Ohio State
@MSU might be the best win of the 3. The Spartans only other loss is to Oregon - theoretically THEY could be the fifth best team in America - and that was a dominant blowout on the road pretty much from start to finish. You know, what TCU was doing in Waco until everything burned down and the refs and blah blah they lost. But that's not an especially great win for Baylor. And TCU's best win is.......Kansas State? And TCU's big resume distinguishing win is Minnesota? That's Ohio State's third best conference win (and they actually beat the Gophers on the road - in the snow.) TCU's third best conference win is........West Virginia? By a GW FG at the buzzer?
Everyone's acting like the Virginia Tech loss is so awful but West Virginia isn't a hell of a lot better. It's probably pretty comparable to the Iowa State loss that 2011 Oklahoma State had - the Hokies are 6-6 with a bowl coming, 2011 ISU went 6-7 - and many people were willing to overlook that. Also VT lost 5 games in coinflips - that's unlucky more than bad. They're just not the horrible anchor of a resume killing loss that everyone thinks they are.
Also they're an outright conference champion, not a co-conference champion.
TCU
They're the only one who lost to an elite team. Ohio State and Baylor both lost to mediocre competition. They played a legitimate non conference opponent and beat them. Baylor didn't. TCU actually played and beat - who did you play/who did you beat is pretty much the unwritten criteria for the basketball selection committee - a legitimate power 5 nonconference opponent. The head to head with Baylor matters but it's A category that Baylor wins not THE only category that's the magical tiebreaker of two equal resumes because the resumes aren't equal.
As for Ohio State, TCU played in a legitimate conference that was 8 deep in quality teams and really, quality programs that are examples of the class the conference shows. Ohio State played in a division with a mediocre ACC program, an awful Big East program, awful Michigan, awful-er Penn State and awful-est Indiana. I mean, do we have to complicate this? And all of this Ohio State should jump TCU noise that's happening after OSU destroyed Wisconsin is neglecting that Wisconsin is the one that came from the division that had most of the B1G's best teams, one of whom was......Minnesota. Ohio State actually got a fight from Minnesota. TCU put them in the ground.
Also they're # 3 and you can't drop a team for winning (especially 55-3.)
Baylor
All of that crap above is just that - crap. It deflects from the fact that TCU lost to Baylor and thus can't get in over Baylor. Literally the entire point of sports is to play and win. Baylor played TCU and won. If two teams are close enough in quality that we're comparing them and one beats the other but we decide the other's better anyway then what's the point of them even playing in the first place?
Baylor's the Big 12 champion. TCU's a co champion because Bob Bowlsby wanted to hedge his bets and now he might lose because the committee might be stupid enough to think co-champions of a superior league are inferior to an "outright" champion of a crap league. But Baylor beat TCU. Baylor's the Big 12 champion.
As far as Ohio State goes, the Big 12 is better than the Big Ten. Baylor's wins are better, their loss is better (it wasn't at home, for one thing), their noncon is worse but, I mean, a blackout at Buffalo on a Friday night that's a sellout is probably about as difficult as 3 or 4 of Ohio State's conference wins anyway so who even cares. As if Ohio State should be "rewarded" for playing Cincinnati and Navy anyway? Scheduling nonconference games against non power 5 competition that you know you're gonna beat is scheduling nonconference games against non power 5 competition that you know you're gonna beat.
Also, Baylor beat TCU.
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