Even With the QB News, Buckeyes are Still Overwhelming Favorites to Make the CFP

The Ohio State Buckeyes are putting the pieces together on how they are going to respond to the news that their quarterback, Julian Sayin, is likely done for the year.

It certainly makes the mission of winning the National Championship significantly harder, but does it make their chances of making the playoffs all that much harder? ESPN says no.

Even with all of the conversation and discussion from the last week, the Buckeyes still have a 90 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff. Even further, if they were to lose their next two games against Oregon and USC, they would have a more than 55 percent chance to make the dance. 

That alone goes to show just where the Buckeyes are on a national scale. They have the respect of the country, and they have earned it. It even further underscores just how important Nick Marsh's slip-up was on the final Indiana play from last week. 

Had he got his foot in and the Hoosiers beat the Buckeyes, then Ohio State's room for error would be much, much less. 

Thankfully, that reality doesn't exist. That is a fairy-tale world, and the reality that the Buckeyes are living in is that they have a top-5 win over Indiana in their place and a one-point loss to the then No. 2 Longhorns in their place. 

They have dominant wins over Playoff hopeful Iowa and a convincing victory over Illinois. It's been an impressive season so far for the Buckeyes, and they have put themselves in a really good spot going forward to make sure that, no matter what happens, they will have a puncher's chance to get into the fight.

That is also assuming a significant fall-off in performance. I do not believe that will be the case with either Luke Fahey or Tavien St. Clair. The truth is that it is not as if Sayin was playing at an insanely high level. He was playing solid football, but wasn't playing at a level that can't be replicated.

It might not happen right away, but by the time the Playoffs do roll around, who is to say that whichever backup is playing isn't playing at a playoff-winning level? I would argue that it is more likely to be that than the opposite scenario. 

The Buckeyes have built up enough on their resume to feel good about where they are on the national scale. Now, they just have to get the new guy prepped and ready to compete at a really high level for the remainder of the year.