The Eleven Warriors Web Report comes to you weekly from the Spectrum Sports studios in downtown Columbus, featuring our own Beau Bishop, Dan Hope and former Buckeye wide receiver Evan Spencer.
Ohio State's exclusion from the College Football Playoff was the main topic of discussion, as the panel opened the show debating whether or not the selection committee got it right.
With Alabama getting the No. 4 seed over the Buckeyes, Hope said it was clear Ohio State's 31-point loss to Iowa in early November was likely the cause of OSU missing the cut.
"We had to know all along that losing by 31 points to Iowa was supposed to be a fatal blow to their playoff chances," Hope said. "At the end of the day, you can be disappointed in the decision by the committee, but you can only look at the fact that you lost twice, including a game you probably shouldn't have lost by a significant margin."
While he agreed with Ohio State not making the final cut, Bishop contended that the committee never truly believed that Wisconsin was the No. 4 team in the country heading into the Big Ten Championship Game against the Buckeyes.
He added that if the committee valued the Badgers that much, the Buckeyes would have earned a spot in the CFP.
"It was disingenuous for this committee to put Wisconsin No. 4," he said. "They did not believe Wisconsin was the No. 4 team in the country because if they believed Wisconsin was the No. 4 team in the country, Ohio State is playing in the playoff."
With a bowl game outside of the playoff upcoming, one of the questions surrounding the Ohio State program has been whether or not certain players with possible NFL futures could sit out the Cotton Bowl.
Spencer said it would be "futile" to think that players on Ohio State's roster aren't at least thinking about the idea of not playing against the Trojans.
"That conversation and that line of thinking is going to go through some of these guys that are projected to go up really high. It is going to go through their heads," Spencer said. "If somebody makes that decision, realistically when you think about it in terms of their longevity and in terms of how we increasingly see on Sunday's more individuals getting hurt, the likelihood of making it to five years is that much slimmer."
While the panel didn't have much time to recap the win over Wisconsin due to playoff discussion on this week's Web Report, you can see their full breakdown of the Big Ten title game on this week's Eleven Warriors Report on Spectrum Sports Mid-Ohio, which premieres at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
