Blind Resume Comparison

STILLWATER - Below is an excerpt from an ESPN.com story written by David Hale that was published on Nov. 15. To read the full article, click HERE.

Let's do a little blind résumé comparison:

Team A is 9-1 with a 5-1 mark against FPI top-50 opponents (with a 12.2 points-per-game margin) and three wins vs. teams ranked at game time. Its lone loss came on the road by three points to a preseason AP top-10 team. Its ESPN Strength of Record is No. 6 nationally.

Team B is 9-1 with a 4-1 mark against FPI top-50 opponents (with a 10.6 points-per-game margin) and one win vs. a team ranked at game time. Its lone loss came at home by seven points to a preseason AP top-10 team. Its ESPN Strength of Record is No. 9 nationally.

So, which team would you have ranked higher?

Odds are, most folks would say Team A, though it's certainly close. But when it comes to the AP poll, the coaches' poll and, likely, the College Football Playoff committee's ranking, it will be Team B that's ahead by a significant margin.

This has a lot to do with the things we, as voters, fans and analysts, tend to notice most easily. Team A is Oklahoma State and Team B is Ohio State.

The Buckeyes seem incredibly impressive because they've routinely put up a lot of points. But against good teams their margin of victory is actually less than Oklahoma State's. Against teams such as Rutgers, Akron and Maryland, however, they've won by an average of 42 points per game. The Cowboys, on the other hand, blew out TCU on Saturday, but played close games against Tulsa and Boise State in September, which helped frame the narrative that they are a team that has been more lucky than good.

We also tend to lean more heavily on offense than defense as a metric for success, and on that front, no one outdoes Ohio State. The Buckeyes lead the nation in offensive EPA. On defense, however, Ohio State is barely better than the FBS average. Oklahoma State, on the other hand, has one of the nation's best defenses, holding every team it has faced to 24 points or fewer (Georgia is the only other team to do that). It's the antithesis of the Mike Gundy teams we've come to know over the years, but that doesn't make it any less talented.

None of this should serve as an indictment of Ohio State, which certainly appears to be a supremely talented team, perhaps one of the few that could truly challenge Georgia. But if we're going to appreciate the Buckeyes' ceiling we need to also consider the Cowboys' accomplishments. Through 11 weeks only Georgia, Alabama and Notre Dame have won more games against FPI top-50 teams, and only Georgia has more wins against teams ranked at game time.

Let's stop overlooking Oklahoma State. The Cowboys aren't winning the way we might have expected, but they are winning, and at this point, they belong in the thick of the playoff conversation. They should be in serious consideration for the committee's top four.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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