Things fell into place pretty much how I expected them to last weekend during all the college conference championship games. Everyone who was predicted to win did exactly that, and pretty convincingly for the most part.

Alabama crushed Missouri 42-13, Oregon stomped Arizona 51-13, Ohio State destroyed Wisconsin 59-0 and Florida State snuck past Georgia Tech 37-35.

Two teams in the playoff debate, TCU and Baylor, defeated their opponents, too. But when the Playoff Committee revealed their rankings Sunday afternoon, they weren’t part of the final four (Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State).

The outside teams looking in are always going to argue that they are equally as deserving to play as the teams that made it. And in this case I honestly think they are. But this is the nature of a four-team playoff system.

What hurt the two Texas-based teams the most is not having a conference championship, which inevitably would have pitted Baylor and TCU against each other if the conference was designed that way. But it’s not, and the committee overlooked the wins of the Bears and Horned Frogs last weekend in favor of the teams with clear conference champions.

I think the committee made the right decision letting Ohio State in the final four. But it’s hard to understand why last Tuesday, TCU was No. 3 in the country, and Sunday they fell to No. 6. They didn’t lose. In fact, they manhandled Iowa State 55-3 (they’re a 2-9 team, but my point still stands).

If anything is more of a clear indicator the Playoff Committee wants the individual conference champions, this is it. Forget the rest, these are the best. I can understand it, and I respect the decision the committee has made, but I don’t like how we got here.

Regardless, I think Alabama is going to beat Ohio State. Oregon will put up a good fight and Marcus Mariota will have a phenomenal game, but I won’t be good enough to get them past Florida State.

The championship will be the Crimson Tide versus the Seminoles.