http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/sports/ncaafootball/ohio-state-takes-jump-into-playoff-in-stride.html 2014-12-08 04:49:39 Ohio State Takes Jump Into Playoff in Stride The Columbus campus was quiet, there was no pep rally, and Buckeyes players said they deserved a shot at the national title. === COLUMBUS, Ohio — Final exams begin Thursday, after all. Ohio State moved into the playoff as the No. 4 seed on Sunday, ahead of two one-loss Big 12 teams, Texas Christian and Baylor. The decision caused a bit of stir among pundits, but the Buckeyes seemed to react with a collective yawn. This is what big-time programs often do: retool and reboot. On Saturday night, the third-string quarterback Cardale Jones, making his first career start, had led In an ESPN interview on Sunday, the chairman of the playoff’s selection committee, Athletic Director Jeff Long of Arkansas, repeatedly cited how impressive Ohio State looked in that game as a reason the Buckeyes earned the final spot in the national semifinals, against Alabama on Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. In addition, compared with T.C.U. and Baylor, Ohio State had a résumé more traditional of a team headed to a top bowl because it had won its conference outright. Even though Baylor beat T.C.U. during the regular season, the teams were declared co-champions of the Big 12 because the conference does not have a championship game and did not use a tiebreaker. Asked about the national playoff format during a news conference Sunday, Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer said, “I think it’s unfortunately still flawed.” He meant, though, that he was worried that players’ families would not be able to afford traveling to two bowl games if Ohio State advanced to the final, and he indicated he was concerned about the wear on the players’ bodies. (He did suggest that the committee’s use of head-to-head results needed to be defined better.) Meyer called his Buckeyes “the most improved team I’ve ever been around.” He mentioned that his assistants attended leadership training workshops in the off-season. “The same coach coaching better,” he said of his linebackers assistant in particular. After the Big Ten title game, several Ohio State players said they deserved to be in the playoff simply because of their drubbing of Wisconsin. They pointed to Jones’s poise and to the fact that they essentially ended the Heisman Trophy campaign of Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon. “In my personal opinion, it’s hard to win in the Big Ten” late in the year, cornerback Doran Grant said Sunday, citing the typically cold weather around the conference, the rough and tough style of play among its programs and the tendency of its teams to improve over the course of a season. During the fourth quarter Saturday, when the game was well out of hand, the Ohio State fans at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis had chanted, “We want ’Bama!” It was a matchup they felt they deserved. And on Sunday, they got it.