After the conference championship games, the final four has been officially set. The teams playing in the Playoff will be Georgia, Michigan, TCU, and Ohio State.

#1 Georgia will take on #4 Ohio State in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl and #2 Michigan will take on #4 TCU in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.

Though most of these teams were expected to make it to the playoffs, one caught fans by surprise and that is Ohio State. The Buckeyes did not play in a conference championship game, but still managed to get a spot in the playoffs. They finished in fourth with an 11-1 record out of the top twenty five teams after USC lost to the Utes.

As much of a milestone this is, the selection committee was sure to not overload the final four bracket with teams that did not have conference titles. The Buckeyes pushed themselves up into the fourth spot regardless with special help from their wins over Penn State and Notre Dame. This helped put Ohio State in the number four spot over the hungry Crimson Tide who placed fifth.

Michigan and Ohio State will be representing the Big Ten and are making history as this is the first time in the nine year period of this structure that two playoff teams are coming from the Big Ten conference.

Not only was it Ohio State who did not win their conference championship game, but neither did TCU as they lost in overtime to Kansas State. Despite the fact the TCU lost and that Ohio State didn’t even make it to the title game, they are the fifth and sixth teams to make it to the college football playoffs without holding a conference title.

Dykes was nervous that the loss for the conference title would be detrimental to TCU’s playoff status but his ability to keep hope in the selection process got him through the waiting period.

Though both teams are undefeated and familiar with the circumstances of the recent playoffs, Ohio State and TCU are not to be overlooked.