Barrett injury hovers over Buckeyes’ case

Published: Wednesday, 12/3/2014 – Updated: 33 seconds ago Cincinnati basketball offers example for playoff committee BY DAVID BRIGGSBLADE SPORTS WRITER COLUMBUS — A star player goes down at the eleventh hour, a committee scrambles to reassess the team’s standing. Craig Thompson can relate. As Ohio State prepares for its first test without record-shattering quarterback J.T. Barrett, he knows better than anyone what the College Football Playoff committee will be watching in Saturday night’s Big Ten championship game against Wisconsin. In 2000, Thompson, the commissioner of the Mountain West Conference chaired the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee, which became remembered for their change of heart on top-ranked Cincinnati after national player of the year Kenyon Martin snapped his leg days before Selection Sunday. It remains the landmark case of an injury so affecting a college postseason vote — and a potential frame of reference for the 12 men and women who will decide if a Buckeyes team down to their third quarterback belongs in the four-team playoff. For now, Ohio State remains just on the wrong side of the bubble. The Buckeyes (11-1) moved up one spot to fifth in the latest playoff rankings released Tuesday night, behind top-ranked Alabama, Oregon, TCU, and Florida State. Baylor is sixth. Yet that ranking will likely change depending on the showing Saturday of Ohio State and reserve quarterback Cardale Jones. “We’re certainly very interested to watch Ohio State’s performance with the backup,” committee chair Jeff Long said Tuesday. “The results on the field will dictate how we feel and how we have to project forward how they would compete.” Thompson knows what confronts Long…

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