Boo Corrigan and the College Football Playoff committee have been high on Ohio State all season long. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes lost to Michigan in The Game and tumbled out of the top 4 as a result.

With the loss, Ohio State fell from No. 2 all the way to No. 6. While the Buckeyes are ahead of other 1-loss contenders in Texas and Alabama, Ohio State is behind fellow 1-loss team Oregon. Those other teams will all play in conference championship games this weekend.

Asked to explain the steep drop for Ohio State, Corrigan said the committee remains impressed with Oregon after the Ducks won in resounding fashion against Oregon State.

“Well, again, in looking at it, you’re not looking specifically at one team as much as you are a group of teams and the teams around them and what did they do this past week. Again, specifically Oregon continues to impress, the win over Oregon State, holding a team to seven points that’s averaging 34 points,” said Corrigan on a Tuesday night teleconference. “Again, a lot of respect for Ohio State being No. 6. A really good team, but to your point, it’s a one-possession game on the road, but the committee ranked Oregon 5 and Ohio State 6.”

Asked about a potential climb back into the top 4, Corrigan admitted other teams in the top 8 will be providing another data point during Championship Weekend. However, the entire body of work is what matters and not just the extra data points from conference championships.

“Well, again, thank you for the question. It happens in my three years since I’ve been on the committee. It happens every year, something along these lines,” Corrigan admitted. “Maybe not seven of eight playing in a championship game, but typically there’s one team that does not play, and as we look at it to your point, it is an extra data point that we have and something else that we can look at as we’re evaluating it, and as we said from the very beginning, it’s never one single data point, it’s everything combined, and it’s 13 different people that are all committed to doing it the right way, committed to doing it with integrity and committed to getting it right.”

At the end of the day, the possibility of Ohio State getting back into the conversation is there, but it would be a longshot. We’ll see how the conference championships shake out.