good enough here.
16:07 And Ryan reiterated in the press conference today,
16:11 he knows he's loved around here.
16:13 And you try to build somebody up as best you can and prepare them for
16:17 when things like that happen to try their best to ignore the outside noise.
16:22 Kyle's a tough kid.
16:23 And I think he's able to handle some of that criticism that's come his way.
16:27 And look, I've said it all along.
16:30 I didn't think quarterback play was the problem for the Buckeyes this year.
16:33 But we can debate that another time.
16:37 I thought he played well enough to win.
16:39 I don't know, certainly disappointing that Ohio State is at this point of the year
16:45 and not in the college football playoff.
16:48 I think the thing that most disappoints me is the fact that
16:50 the college football playoff selection committee seems to have a different set
16:56 of criteria all the time, and it's just these moving goalposts, right?
17:03 I'm not saying Ohio State should have been in the playoff this year unequivocally.
17:06 I think this is obviously the first time in ten years that you've had eight teams
17:11 that all had an argument, and some of those arguments were a little more obvious
17:14 than others.
17:15 Really doesn't sit well with me that an undefeated Power Five conference team was
17:22 left out, and then, by the way, the justification makes no sense to me that
17:29 if you take Florida State out of the playoff because you deem them not quite
17:35 good enough with their current quarterback situation, why are they ranked ahead of
17:38 Georgia?
17:40 Why are they ranked ahead of Ohio State?
17:41 You tell me right now if, I think I saw the opening line was like a 12-point line
17:47 already between Georgia and Florida State.
17:50 If Florida State's that bad, "that bad," why are they ranked ahead of Georgia in
17:57 the poll?
17:58 Why are they ranked ahead of Ohio State in the, I said poll, in the rankings,
18:02 the CFP rankings?
18:03 Right now, Ohio State and Florida State, if they played each other,
18:06 you want to tell me that Florida State would be a favorite?
18:09 Because that's kind of what that is insinuating to me, and I just,
18:14 I don't get it.
18:15 You're either rewarding teams for winning games or you're not.
18:18 I think winning is supposed to matter, and it sounds like it matters to a degree,
18:23 but it's not to be all end all, and I just don't think that's right.
18:29 So that will continue to be the debate for a long, long time.
18:32 And the reality is we will have, even though everybody says we won't,
18:35 we will have debates on who's going to get in the playoff and who isn't next year.
18:38 And maybe it's not right at the top like it has been four versus five,
18:42 it'll be 12 versus 13.
18:45 We are still going to have debates on who should get in and who shouldn't.
18:48 Those debates are still going to include high quality teams who have good resumes
18:52 that are deserving of opportunities to play in the postseason.
18:55 The good news is teams that are unquestionably good enough to win
19:00 a national championship will no longer be excluded.
19:03 And it's a shame that for the last nine years we've had that potential.
19:08 And yes, it really feels like this is the first time where that's been a huge
19:12 problem. We got lucky that we didn't have to deal with that for too long.
19:21 But there's no doubt in my mind that if Ohio State was in the college football
19:24 playoff, they could absolutely be competitive against any team in the country.
19:28 And it's a real shame that losing at a certain time of year matters more than
19:33 losing in general.
19:36 It doesn't feel like Ohio State has quite the same value placed on their high
19:42 quality wins over Notre Dame and Penn State and the way they played at Michigan
19:47 than what the committee probably should have given it.
19:50 So it is what it is.
19:51 And the Buckeyes will unfortunately lick their wounds here for a little bit,
19:55 and then they'll try to get to work.
19:57 The team is going to travel on the 23rd of December.
20:00 There will be some downtime between with this sort of being time for finals and
20:06 the end of the semester and it not being the playoff.
20:08 There will be a little bit of downtime for the team where they won't practice
20:11 quite as hard for a little bit.
20:13 Then they will hit the road on the 23rd.
20:16 They will get to Dallas.
20:17 There will be no media availability for us on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day.
20:22 I believe on the 26th is when they're gonna start having opportunities to talk
20:25 to coordinators and some players.
20:27 All leading up to, I believe it's an 8 o'clock Eastern time kickoff
20:32 on Friday, December 29th between the Buckeyes and the Missouri Tigers.
20:35 And by the way, Ryan Day was very complimentary of Coach Strinkowitz and
20:38 said, we were two young coaches that have kinda had some parallel paths crossed
20:44 with each other once in a while and have gotten to know each other a little bit.
20:47 And was complimentary of the way Missouri plays and
20:50 the challenge that's gonna be presented to them.
20:52 So you never take a chance for granted and I know Ohio State's gonna do everything
20:55 they can to try to win that game when they get down to Dallas here in a few weeks.
20:59 All right, that's probably the best summation I can give you from
21:03 the Woody Hayes Athletic Center today.
21:04 Not fun, not a great day.
21:07 And Ohio State, I think, is gonna try to wipe the slate clean as best it can and
21:13 figure out a way to make the best of the situation that they've got.
21:16 And be grateful for the fact that at least moving forward now,
21:19 they don't have to worry about a 14 playoff at this point.
21:22 But plenty of questions to be answered along the way as to who's gonna play in
21:25 that game.
21:26 We've got all the latest news and info on the team for you at BuckeyesNow.com.
21:29 And we will continue to bring you all that information as we get it.
21:33 Certainly with transfer portals becoming a huge part of college football and
21:38 officially opening on Monday, we'll follow that information for you.
21:42 National signing day is coming up here in a couple of weeks.
21:44 There's a ton of news coming down the pipe, I'm sure, on that front.
21:49 And we'll cover that for you as well.
21:51 All right, enjoy your Sunday.
21:52 Ohio State heading to Dallas to play in the Cotton Bowl,
21:55 where maybe they can channel some good vibes after having won a couple of games
21:58 down there, both against TCU in a non-bowl setting in that stadium.
22:03 But then also, obviously, having beaten USC a few years ago in the Cotton Bowl.
22:08 I'm Brendan Gulick, have a good rest of your weekend.
22:10 Thanks for joining us here at Columbus.
22:12 We'll see you real soon, BuckeyesNow.com.
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