It appears that Ohio State is taking quite a bit of thunder away from College GameDay’s featured matchup between Coastal Carolina and BYU this week.

Though there’s been plenty of talk about the Chanticleers and Cougars, the Buckeyes have dominated a lot of the national talk about college football. It centers around Ohio State’s shortened season, issues with COVID and if the Buckeyes can do enough to earn a top-four spot and make the College Football Playoff.

Based on rising COVID cases in Columbus, Ohio State’s chances at playing the minimum six games to get into the Big Ten championship game are hanging by a thread based on the current rules. Also, playing only six games may plant some seeds of doubt into the minds of the CFP committee.

Kirk Herbstreit kicked off the discussion of the Buckeyes’ playoff chances.

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“I think it depends on what happens around them,” Herbstreit said. “If there are upsets around them, I think it’s a whole different discussion. But if we’re assuming the favorites win, then you get Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, teams like that.

“I think the committee would have a very, very hard time looking at Ohio State…if they’re B1G champs and they’re undefeated, unless there are some upsets, it’s game, set, match.”

If the Buckeyes fail to get to the minimum six games, the talk of changing that rule will intensify to an unheard of level. As David Pollack mentioned, the rule change seems inevitable if it affects Ohio State.

“To me, if you’re the B1G champ, I think Ohio State will clearly get in,” Pollack said. “And, by the way, we’ve been saying it for weeks: They’re going to change the rules if they need to change the rules. It’s going to happen.”

Pollack seems right. It’s an arbitrary rule and seems like it could be easily changed, especially if it means getting the Buckeyes into the playoff.

But the pushback will come from others (maybe in Gainesville and Provo) about Ohio State’s shortened resume. Desmond Howard sees that.

“I guess if everything goes as scripted, they’re in,” he said. “I think the issue is, if you look at the top four teams, I believe Ohio State has the weakest resume of the four. If one of the four gets left out, it’ll be Ohio State.”

In 15 days, we will finally learn the top four. That’s when this Ohio State discussion will likely come to an end.