I hate to say it, but they were in it. They were 6-1 and favored in every remaining game of the regular season. If they had taken care of business, I think the B1G title game would have been a win and your in situation for them regardless of their soft schedule. A 12-1 B1G champ coming off a win over UM or OSU isn't getting left out. An early season loss on the road to a top 10 team is a quality loss.To stay in the playoff race, you had to have a chance to begin with
Now they had no prayer to beat UM or OSU. But they could have controlled their own destiny to that point.