ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Ohio State took care of business in its continued pursuit of back-dooring the College Football Playoff field with a dramatic 31-20 win over Michigan with its backup quarterback. It felt like it was 2014 all over again.



Then Alabama lost to Auburn in the Iron Bowl, which made Ohio State’s Cinderella path to the No. 4 spot in the playoff a lot more challenging. Ohio State is going to need some favorable thoughts from the committee over the weekend if it wants to keep its national title hopes alive.



Below are some thoughts about what the Crimson Tide’s loss to Auburn means for the Buckeyes:



• Coming into Saturday, Ohio State’s most likely path to the playoff was a chaos-less path. Ohio State needed a win over Michigan and an eventual win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship and Alabama to beat Auburn on Saturday before beating Georgia in the SEC Championship next weekend. If Ohio State and Alabama would have...