Ohio State didn’t make the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes finished with their cheeks pressed directly against the Playoff’s glass, ranked No. 5 when the selection committee said what was what on Sunday. That the Buckeyes didn’t make the field was reasonable. They shouldn’t have given up 55 points to Iowa in their second loss of the season.

But the whole point of the Playoff is that we can argue about it. Alabama-Ohio State for the fourth seed really was the hardest decision the committee’s ever had to make. Bama was far from an ideal choice.

So let’s check in with the Ohio State internet and see how it coped with the news.

The best conspiracy theories

Here’s a take from right before the rankings reveal:

Let’s see how that one aged.

Were ESPN and the SEC in cahoots to deny the Big Ten a bid?

Three years after Ohio State jumped Baylor and TCU to make the Playoff and one year after Ohio State made it in despite not winning the Big Ten, some folks at Ohio State’s 247Sports message board wonder whether ESPN, a company that wants lots of games between big-name teams, exerted influence against the Buckeyes’ enormously popular brand.

Cannot fucking believe they did it. ESPN has ruined playoffs

First they ruin the god damned BCS bowl game with their fucking influence peddling. And now they spend two straight days shilling for their SEC love child TV deal and fuck over half the country.

The fuck did Alabama do to get in? And don't fucking say Iowa. OSU beat a bunch of teams after that debacle. Alabama basically gets in because they are Alabama. So the thing I'm hearing is regular season games don't mean shit so long as you pass the "eye test"? Is the fucking eye test now a selection criteria?

NCAA is crooked as shit. No fucking integrity rigged bullshit. Know what? I was this fucking close to quit following sports all together. I stopped watching the NFL years before it became cool to do so. Gave up baseball in the mid 90's. Stopped watching basketball about 5 years ago. I barely watch colllege football anymore outside of Ohio State.

Fuck it. I'm done. My tolerances for fairness have been exceeded.

Half the country was fucked over by Ohio State’s exclusion. I’m from Pittsburgh and feel personally victimized that my neighboring state’s team didn’t get in.

This next theory suggests that there might’ve been some sort of intentional Steve Harvey situation here, wherein ESPN wrested the results away from the committee and staged a palace coup to keep the Buckeyes on the outside looking in.

This Just In

Just like in the Miss Universe show.... ESPenis, flub the results reporting... OSU in at number 4!

What a f’en joke!

Ohio State is a gigantic eyeball draw and guarantees solid national TV ratings every time it plays, fwiw.

Wait, was the Big 12 also involved?

The Texas Tech AD heading up the committee is horrible for us

You want to talk about a built in bias the B12 hates us there is no way we were going to get the benefit of the doubt

So the Big 12 prefers the league that took two of its teams in realignment to the league that took one?

Someone wants to know what committee member and Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith was doing while the Buckeyes were being shut out.

Did f'n Gene Smith even open his mouth or was it stuffed with pizza the whole time? Barry Alvarez was more of a friend to OSU when he was on the committee.

Gonna assume Smith recused himself, as is the rule.

Was Ohio State kept out because of how it lost in the Playoff last year?

the real reason we didn't make it in

31-0 Clemson last year. #BarrettEffect

Should we just expand the Playoff, now that Ohio State hasn’t made it?

Of course we should.

Ten conference champions should be in the playoffs. It's quite concerning that so many people are okay with a selection committee, that think that they are holier than thou, to pick four teams.

Everyone is mad about Mercer

The FCS team from Macon, Ga. was on Alabama’s schedule and is comparable in quality to Illinois, the team Ohio State was playing that weekend, or UNLV, a Buckeye opponent that lost to FCS Howard.

This is probably true ...

... though Ohio State did also lose to Iowa by 31 points.

Let’s check in on Skip Bayless

The most vociferous calls to boycott the Playoff altogether

No grievance is complete without a call to action.

B1G should boycott bowl games

ESecPn controls the playoffs. Total BS

Makes you think.

Screw the Playoffs

Im done. Two SEC schools--Not Watching

Tough but fair.

BOYCOTT THE PLAYOFFS

Two SEC teams out of four? That is a travesty. The Big 10 and PAC 10 were screwed. Boycott the playoffs.

Harsh, but OK.

THIS IS ***ING BULL***

I will not watch a second of the CFP. Bama has a garbage schedule and did not DESERVE THIS AT ALL.

I bet you won’t.

Now let’s look on the bright side