Are the Buckeyes undisputed champs?

Screenshot from YouTube

I didn't notice this until Tuesday -- probably because I was in a sad, drunken haze the night before -- but after Ohio State romped Oregon in the College Football Playoff national championship game, its players and coaches dawned championship T-shirts with the words "Undisputed Champs" splayed prominently on the front. 

This being the first year of the CFP, not many would dispute those two words. Ohio State responded after an embarrassing loss to Virginia Tech by winning out. Sure, an double overtime win over Penn State didn't look great, but the Buckeyes counteracted that blemish by demolishing a good Wisconsin team and controlling their battles versus top-10 teams Michigan State, Alabama and Oregon. The latter two wins, of course, came in the CFP.

Ohio State's resume is obviously strong. But are they truly undisputed champs?

This is a hard argument for anyone to make. The fact that I'm an Oregon alum who was rooting for the Ducks Monday night doesn't give my opinion much credence. But believe me, I'd say this even if Oregon won.

Any reasonable person can agree that the playoff is better than the BCS. This has been beaten to death, but it can't be said enough: Alabama and Florida State would have played for the national title under the BCS system. That would have been unfair, as the results have shown. But even if you discount that, the playoff system has been wildly more fun than BCS national championship game. The games might not always be as entertaining as they were this year, but most people would prefer three games over one.

The playoff creates more fairness and fun than the BCS. That's indisputable. But it doesn't create undisputed champs.

I'm not saying Ohio State's path to becoming national champs was fluky. The Alabama game was its closest win by a mile after its win over a solid Minnesota team on Nov. 11, and the Buckeyes dominated the Tide after falling early. They looked like the better team in that game as much as they did against Oregon. 

But what happens if Alabama chose to run the ball more in that game? What happens if Oregon isn't missing so many key players? What happens if there were eight or 16 teams in the playoff?

Ah, the playoff expansion argument. Many rightfully point out that four teams isn't the fairest system. TCU and Baylor both had great arguments to be one of the four teams. I think TCU was one of the best four teams in the country, maybe the best. We'll never know. Even Boise State might have pulled off an upset or two if the field was expanded to eight or more. 

But as much as I think an expanded playoff field would be fairer -- in addition to being exponentially more fun -- it wouldn't truly determine the undisputed champs, at least not always. The best example is, of course, the NFL playoffs. Last year, the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl. I'm certainly not going to argue they weren't the NFL's best team. However, the nearly didn't reach the Super Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers were a tipped Colin Kaepernick pass away from winning the NFC championship game (full disclosure: I'm a 49ers fans). The year before, the 10-6 wild dard Baltimore Ravens won it all. Both New York Giants' Super Bowl-winning teams these past eight years were low seeds. 

The NCAA tournament is a decent comparison, as well, and the winner resembles 2014 UConn just as often, if not more, than 2012 Kentucky. 

One-game playoff rounds often result in inferior teams scoring upsets. Hell, even the NBA playoffs, in which one of the best teams consistently exits as champions, involves a ton of good fortune. Playoffs do not guarantee the best team will come out on top. They engender randomness.

This does not mean the playoff system in college football should be eliminated. Even in an impractical world where every Division I team played each other in one season, we still wouldn't know who the best team was. Football can't have 162-, 82-game or even 30-game seasons (and to be an even bigger dork, 162-game MLB seasons often aren't enough to determine the best teams; case in point: the 2012 Orioles).

I realize how absurd this all sounds. Does this mindset take away the fun of sports? A little bit, sure. But I still consume and love sports despite viewing them this way. We don't need to heap gobs of meaning onto sports to enjoy them. My favorite baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, has one three World Series in five years. Have I enjoyed them a little less because I know they weren't the best teams each of those years? A little, but it's still fun as hell to watch your team, or any team, defeat the odds and win a championship. Madison Bumgarner shutting down every breathing batter would be nirvana no matter how "meaningful" the games.

Are the Buckeyes undisputed champs? No, because we can't prove "undisputed" in this limited sample known as college football. But they're still champs. No one can dispute that.

CFP national championship story links:

This is by no means a complete list, but these are the best stories about the championship game I read on Tuesday.

1) Let's Look At All The Shitheads Who Thought A Playoff Was A Bad Idea, by Drew Magary, Deadspin.

This story was one of the reasons I wrote the 800-plus words above.

"In 10 years, this will be bigger than the NFL playoffs. They will find a way to expand this to
eight games, put a quadrupleheader of quarterfinal games on for New Year's Day, foster office pools, and 50 million people will tune in for every matchup. It's gonna be awesome. Players will still be paid in fishsticks, but still: Awesome."

2) Duck Hunt: Watching Ohio State Win the First College Football Playoff National Championship, by Bryan Curtis, Grantland.

Curtis is one of my favorite writers, and he delivers another good story here.

"Ohio State 42, Oregon 20 was bound to be deeply weird. The Buckeyes team that wasn’t even favored in its own conference championship game somehow just beat the two best teams in the country back-to-back. The man under center lost his coaches’ spring competitions for playing time and their various tests of moral character. An Ohio State fan stood outside the stadium before the game, drawing from a Miller Lite can and considering the strange season that had unfolded. 'I was just hopin’ to get to the Outback Bowl,' the guy said. '9-3, right?'"

3) 13 notes on Ohio State's Playoff Championship win in JerryWorld, by Spencer Hall, SB Nation.

No championship game recap list of links is complete without Spencer Hall.

"I also know that Ohio State hired the man who burnt their house down in 2006, the one who sort of started the downward spiral of the program into obsolescence in the first place, to rebuild them back into a national power. He did that, but college football remains the weirdest for being one of those sports where you say, Oh, that arsonist? Let's invite him in and hire him to redecorate our house. 

P.S. It works!"

4) The night it all ended: Oregon Ducks' resiliency runs out in title game loss to Ohio State (game story), by Andrew Greif, The Oregonian.

Those who've read Greif won't be surprised to see him kill another game story.

"Stocked with a roster brimming with talent and a reservoir of resiliency, the Ducks possessed a MacGyver-like knack for digging themselves out of holes and emerging with hope — or at least a first down."

5) Oregon runs out of magic as injury-riddled season comes to a close in National Championship loss, by Tyson Alger, The Oregonian.

Really good work by Alger on one of the biggest what-ifs of the postseason.

"Receivers buzzed with corners on their backs. Marcus Mariota, the best player to ever put on a Ducks uniform, rolled right. Charles Nelson caught his eye along the sideline. He had a step on his defender and Mariota launched a prayer. Nelson out-leapt his defender, then watched as the ball sailed above his 5-foot-9 frame. 

Maybe, at 6-foot-2, Carrington could have made a play. Maybe it was impossible for anyone to reach. But the moment the ball landed in the sidelines, people wondered."

6) National Championship: Ohio State completes the chase, defeats Oregon 42-20, by Joseph Hoyt, Oregon Daily Emerald. 

Hoyt is a friend and former colleague, but I'm not linking this story for either of those reasons. This truly is a great postgame story.

"'Hey Vonn,' (Tyvis) Powell yelled. 'Come take a picture with me and the trophy.' 

Bell stopped, turned to Powell and then kept walking.  

'There’s no time,' Bell said, continuing his trek to the bus. 'I’ll take a photo with the trophy when we win.'”

7) Photos: Ohio State Buckeyes stampede Oregon Ducks 42-20 at College Football Playoff Championship, by Taylor Wilder and Ryan Kang, Oregon Daily Emerald. 

My former colleagues will go far in the photojournalism world (assuming they stick with it) because they're already producing professional work like this... as college juniors.