A glass half empty is still a glass half full.

So instead of focusing on the teams that lost and complaining about the quality of the College Football Playoff’s opening round, maybe we should look at the games from the opposite perspective and simply appreciate the quality of the teams that won.

Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame and Ohio State all put on dominant performances in their convincing victories last weekend. They were so impressive that 3 of the 4 are favored against higher-seeded teams in the upcoming quarterfinal round.

The 5th-seeded Longhorns are a 13.5-point favorite against No. 4 Arizona State in the Peach Bowl, according to DraftKings sportsbook. The 6th-seeded Nittany Lions are an 11-point favorite on No. 3 Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, while the 8th-seeded Buckeyes are given a 2.5-point edge over No. 1 Oregon in a retro Big Ten vs. Pac-12 showdown at the Rose Bowl.

No. 2 Georgia is the only higher seed favored in the quarterfinals. The Bulldogs are a 2-point pick against the 7th-seeded Irish in the Sugar Bowl. Without quarterback Carson Beck, who celebrated Christmas by having season-ending elbow surgery, their championship stock has dropped considerably.

Some of the oddsmaking disparity can be attributed to a seeding format in which the 4 highest-ranked conference champions were rewarded with byes. At No. 9 and 12 in the final selection committee rankings, the Broncos and Sun Devils would be the 2 lowest seeds of the 8 remaining teams in the tournament.

But Ohio State is a different story.

You don’t jump to the head of the class by taking a different test than everyone else or by bribing the teacher. It’s an honor you have to earn.

And the Buckeyes have.

Although there might be a hint of recency bias at play since the top-ranked Ducks have been out of sight, out of mind since beating Penn State for the Big Ten championship 3 weeks ago, Ryan Day’s team came upon its newfound status as the team to beat because of its play on the field.

Ohio State’s opening-round 42-17 beatdown of No. 9 Tennessee didn’t just cleanse the palate of yet another disappointment against rival Michigan while also lowering the temperature at least a little beneath Day’s increasingly hot seat. It showed just how high the Buckeyes’ ceiling can be when they bring their “A” game.

As they did against the Volunteers. Their defense kept constant pressure on quarterback Nico Iamaleava, sacking him 4 times while holding Tennessee to a season-low 256 total yards.

But that’s no surprise. Ohio State led the nation in both scoring and total defense, allowing only 11.4 points and 221.3 yards per game.

The element that has helped the Buckeyes leapfrog everyone else in the field to become the new national championship favorite is the performance of their offense.

Specifically, quarterback Will Howard.

The Kansas State transfer took the brunt of the blame for the Michigan meltdown that prevented his team from a shot at the Big Ten title and a 1st-round bye. But he bounced back with by far his most impressive performance of an impressive season that has seen him complete 73% of his passes for 3,171 yards and 29 touchdowns.

It wasn’t just the statistics that set Howard’s effort against the Vols apart, though they were noteworthy — 24-of-29 for 311 yards and 2 scores to go along with another 37 yards on the ground.

It was his poise in the pocket and ability to put the ball exactly where it needed to go on virtually every throw he made — especially the 22-yard dime he dropped to Jeremiah Smith on Ohio State’s opening possession of the 2nd half to regain the momentum after Tennessee had crept to within 11 before the break.

Now that Howard and the Buckeyes have set the standard for how good they can be against top competition, their next task is proving they can sustain such a high level of play.

Both have plenty of incentive beyond the quest for a national championship.

The Rose Bowl showdown against Oregon is a rematch of Ohio State’s 32-31 regular-season loss to the Ducks in Eugene.

Howard put up big numbers that day, throwing for 326 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But he lost track of time on the game’s final play by letting the clock run out on a scramble, a mental mistake that cost his team a chance at a potential game-winning field goal.

With an opportunity to make amends, on a neutral field and without a stadium-record crowd pulling against them, the advantage swings heavily to the Buckeyes.

As the oddsmakers confirm.

It’s a shame the Playoff field can’t be reseeded after every round. Because even without Beck’s injury factoring into the equation, Ohio State and Oregon are the 2 best teams in the bracket.

In a perfect world, their matchup in Pasadena should be the championship game. Not a quarterfinal. The College Football Playoff, as we’ve learned over the past few weeks, is anything but perfect.

But who cares?

Instead of focusing on the inequity of a format that is almost certain to be tweaked by this time next year, let’s take the glass-half-full approach by appreciating the matchup for what it is.

Instead of complaining about what it isn’t.