The 'beat' goes on: Buckeyes still have playoff pulse

While Ezekiel Elliott was rebuilding his image, Ohio State was refining its playoff resume.

You heard correctly. If everything shakes out right for the Buckeyes, Mark May will need to be fitted for a straight jacket because the P word is definitely still in play.

Thanks to Saturday's 42-13 win at Michigan, the Buckeyes' collective body temperature is on the rise one week after a 17-14 loss to Michigan State left their playoff hopes with as much life as a turkey carcass.

Given it was a rivalry game and there were enough back stories to line the highway from Columbus to Ann Arbor, Saturday's throttling of Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines — his 10th-ranked Wolverines — was on par with last year's 59-0 waxing of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game.

It had to grab the attention of the College Football Playoff committee. And you know from the way the committee has given the defending national champs the benefit of doubt in its polls this season that it was glued to the game.

Ohio State dropped to only eighth in last week's CFP poll after its pathetic offensive showing against Michigan State, making its climb back into Final Four contention possible. Those chances were upgraded to do-able when two teams directly in front of them — No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 7 Baylor — lost this past weekend.

So what has to happen? Start by not asking any of the Buckeyes. They've seen nothing but Maize and Blue for the past week and are still clearing their heads.

"That's a great question," linebacker Joshua Perry said when asked if the Buckeyes still have a playoff pulse. "I don't know how to answer that, honestly. It's up to whoever makes those decisions. All I know is that (Saturday) we controlled exactly what we needed to do. We'll see how everything else works out."

This much appears certain: Two of the four playoff spots are locked up. One invite is going to No. 3 Oklahoma, which clinched an undisputed Big 12 Championship on Saturday by adding a win over Oklahoma State to its victories over one-time playoff contenders TCU and Baylor. The other is going to the Big Ten champ, either once-beaten MSU or unbeaten Iowa.

A Michigan State win in the title game would give it two late-season victories over then-unbeaten conference rivals and arguably the best win in college football all season when it knocked off the reigning national champion Buckeyes in their house with a backup quarterback.

An Iowa win would make the Hawkeyes 13-0. Nuf said.

So the question becomes: Can the Big Ten get two teams invited to the party?

The answer is yes, but one of two things needs to happen: No. 1 Clemson loses to North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game and/or No. 2 Alabama loses to Florida in the Southeastern Conference title game. And just to be safe, it wouldn't hurt if No. 9 Stanford lessened the confusion by losing to USC in the Pac-12 title game.

Florida backed into the SEC title game despite losing 27-2 to Florida State on Saturday. No way would the committee pick the Gators for the playoffs over a once-beaten reigning national champ coming off a resounding victory over its highly-ranked archrival in one of college football's more intimidating venues. For the same reason, even though plenty of analysts disagree with me, I don't see a two-loss Stanford or once-beaten North Carolina trumping the Buckeyes, either.

Stanford's first win over a team with less than four losses was Saturday when it knocked Notre Dame out of contention with a last-second field goal. North Carolina? Yes, the Tar Heels would own a win over the top-ranked team right before the polls close, but their brand was built on basketball.

The CFP committee can deny it all it wants, but the logo — or Buckeye leaves — on the side of helmets matter. TVs turned on matter.

If the CFP were to choose a team that is not a conference champion, why wouldn't it take the upset loser of the ACC or SEC title games or the Big Ten runner-up over the Buckeyes?

It could, especially in Clemson's case, but all will have lost more recently than Ohio State. Alabama would have two losses, Michigan State would have two losses and Iowa would have limped to the finish line. Maybe you didn't notice, but in Iowa's 28-20 win over Nebraska last Friday to seal a perfect regular season the Hawkeyes failed to convert on any of their nine third-down plays and mustered only 250 yards total offense. That's exhibit A for a team that has won ugly all season.

There are arguments to be made for several teams, which is why I go back to what I wrote after OSU's mind-numbing performance against Michigan State. While losing teams are normally lauded for not making excuses, coach Urban Meyer should not have come out and said Elliott was "fine" after spending three days in the hospital with a leg infection and Elliott should not have taken the macho "I was 100 percent" stance. Ohio State should have fallen on the mercy of the CFP court and claimed that Elliott's leg injury was worse than anybody let on, limiting not only him but the play-calling.

That would have made it easier for the committee to dismiss that loss, much as it did last year's early-season setback at home to a pedestrian Virginia Tech.

So now the Buckeyes just wait. At worst, they are headed to one of the New Year's Six bowls, possibly a Fiesta Bowl showdown against Houston and old friend Tom Herman. Another possibility is the Rose Bowl, which has a tie-in with the Big Ten. If it loses the Big Ten champ to the CFP, which will be the case, it gets its choice of Big Ten teams to match against a Pac-12 opponent. It's hard to imagine Big Ten commissioner not lobbying for the Big Ten runner-up to be the league rep in the Granddaddy.

Of course, all this speculation could have been avoided had some of those 30 carries Zeke got Saturday been distributed one week earlier.

OSU By The Numbers

*2: Buckeyes who have rushed for over 1,500 yards twice, Ezekiel Elliott joining Archie Griffin in that elite club Saturday.

*4: Wins in as many games vs. Michigan when two Buckeyes rush for at least 100 yards, a feat matched by Ezekiel Elliott and J.T. Barrett on Saturday.

*5: Total of 200-yard rushing performances by Ezekiel Elliott, including 214 vs. Michigan, tying Eddie George for most in school history.

*12: Carries of at least 50 yards by Ezekiel Elliott, including Saturday's 66-yard burst vs. Michigan as part of his 214-yard day

*15: Games Urban Meyer has won as a head coach out of 21 vs. Top 10 opponents.

*16: Plays on one scoring drive vs. Michigan, the longest series for the Buckeyes in Big Ten play this season.

*18: Consecutive road victories, the longest streak in the nation and extending the school record.

*19: Touchdowns J.T. Barrett has accounted for in his last six games.

*29: Margin of victory Saturday, largest in Ann Arbor since a 50-20 win in 1961.

*30: Carries Ezekiel Elliott had against Michigan, or 18 more than he had the week before in the loss to Michigan State.

*57: Yards rushing by Michigan, more than 100 below its season average.

*369: Yards rushing Saturday, fourth-most by the Buckeyes vs. Michigan. The 428 total yards were 219 more than U-M was allowing per game.

*3,812: Career rushing yards for Ezekiel Elliott, who passed Eddie George (3,768) to move into second on the school's all-time list behind Archie Griffin (5,589).