Not playing a conference championship game might not have kept the Big 12 out of the College Football Playoff, but for the second consecutive year, the only Power Five conference without a title game paid a price for it.
Oklahoma, idle Saturday after winning the Big 12 in regular-season play, slipped from the No. 3 seed to the No. 4 seed in the final rankings of the CFP selection committee. As a result, the Sooners will face the top seed, Clemson, in the Orange Bowl, instead of drawing Alabama in a Cotton Bowl venue that would have been much more travel-friendly to Sooner Nation. Committee chairman Jeff Long didn't go so far as to say the Big 12's lack of a title game precipitated the Sooners' fall in the seeding, but in saying that Michigan State's Big Ten Championship Game win as a factor in the Spartans' leap-frogging OU, he all but acknowledged it.
Under NCAA rules, a conference must have at least 12 teams and two divisions to play a championship game, and the Big 12 hasn't had either since 2011. One of two things will have to happen to unify the Power Five format: either the rule will have to be relaxed, or the 10-member Big 12 will have to expand by at least two schools.
The former is far more likely to happen than the latter, at least in the short term.
But in the absence of either, the Big 12 will continue to be in the worst place possible on the most important Saturday of the college football season: on its collective couch.
Here are six other things we learned from the final CFP rankings:
2. If you like clashes of style in your college football, the semifinals aren't for you.
Alabama and Michigan State are relative mirror images of one another, both employing pro-style offenses predicated on a power rushing attack. Reliable defenses are another similarity. MSU coach Mark Dantonio is a former assistant of Nick Saban's, so the dispositions of both over the next three weeks will predictably fall somewhere between solemn and salty. ... Oklahoma and Clemson? Two offenses that know how to play a fast-paced, hurry-up style and can make explosive downfield plays at any moment. They've also got the only two dual-threat quarterbacks in the playoff. Mirrors everywhere. But we know this: no matter what the semifinal outcomes are, the championship game will produce two very different ways of doing things.
3. The playoff format doesn't have to be controversial.
Hear that? It's silence. That's the sound of the loudest-complaining team that didn't reach the playoff this year. Compare that to last year, when the case for Baylor was made loud and long enough to eventually be annoying, and this much is clear: there won't be a big dispute about who is in and who is out. Ohio State? Didn't win its own division, much less its conference. Stanford? Notre Dame? Two losses each quiet any dissents from those schools. And 12-1 Iowa, at least, can't say it didn't have its chance. More years than not, the four-team field will probably have an angry fifth wheel. But for this year, enjoy the peace.
4. By comparison, it's a weaker field.
Anyone want to make the case that this year's four teams are better than last year's? Bueller? Let's take it team by team: on pure talent, Ohio State was better last year than Michigan State was this year, without question. Alabama? Much more explosive a year ago on offense, to be sure, and arguably a better overall team than this year's version of the Crimson Tide. Give 2014 FSU the edge over 2015 Clemson, and while we're at it, take 2014 Oregon over 2015 Oklahoma.
It'll be exciting, to be sure, but it won't be better football.
5. Pass rush matchup I: Shilique Calhoun vs. Cam Robinson.
As a freshman in 2014, Alabama left tackle Cam Robinson faced seven 2015 NFL draft picks and only allowed three sacks all year. He hasn't had quite as good a sophomore campaign, in part due to nagging injuries, but he's still drawing some marvelously talented pass rushers. Enter Michigan State's Shilique Calhoun, the three-time All-Big Ten defensive end who will be charged with getting as much heat as possible on Alabama quarterback Jake Coker. The senior has 10.5 sacks and 14.5 tackles for loss on the year.
6. Pass rush matchup II: Orlando Brown Jr. vs. Shaq Lawson.
Orlando Brown Jr., the son of the late Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens star of the same name, is Oklahoma's starting left tackle as a redshirt freshman. In fact, he's started every game this season, and at 6--foot-8, 342 pounds, he's got his father's frame. He'll face Clemson defensive end Shaq Lawson, a menacing presence on the Tigers' front who was one of the few, if not the only pass rusher to give Notre Dame senior tackle Ronnie Stanley any trouble this season.
7. Draft prospects are everywhere.
Like Ohio State a year ago, Clemson's senior class isn't loaded with draft prospects; the bulk of the talent at CU is younger. It remains to be seen which underclassmen in the playoff apply to enter the 2016 NFL Draft, but among seniors alone, here are three top draft-eligible prospects from the other three schools who will be on college football's biggest stage:
Michigan State: DE Shilique Calhoun, QB Connor Cook, OL Jack Allen.
Alabama: DL Jarran Reed, LB Reggie Ragland, CB Ryan Kelly.
Oklahoma: WR Sterling Shepard, DE Charles Tapper, LB Eric Striker.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
