yep, with 8, some deserving team(s), would still get fucked and left out, still the best teams would be in the playoffs. College Football Playoff Rankings 1 Alabama 13-0 2 Clemson 12-1 3 Ohio State 11-1 4 Washington 12-1 5 Penn State 11-2 6 Michigan 10-2 7 Oklahoma 10-2 8 Wisconsin 10-3 9 USC 9-3 10 Colorado 10-3 11 Florida State 9-3 12 Oklahoma State 9-3 13 Louisville 9-3 14 Auburn 8-4 15 Western Michigan 13-0 16 West Virginia 10-2 17 Florida 8-4 18 Stanford 9-3 19 Utah 8-4 20 LSU 7-4 21 Tennessee 8-4 22 Virginia Tech 9-4 23 Pittsburgh 8-4 24 Temple 10-3 25 Navy 9-3 would have been a big ol fun argument over the last spot,.. but what an awesome playoff that would have been.
TCU was third in the Big 12 in '15. I'm assuming you meant the '14 season and I don't see how you can say they got fucked. In the conference proclaiming "one true champion," they were tied for first with Baylor. That was a Big 12 screwing the pooch versus TCU getting screwed over. And, winning a game against a conference team which didn't win a single Big 12 game in '14--even if the winning margin was 40+--doesn't mean a damn thing in any of the committee's eyes: and shouldn't.
What meant everything to the selection committee was that Buckeye fans travel in large numbers and spend lots of money. If the committee didn't think TCU was worthy of being in the playoffs why did they rank them 3rd prior to the last game?
How did Baylor jump them when they were ranked below TCU is a better question. And that one is answered the same way the question about why Ohio State jumped into the mix. It's all about who you played. Baylor's opponents had a better win percentage than TCU's, Ohio State's was better than both. Going back to your original question here: Like I said earlier, a 40+ point win over whom? A team that didn't win a single conference game. Look at Ohio State. The posted a 59-0 win over Wisconsin who was ranked 13th (?) at the time of the game. Chalking this up to a fan base traveling is misplaced. OSU had a far, far better resume. I'm saw three reasons that season and the committee saw it the same: Stronger schedule for Ohio State. A more impressive win to close out the season (not to mention that extra game.) TCU did nothing to separate themselves from Baylor just as the Big 12 did nothing to put themselves in the right position. That "One True Champion" bullshit came back to bite them in the ass. Hell, it was stupid PR slogan to begin with.
