Pro Big 12 people are saying TCU should still be in if they lose, I guarantee they won’t. The committee will find a way to justify Ohio State or Bama in that case.
I think you are right here, and it’s just crazy how a group of (mostly old) men (and a couple of women) can sit in a meeting and decide who gets in the playoff, using top-notch high-quality statistical metrics like “if Alabama and TCU played today, I think Alabama would win.”
Did you hear the quote earlier this week from one of the older committee members saying Penn State was playing in the Big Ten championship game against Michigan? Penn State? Which isn’t even in the West in the first place, let alone playing in the CCG? And these are the top minds determining the final four?
In 2014 the Big 12 didn’t have a CCG, so the committee used that “13th data point” to vault an Ohio State team that lost to Virginia Tech into the playoff over a one-loss Big 12 champion that was ranked above OSU before the CCG. I absolutely can believe the 2022 committee could vault an Ohio State team that’s not playing this weekend over a team that happened to have its only loss in a CCG, completely disregarding that previously vital “13th data point.” It’s indescribably biased towards “blue bloods” - because
it’s a bunch of guys deciding who they think is “best.”